Page 90 of Look What You Made Me Do

“What can I say?” Rosie sighed. “The man’s a quick study.”

The conversation soon turned to the game with Chiswick the following Saturday. The exclusive private school hosted the event at their state-of-the-art football field and they’d won this particular exhibition game for sixteen years straight.

And, as Jake had stated a few months ago, a public school had never beaten Chiswick in this arena.

“I managed to get hold of some footage of Chiswick’s last game.” Pete dropped the morsel into the conversation and everyone turned to stare at him.

“Have you seen it?” Jake asked.

He nodded. “The first ten minutes. They’re really good.”

“And?” Daisy demanded. “Did you bring it with you?”

Pete winked at her. “Of course.”

“Well don’t just sit there,” she bellowed. “Show us the damn thing.”

They adjourned to the living room, Pete casting the footage from his phone to the television. The vision was muffled and amateur but there were good close-ups of the action and Jake kept muttering, “This is gold,” as he watched the play.

“Well done, Pete,” he said at half-time as the person videoing obviously decided crowd shots and scenery would suffice until the game started again.

They used the break in play to analyze the game. “There’s some great stuff on there,” Simon said.

“Yep.” Jake nodded. “Pete and I will go over it in more detail tomorrow morning and with the team in the afternoon.”

“They look amazing,” Rosie commented.

“They do,” Jake agreed. “Chiswick are champions, no doubt. But the Demons have come from nowhere, with very little and made the playoffs which is not nothing. And we have something that they don’t. We have something to prove.”

Ella couldn’t dispute that but watching the game had put a real itch up her spine. Chiswick scared the bejesus out of her.

She turned to Jake. She loved him. He’d turned her entire life upside down and somehow in the process managed to turn it right around. But she wanted him to know that it was okay to be beaten by a superior team. That winning this one didn’t matter.

That they’d already proved themselves.

“Jake, this game… it doesn’t matter. Not anymore. Deluca’s not under threat of closing and the team have exceeded all expectations. But these guys” – she tipped her head at the television – “they’re in a league of their own.”

A frown furrowed his forehead. “I got into this whole thing for the Chiswick game. It’s the end game. You need me to win it and that’s what I’m going to do.”

Ella blinked. He’d essentially been badgered into coaching.

“I’m just saying that… no one’s going to think less of you, or the Demons, if they lose this game.”

“I’ll think less of me.”

Okay, he really wanted this. The guy who’d been happy drinking Coronas and flirting with women at his bar. Was this some kind of redemption for him, too? Maybe he needed the Demons to restore his reputation as much as they’d needed him to restore Deluca’s?

The thought set off a warm glow around her heart but still… expectation management seemed prudent.

“Look… I get it. I do,” she said. “But Chiswick is an exclusive boys’ educational facility. They obviously have the best equipment and coaches money can buy.”

“You have the best coach money can buy,” he said.

She raised an eyebrow. “You’re free, Jake.”

“What can I say?” He blasted her with his steely green gaze. “The school principal drives a hard bargain.”

Oh Lordy. Her body took that in an entirely different way than it was intended considering how affronted he looked.

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