Page 9 of Unworthy
“Oh congratulations!” said Penny and Mia gave her a shy smile.
“Thanks. Well, I’ve insisted on warming up with everyone. Max still isn’t too happy about it but Heath’s assured him that it’s perfectly safe for me to stay active.”
Penny relaxed a little after meeting Mia. They’d both been netballers before, and Mia gave Penny the whole spiel about how touch rugby is a cakewalk compared to that. Max joined our group and we all started warming up, throwing the ball around and chatting with the others. It was only after the second time a ball hit me in the face that I realised I wasn’t really paying attention. My eyes kept flicking up to the bike racks and then up to the promenade. It wasn’t that unusual for Yaz to be late. The woman seemed incapable of running to schedule ever, but it wasn’t like her not to make it in time to start the game.
“She’s not coming.”
I flinched as I realised Mia was standing right next to me. She was looking at me with narrowed eyes as I turned to face her. I didn’t like how she’d seemed to read my thoughts.
“What do you–?”
“Yaz. She’s not coming to rugby. She’s teaching.”
“I wasn’t thinking about… wait – teaching?”
“Yes, over there. See?” Mia turned towards the sea and pointed out at the waves, which seemed to be huge tonight. A couple of windsurfers were out there. One of them kept getting slammed by the waves and having to water-start again and again, but the other one was dipping and diving in the waves, doing jumps through the surf. I recognised that body and that long blonde hair. The way she moved through the water was almost unreal. When she flew off the edge of another wave and arced through the air in a forward loop, I stopped breathing altogether. Her body looked tiny in amongst those powerful waves. All sorts of scenarios were going through my mind – Yaz’s head connecting with the mast; Yaz losing consciousness and falling into the water; Yaz coming off the board and being pulled under the surf, then being ripped to shreds by rocks lurking underneath.
“Heath!” Max’s annoyed shout cut through my fevered thoughts as he slapped me on the shoulder. “What the fuck is wrong with you, mate? We’re about to start! You had a stroke or something?”
The windsurfer who Yaz was teaching had fallen again. They were in deeper water past the surf, both off their boards now, and it looked as though Yaz was talking to him. Then they both manoeuvred their sails and boards to the correct position, before doing a side-by-side water-start in the middle of the sea. Yaz waited for the wind to catch her sail, then sprang back up onto the board like she was born to it. The other guy was a little shakier but got there in the end.
“See,” Mia’s quieter voice came from my other side and I felt her lay her hand on my arm. “She’s teaching. Now the evenings are lighter. She can do more and she’s getting so booked up she said she couldn’t make it here tonight.”
“Who’s the guy out there with her?”
“Er… her student? Heath,” Mia’s voice dropped to a low murmur, and she stepped closer to me. “Are you okay? It’s just you’re kind of ignoring Penny and she’s never played before. I’ve explained some basics but you staring out to sea like this looks a little… well, it looks a little weird.”
“Who are they?” Penny’s voice jerked me back to reality, and I turned to look at her. That curious look was back on her face again, and she was staring up at me with her head tilted to the side.
“Er… what?”
“Out there.” She pointed out to where Yaz and her student were zipping in and out of the waves. “Those people you’re staring at.”
“That’s my sister, Yaz,” Max put in. Why did he have to pick this moment to become such a helpful, talkative bastard?
“Oh, the girl we picked up on the side of the road? The one with the cuts on her feet.”
I forced myself to turn away from the sea and towards Penny.
“Yes.” I cleared my throat and flicked another lightening quick glance back at the sea. “She’s still being a nut job, as you can see.”
Penny gasped, and I spun around just in time to see Yaz land another forward loop and then go into a crazy low jibe before shooting off in the other direction.
“Nut job? She looks amazing out there.”
“Well, she shouldn’t be in the sea with the damage to her feet.”
Penny turned towards me and frowned. “You glued her feet three weeks ago. Surely they would have healed by now?”
I muttered some bullshit about “delayed healing with the tougher epidermis of the soles of the feet.” Penny looked unconvinced, and by the time I’d looked back out at the sea, Yaz was hurtling down towards the harbour with her student in tow. I shook my head to clear it. I had to concentrate on the matter at hand and stop getting distracted by Yaz. It was bad enough that I was thinking about her an embarrassing number of hours in the day (and night if I was honest – x-rated Yaz dreams had become a nightly torture), my mind absolutely should not be wandering to her when I was with the woman I’d decided wasthe one.
I forced a smile and slung my arm over Penny’s shoulders again. It felt even more awkward this time. “Right, what can I tell you about this beautiful game? I’m sure Mia here hasn’t done us justice – we’re pretty special, you know. This is the beach touch-rugby capital of the UK.”
“Only because it’s crap, so no other bastard plays it,” Teddy said, rolling his eyes.
“Ah, the ignorance of youth.” I took the opportunity to release Penny so I could attempt to grab Teddy into a headlock again. That sense of wrongness left me almost immediately. “You need to respect the game, little man.”
Chapter 5
