Page 18 of Worth Every Game

I roll my eyes, and Matt hands me a glass of champagne. The first gulp tastes so unbelievably good because I’ve earned it. My mother appears and kisses me on the cheek, making me slop my drink over the floor. I bite back the urge to reprimand her as she says, “What a fabulous performance. That team would be nothing without you. You carried the rest of them, absolutely carried them, darling.”

Seb and Matt, who both put in a stellar performance too, are standing mere inches away, and they share an amused look. Mum has a tendency not to consider her audience when she makes proclamations like that.

“He was very good,” Seb agrees heartily. “One man team, really. Not sure why the rest of us bothered racing at all.”

Nico snorts, then lifts his champagne glass to his mouth to hide it, and Matt busies himself drinking half his glass in one go, avoiding meeting my eye. I’m pretty sure he wants to laugh, but he’s too polite to do it in front of Mum.

As everyone is chatting amongst themselves, I take the opportunity to ask Kate the question that’s been bothering me since I walked into the room. “Where’s Elly?”

She quirks a brow. “How did you know she was here?”

“Saw her out in the corridor after the race.”

Kate accepts this explanation for my sudden fixation on Elly’s whereabouts. “She had to work. Shift at the Marchmont.”

Something inside me drops into an abyss.She’s not here?She’s gone back to the bloody Marchmont Arms?I resolve not to sayanother word about her, in case I accidentally reveal that I’m absolutely, unreasonably crushed by the fact she’s not here when her presence should make no difference to my enjoyment.

Tonight should be about the race, my team, my friends. Not about some girl with curly hair and cowboy boots, who has always kind of irritated me.

But it is about her.

I haven’t been this gutted by a no-show in a long time.

Mum tugs on my arm. I turn to find her standing with Lydia, whose big brown eyes are fixed on me. I try to mask my surprise. I just rejected this woman; peeled her off my face like a wet plaster.Was I too subtle? Too polite?Fuck it. She doesn’t seem remotely deterred, and Mum looks completely smitten with her. Thankfully, Lydia seems to have ditched the banner and pictures of my face. The Hawkstons would never let me live that down.

“Darling,” Mum croons. “Lydia says you’re dating. She’s delightful.”

Lydia gives a bashful smile that looks completely wrong on her face. “Jack took me to a terrible little pub in the West End,” she says, glancing at Mum. “Dreadful service. And it stank of beer and sweat. What was it called, Jack?”

“The Marchmont Arms,” I say, and an odd quirk of pain makes itself known in my chest. I’d have described the Marchmont the same way not long ago, but hearing it come from Lydia in that dismissive tone rubs me up the wrong way.

“Poor form, darling,” Mum says to me, her lips curled with distaste.

Lydia lays a hand on Mum’s arm. “We didn’t stay long. I lured him to a much more glamorous affair afterwards.”

“Oh, thank goodness,” Mum replies, then leans into me, whispering, “Jack, she’s wonderful. You finally picked a good one. I’m thrilled. Well done, darling.”

I don’t correct Mum, because her knowing anything about my love life is too fucking much. She has a tendency to interfere, and I’ve made it a rule to give her as little information as possible. But she and Lydia are getting on like a house on fire, smiling and laughing. It’s alarming.

I turn back to Kate, but as I do, her face breaks out into a huge grin at something behind me, and she starts arcing her arm over her head. “El,” she calls, and a flicker of hope bursts to life inside me.

I spin to find the source of Kate’s elation, only to see Elly in the doorway, pushing her way towards us. Her expression is serious, but it melts into a brilliant smile when she catches sight of Kate’s erratic waving. Their elation must be contagious, because it shoots through me like an electric shock, and I take a steadying gulp of champagne to stave off the grin that wants to split my face apart.

“Don’t you have to work?” Kate says when Elly reaches us. “Please say you don’t have to leave.”

Elly’s gaze shifts to me very briefly, and there’s a guilty look in her eye, as though she’s about to lie. “They don’t need me tonight.”

Did she cancel her shift for me?

Kate hands Elly a glass of champagne and drags her off for a chat, leaving me wishing I had a more legitimate reason to talk to her. I can’t chat her up all night in front of Kate, Nico, and Mum. She might be here, only a few feet away, but she’s almost as inaccessible to me as she would be if she hadn’t turned up at all. And now there’s the added frustration of knowing she’s here and not being able to spend every second with her.

The evening wears on, and Mum continues chatting with Lydia. I try to focus on Seb and Matt and Nico, onanyoneelse, but it’s useless because my attention is hooked on Elly.

After an hour or so of chugging champagne, Seb decides to hit the karaoke, performing a dreadful rendition of Annie Lennox’sWalking on Broken Glass. He finishes to great applause before he stumbles back towards us.

“Who’s up next?” Seb says, grinning as he slaps Matt and Nico on the back. They refuse, and it’s then that Kate reappears with Elly at her side.

“Kate, you look like a singer,” Seb says. “Get up there.”

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