Suddenly, proving my worth to anyone but Lia felt like a fool’s errand.
LIA
For my second match, I was far more prepared. This time, I had a Shepperton Shorthorns sweatshirt over my thermal leggings, Jude’s jersey on underneath as a second layer, a poncho in my small purse in case it rained, a blue-and-white-striped winter hat emblazoned with Shepperton FC along the folded edge with a giant blue poof sticking off the top, and on my cheek was this friggin’ adorable little temporary tattoo that I’d found in a shop down the road from the stadium, the horned logo in bright blue and white.
I walked to my seat, the energy in the building like the best shot of pure, unfettered electricity. Nothing was like the excitement of a live sports event. I’d take it over any concert, any play, any show in the entire world.
A small block of empty seats was located around the one I knew was mine, but the moment I saw the tall man in a solid blue shirt, I knew immediately it was Lewis. He had the same dark hair, the same straight nose, the same broad shoulders. But where Jude’s build was muscular, Lewis was husky—the kind of guy who looked like he gave the very best kind of hugs.
I slid down the aisle, smiling at the four old men who stood to allow me to pass.
Lewis glanced in my direction and moved to do the same.
“No worries,” I told him, “I’m right here.” I pointed at the seat just to his right.
His face lifted in shock. “Ahh. Right then.”
I held out my hand. “Lia. I take it Jude didn’t tell you I’d be joining your family today.”
With a rueful smile, he gave mine a brisk, hard shake. “No, but that doesn’t surprise me. My brother is hardly forthcoming about the details of his personal life.”
Because he said it with a warm tone and obvious love in his eyes, I didn’t feel a surge of defensiveness for the man not here to defend himself.
“Are your parents coming?”
Lewis’s smile faded just slightly at the edges. “I expect not.”
Song erupted around us, and I whipped out my phone to take a video. Lewis watched me with an unveiled curiosity. Once I stopped recording, I shot a text off to Molly, knowing she’d get a kick out of it.
Each star player had a little song, and the fans—en masse—knew when to start singing them. Jude had one too, but I hadn’t been able to remember the words once the match was over.
“Our fans in the States don’t do stuff like that,” I shouted over the din, hooking my thumb over my shoulder. “I think it’s so cool!”
He nodded. “It’s different here. Football transcends sport, if that makes sense.” Lewis leaned in because I could hardly hear him. “For good and for bad, in fact. Some of the songs are bloody ruthless. One of the players on another team has a song about his wife because she started some drama passing stories to the papers. Didn’t sit well with the fans.”
“No way!” I laughed. “That’s savage.”
I tried to imagine that happening to Logan because Paige had been famous in her own right as a model when they first got married. He would’ve lost his mind if the fans had created a song about her.
“Jude told me a little about you right after you met,” Lewis admitted, once the raucous song came to a close. “But I didn’t know you were still … seeing each other.”
Given the jovial atmosphere, the electric happiness that the mood of the stadium gave me, I tried really, really hard not to let that bother me. I was twelve weeks pregnant with his child, and his brother knew nothing about me. Forced to pause our conversation because of a family of Shepperton fans passing in front of us, I took a moment to breathe out my disappointment in a few gulping breaths.
It was fine.
I’d kept Jude more than a little occupied the past few weeks, and if I was completely honest with myself, anytime his family came up, he changed the subject. He distracted me. And the last time I’d brought them up, I was the one who climbed onto his lap and rode him like a jockey rides a racehorse.
A grimace crossed my face before I could stop it.
I thought about what Atwood had told me, about my tendency to focus on the past to avoid an unknown future. I thought about how Jude had reacted to my lack of clarity of what I wanted to do with my degree once I’d finished it. And I thought about how easily he and I fell into the palpable chemistry between us to avoid the reality of our separate situations.
Hell, my reaction to my meeting with Atwood left me feeling so unsettled that I’d gotten my pregnant ass down on my knees in front of him. In fact, if he’d pushed the door open, I probably would’ve crossed that invisible barrier we had around having sex again. I would’ve willingly allowed him to sweep away all the icky feelings she’d planted with that one seed of a thought.
Lewis saw the look on my face, and I tried to erase it with a smile, but he held up his hands. “I’m sorry, that came out rude, didn’t it?”
“No, it’s fine, really. I’ve been with Jude a lot, and I’ve never seen him talk to you, so I should’ve guessed.”
He smiled again, but this time, it held an edge of discomfort. Great. Excellent first impression.
I laid a hand on his arm. “Sometimes I forget not everyone is like my family. I have four sisters, and we talk constantly. Don’t worry about it.”
Lewis studied me again, and I felt a little bit like an animal in a zoo exhibit.
And to your left, ladies and gentlemen, we have the exotic American female. The teams walked out of the tunnel, players holding hands with children of various ages, each wearing matching jerseys to the teams.
“Okay,” I said to Lewis. “What’s up with the little kids?”
He grinned. “They do it for a few reasons, but primarily, it’s used to raise money. Parents can pay to have their kids walk out on the pitch with one of the players, but it also helps foster a sense of … sportsmanship, I suppose. No one can rain down curses or throw cups at the opposing players when they walk out together with innocent British youth, eh?”
“Ahh. See, back home, we’d never take away our ability to be merciless with the away team. I think our heads would implode.”
“How very American of you,” he teased.
“I’m pretty sure your brother said the very same thing to me the night we met.”
He took a slow drink from his cup, only glancing at me once before he seemed to come to a decision. “You’re not like anyone I’ve ever seen Jude spend time with.”
So many questions popped into my head.
About the kinds of women he was with in the past, about the number of women, and if anyone had crossed the impenetrable moat that seemed to surround their family. And like the secure, confident woman I was, I did not ask a single one of those questions.
I simply smiled. “Is that so?”
Lewis nodded, leaning closer so I could hear him while the team captains shook hands in the middle of the pitch. “Don’t get me wrong, my brother hasn’t dated anyone of consequence in years. And even when he did, back when he was first in the league, it was exactly the kind of woman he shouldn’t have been with. They fawned over him, and it just … it didn’t help keep his feet on the ground. And Jude struggles as it is to do anything else with life beyond football, so people like that make it worse.”
Groupies. Every sport had them. Every celebrity faced them at some point. I’m sure my brother had too. But according to him and Paige, he never wanted anything to do with that lifestyle. It was a house of glass built on the edge of an unsteady cliff.
“Athletes are just normal people who do abnormal jobs.” I grinned at Lewis. “It’s one of the things my brother drilled into our heads growing up. And the more people who elevate that athlete to a god-like status, the more they believe it.”
“That’s right.” He nudged me with his shoulder. “I’m glad he has you, Lia Ward.”
I wasn’t able to answer because the ball went into motion, and for the next ninety minutes (plus stoppage time, which … I was still trying to understand), we yelled and screamed and clapped and stayed on our feet while Jude and Shepperton FC absolutely left their hearts out on the field. As the clock kept moving forward, and Lewis explained that the whistle could blow any time once stoppage was met, I found myself breathless with the rhythm of the game.
It wasn’t boring.
It was beautiful.
The stamina of the players, the way they passed with precision and ruthless accuracy, and the strength they were able to hone in their movements, I almost cried when Jude snagged the ball from a Chelsea player and took off toward the opposite end of the field. He kicked it in front of him as he ran, passed to one of his teammates to the left, who handled the ball with his feet so deftly, I almost lost sight of it.
It shot back toward Jude as he charged the waiting goalie, whose arms were outstretched in anticipation of what might come next.
Jude’s right foot drew back, and he caught the ball just as it flew in front of him. It arced, perfectly, beautifully, impossibly into the top corner of the net, and the crowds erupted.
Lewis swept me up in a giant bear hug as we screamed, and the little old lady next to me wrapped her arm around my waist while she did the same.
The whistle blew, and the high of the win felt like I’d done drugs or something.
All my senses were heightened, my skin buzzed, and my heart pounded.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.