Page 44 of The Game

At ten I got up from the sofa. "It's way past my bedtime."

He checked his watch, eyes widening when he saw the hour. "Mine too."

I laughed. Only two sportsmen couldn't feel embarrassed at announcing the fact they went to bed earlier than most teenagers. "I'll show you to your room."

I gathered him some towels and took him to the guest room with the ensuite. "You should have everything you need."

He nodded, and I left him to it. The whole way to my room I was wondering if I had everything that I needed.

Monday morning and life was back to usual—at least for the first two hours.

As I'd pulled into the car park of work I'd heard my phone beep in my glove box. I pulled it out as I grabbed my stuff. It was a text from Betsy.

You and I need to talk.

Nothing else, that was it. Okay, that's a bit strange.

I felt well rested. The game had been rained off the day before, much to the little guy's disappointment. The other players were going to go for a drink in the pub, and in normal circumstances, I would have joined them for a coke. But normal circumstances didn't involve having the Lancashire Lion looming next to me wearing a faded baseball cap.

I'd waved my apologies, and we'd headed back to the car. "That Davies fancies you." The Lion had grumbled on the way back home.

I chortled and gripped the steering wheel. "Bailey? Davies? You think everyone does."

He glared out of the windscreen and muttered something illegible under his breath.

When I walked into the building and past security, flashing them my badge— although why I needed too after all this time, I didn't understand—the guy took me by surprise by saying "Miss Rivers, Mr Waller would like to see you in his office."

"Oka-a-a-y." I'd never been called to his office before, so this was odd. Mondays were always my session first for a warm up before he joined the team to discuss the game on Friday night and to implement any changes he wanted to make. Although, Friday night hadn't been an average game. We'd got a pounding, and our captain had accidentally hit a woman with a cricket bat. The Lion and I had talked about it on Saturday as we sipped at the wine and sat together on the sofa. It had been awkward to start with, him one end and I the other but as the evening had progressed the more we'd relaxed. Willis was always so fiercely defiant under scrutiny it was like he was a wounded animal snapping because he was in pain. I wished I knew from where that deep level of protective nature came. He loved the game, sure, but there was loving it and then being a twat because of it. And sadly, Jase Willis' behaviour often fell into the latter rule.

As I knocked on Waller's door, I told myself that he just wanted to discuss the disastrously dire game, before we faced the team together, a united front and all that.

He snapped a welcome, and I walked in. The Lion was in the corner studying the material of his tracksuit pants.

"Yes?"

Waller's glare was like something from a horror movie. His veins were multiplying at a rapid rate across his forehead, and I was genuinely worried for his health. His index finger stabbed at a newspaper on the table. "Care to explain?" the words flew with spittle that projected from his mouth and landed on the paper in question.

"What are you talking about?" I leant over the desk and stared at the paper. It was back page, a florid headline: ‘A Slice of Action for Red Cat's Cap’. Below it was a picture of the Lion holding a pizza box and waving at someone, a smile across his face. The someone was me. Following this was an image of the Lion helping Sammy to carry the boxes down the road to the car. The caption under this one was: ‘Jase Willis reveals his tender side, with Red Cat's fitness coach and possible girlfriend's, adopted son’.

My legs creased from under my weight and I fell into a chair. The Lion sat up straighter but still didn't speak. "This is awful. Terrible. Oh god." I clutched my hands to my hair. "They are going to see this! They are going to see it, and it's going to set everything off."

The Lion reached forward and placed a hand on my shoulder, his fingers squeezed and Waller’s eyes zeroed in on the action. He shook his head. "That's the least of your worries. You could get fired for this."

I looked up at him in shock. "Fired? But, why?"

Waller's eyes flitted between the two of us. "You know the rules, and the board must be fair to everyone. We can't lay some people off for indiscretions and then turn a blind eye to others.

I shook my head, my mouth flapping open as I tried to make sense of what he was saying. "What indiscretions? We haven't done anything wrong."

Waller's eyebrows looked on the verge of meeting his disappearing hairline as he nodded at the Lion’s hand still on my shoulder still, squeezing, still helping me not freak out. I breathed and tried to focus on his firm touch through my T-shirt.

"Oh, oh, no." I shook my head fast. "No, it's just..." And then I ran out of things to say. What could I say without giving away the injury I was secretly trying to help improve?

The Lion's fingers slid to my hand and gave a squeeze, and Wallers's gaze watched them like a hawk. "It's okay, Ly-" he cut off the rest of my name. "Rivers, it's okay." His voice had that gentle burr that I only got to hear at the weekend, and it made my heart beat a little faster as it melted into my bones. He shifted his attention from me to Waller, and it felt like being released from a blinding spotlight. "Rivers has been helping me with my fitness."

Waller snorted, which stung me more than I would like to admit, and rubbed at his chin. "Really?"

The Lion nodded. "I've had some issues with my shoulders, and I didn't want it to affect my game, so I asked her to give me some extra coaching."