Page 14 of The Tape Job
“What?” she raises a brow at me.
“I’m sorry—that didn’t come across well. But you really need to stop being such a damn know it all.”
She laughs, nudging my shoulder. “You are the one who told me you needed to grow, so grow! And, you said your mom mentioned—”
The door to the dressing room flings open in the distance and I take that as our cue to leave. The last thing I need now is another glimpse at Liam. But Jen is right, I know she is. I probably need to be friends with Liam, but this time, forget that we have a past.
Chapter 4
Liam
I can smell Coco Chanel in the air, and wonder if anyone else can. It’s making me woozy with lust. Not even the copious amount of sweat lingering in the air is squashing my desire. Now I’m more sure than ever that coming here was the worst idea I’ve ever had in my entire life.
“Things are still awkward then, I take it,” Ryan says, sitting down in his cubby.
“What do you think?”
He gives me a side eye which I recognise. “I didn’t expect things to be as frosty as that,” he says.
Nor did I, but if this season is my last, I want it to be a season with my brother and my best friend; that’s what I need to keep telling myself, anyway. I foolishly thought I could come here and just go about my business and get over Vicky. But now I’m thinking about all the promo shoots and crap that she’ll be doing soon.
I pull off my shoulder pads and toss them aside.
“What’s the deal with you two, then?” Danny asks as I continue with the rest of my gear.
Even though I’m sharing an apartment with Danny, and we’ve become buds, we haven’t spoken about Vicky at all—which has been fine by me. I haven’t brought her up, and he hasn’t asked. He’s the perfect roommate. Or at least I thought he was. What would I even say? That I’m still in love with her? Because I can’t even admit that to myself.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” I say, feeling Johnny’s eyes on me. I’m convinced he’s ready to throw a punch. He’s her big brother—I’m sure he does not want to hear what is going on between me and Vicky.
But Johnny, being Johnny, has something to say about it.
“It’s for the best, you know. You and Vicky being done. I mean, it must exhaust you both. Off and on and off and on—”
“Leave it, Johnny,” Ryan says, but that only serves to wind Johnny up giving his reaction.
“Hey, how do you think this is for me? I’m stuck in the middle, feeling like I have to choose between one of my best friends and my sister. Honestly, it’s goddamn stressful.”
I swear to God, he doesn’t even know the meaning of the word stressful. He has an easy life. No fucking women to stress over, that’s for sure.
“We’re not doing this now, Johnny,” I say, giving him a piercing look because the last thing I want is a heated discussion with Johnny while everyone looks on. Luckily, he shrugs.
I already tainted the dressing room with the conversation I had last Christmas Eve, so I’m keen to get cleaned up for a temporary change of scenery.
I’m the first one to the showers, so I move around the room, getting them all going to heat the water. I step into the shower stall furthest from the door and hang my towel on the hook.
Ryan enters the stall next to me moments later, then Johnny occupies the stall opposite; it’s as if they’re ganging up on me, but to my relief, the conversation isn’t about Vicky.
“What are we thinking of our chances for the Challenge Cup this year?” Ryan asks no one in particular.
“Hopefully, now that Lee is here, we’ll have an even better top line than last season. Let’s see how Jani works with both of you,” Johnny says, his voice taking on a captain-like tone.
Jani is the first line centre and, from what I understand, is a pretty good match to play alongside my brother. I doubt it’ll take us long to get into a rhythm.
“Remind me of your face-off percentage last season, Lee,” Johnny asks.
“Fifty-eight per cent, something like that,” I say.
Ryan frowns. He knows all his stats by heart, but I don’t pay all that much attention to mine. I just like to get the job done.
