Page 218 of Off the Pitch

Even though I was still technically staying at the Mandarin Oriental at Hyde Park, and paying the hefty price tag that went with the privilege, I’d spent most of the past week at Jordan’s. It hadn’t been a deliberate thing; it had just happened. Neither of us had said anything about it though, so I figured it wasn’t a bad thing. After Saturday night, when we’d gone back to his, I’d ended up staying over, and when he’d gone to training on Sunday, I’d headed to the hotel to get changed. I’d ended up shoving some extra clothes in my bag, just in case I ended up staying another night.

It was now Saturday again, and I’d only gone back to the hotel once, and that was just to grab my laptop and another jumper.

I probably should have just checked out and saved myself the money, but that idea made my stomach twist uncomfortably. Leaving the hotel felt like putting too much pressure on Jordan and myself. We hadn’t exactly talked about what we were doing. We were just carrying on and ignoring the elephant in the room.

Every day, he went to training, and I went to business meetings or amused myself in London or stayed at his house, chatting with Ant, watching TV, or generally keeping myself occupied with whatever took my fancy. Every night we ate dinner at his and relaxed on the sofa, then spent hours in bed, wrapped up in each other until we were sweaty and sated, collapsing onto the sheets to fall asleep curled around each other.

It was totally different than anything I’d ever done before, but that didn’t feel like a bad thing. I was starting to think it might be time to start putting down roots in London. Nothing major. After all, I didn’t know what this thing with Jordan was or how long it would last, but I did think it would be a sensible idea to stop spending money on expensive hotels and maybe look at spending it on a place of my own instead.

My only problem was, I wasn’t sure where to start looking.

I was tempted to hire someone to find a house for me and furnish it to my tastes, but that felt too disconnected, and I was worried I’d end up with something on the other side of London that was beautifully decorated but stark and soulless. If I wanted something that felt like me, I was going to have to do it myself. Sort of.

I knocked on the door in front of me and waited for someone to answer.

“Félix?” Lara asked as she pulled open the front door. She grinned and pulled me into a hug. “I didn’t know you were coming round.”

“Surprise!” I squeezed her tightly. “Is your dad in?”

“Sure.” She gave me a questioning look. It was understandable. There weren’t many occasions when I’d come looking for my brother or his advice. If someone had told me I’d be doing exactly that six months ago, I’d have asked if they were drunk. Still, here I was. “He’s in his office. Everything okay?”

“It’s fine. How’re you?”

“I’m good, just revising for exams.” She sighed, and I suddenly noticed the hint of purple under her eyes and the sense of tiredness than enveloped her. If Lara was anything like the rest of her family, she’d push herself to exhaustion because she was determined to do well, no matter the cost.

“Don’t push yourself too hard, okay? I know you want to do well, and you should want that, but don’t work so hard you hurt yourself. There are better things to die for.”

Lara stared at me, giving me the same soul-piercing look I’d seen on her mother. “Who are you? And what have you done with Félix?”

“What do you mean? I’m the same person. I just told you not to work too hard.”

“No… you’re not,” she said thoughtfully. “There’s something different about you.”

“Well, I haven’t had a haircut in a while.”

“It’s not that.” Lara rolled her eyes and shook her head, smiling ruefully. “It’s just… I don’t know. You seem different. Happier, maybe? More relaxed? I don’t know, but there’s something.”

“You’re too observant for your own good,” I said. I wasn’t going to lie to her and tell her nothing had changed, but I wasn’t going to tell her what it was either. Partly for my own privacy because I didn’t need my entire family on my case and partly for my own amusement.

“What’s going on?”

“Nothing yet. I’ll tell you when something happens.”

“You’d better,” she teased, “or I’ll tell everyone you’re a terrible uncle who never bought me a pony.”

“No, but I might have something better,” I said. I reached into the pocket of my jeans and pulled out a small card that I’d picked up during my meeting yesterday. It was the result of everything I’d been working on since Christmas. I’d done more work in the past five months than I had in the past sixteen years, but I wasn’t going to deny I’d enjoyed it. It had actually been fun to sink my teeth into a project for once, instead of just throwing money at something and watching other people make all the decisions.

“I was going to keep this as a surprise until I had more to show you, but this might be the pick me up you need.” I handed it to her, watching in delight as her mouth dropped open, fingers running across the lettering printed on the card:The Trossero Environmental Group.

“I-I… I don’t understand… How?... Why?”

“Because you asked me to. And I always keep my promises.” I leant over and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “It’s my new project. The overarching bit anyway. I think we’ll end up with various subdivisions when we get going, since lots of people have excellent ideas. But to start with, we’re going to be tackling plastic waste. Because you’re right, it’s ruining too many of my beach holidays, and I need to do something about it,” I said, flicking my hair and listening to Lara giggle. “Oh, and there’s something else.” I fished around in my pocket for my phone, scrolling through my emails to find the logo I’d received first thing that morning. I held out the screen for her to see. It was a turtle, in soft greens and blues, made up of a swirling pattern that caught the eye. Around it were the wordsLara’s Fund: Turtle Habitat and Conservation.

Lara stared at it, then looked at me, eyes wide with disbelief.

“You asked me to save the turtles,” I said, voice soft. “I figured you might like to be a part of that too.”

Lara’s lips curled into a smile, a couple of tears sliding down her cheeks. “Only you. Only you.”

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