Page 3 of Second Chance Christmas

He ground his teeth. “Are you seriously going to argue with me about this? Didn’t we do enough of that at the time?”

It was Cassidy’s turn to flinch. Theyhadargued at the time. Cassidy had shouted and screamed and thrown things at Leonardo, had hurled her fists at his chest, trying to hurt him like he’d hurt her, and he took it all. He took it, and he apologized, but her anger didn’t die down. She couldn’t look at him without imagining him with the other woman. She couldn’t look at him and feel anything but betrayal.

“Come on, Cassidy. We’ve been friends since we were kids. Isn’t that worth anything?”

She stared at him, aghast. “Apparently not, or you would never have done what you did.” She jutted her chin. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go and pry some kind of sweet out of Audrey’s hands before she goes into a sugar coma.”

Frustration clipped through him as,for the second time that night, he watched Cassidy be enveloped by the crowd. Okay, he hadn’t been stupid enough to think this would be smooth sailing, but he’d been looking forward to seeing her again after all these years.

There’d been way too much water under the bridge, for both of them, to hold onto any old grudge.

True, he’d cheated, and he would always hate himself for that, because infidelity was one hundred per cent outside his honour code. There was no excuse for it, but he had come to understand, at least, that there had been some mitigating factors. Nothing that made it okay, but at least he’d known what had led up to that disastrous decision, and had sworn to avoid ever being in that position again.

But Cassidy had wasted no time moving on. She’d been dating Grant Burrows a few weeks after Leonardo had left town, then they were married, and shortly after came the news that she was pregnant. It was like being kicked in the guts. Pregnant. Cassidy. When he’d heard the news, something inside of him had exploded at first, as he’d hoped against hope that maybe the baby was his. But a quick reflection on dates made that impossible.

Desolation followed.

From that point on, Leonard had refused to think about her. She had her life, he had his. She’d always be someone he wanted the best for though. He’d been glad that she was happy, because it was proof that he hadn’t ruined her life.

Not that he thought he had that much influence over her, but he didn’t want to be that to Cassidy. He wanted her to remember him with fondness too.

Evidently, she wasn’t capable of that.

He swore under his breath and bought a beer, just before a young fan came up to him in a replica of one of his jerseys, and asked for a photo. Naturally, Leonardo obliged. He straightened from the photo and glanced across the street to find Cassidy watching him, a mocking expression on her face that turned his blood to ice.

A moment later, she was back in conversation with a couple of other women, some children, including Audrey, lining up waiting to get their faces painted.

Leonardo wasn’t someone who sought out attention. In fact, he generally hated it, but something about her look was galling to Leonardo, and he found himself strolling across the street, towards the queue of children.

As he’d expected, they recognized him instantly, and a small mob formed around him, asking for photos, excitedly chattering at him about his last game, about the next season, about football and even the sport brands he promoted.

Leonardo answered the questions good naturedly, going out of his way to show how easy he found all this, how much of a non-event it was for him to be back, just a few short feet away from Cassie-May. He felt her eyes on him and flashed a smile at one of the other mum’s. Okay, that was a low blow, but he was getting riled up by her attitude towards him.

Six years was a lifetime. She’d had a kid in that time, for God’s sake. Why couldn’t she just make polite conversation? He wasn’t asking her to forgive him. He knew that wasn’t possible. But surely after all these years, there was enough good in their relationship to at least be friendly towards one another?

She had been his first.

His firsteverything.The first girl he’d ever taught to ride a bike, to skip stones on a lake, to watch horror movies with, the first girl he’d ever felt protective towards, when they’d gone to a party and some friends had plied her with beer. She was the first girl he’d loved hanging out with, just shooting the breeze and laughing with. The first girl he’d spent hours and hours text messaging, and calling. The first girl he’d kissed, the first girl he’d slept with. The first girl he’d loved. The first girl he’d hurt, left heartbroken and devastated, because of one stupid mistake.

In many ways, she was also his only—the only girl he’d ever loved, the only girl he’d ever hurt, the only girl he’d ever let himself relax around enough really be himself, and share his inner-most thoughts with. Since then, he’d kept things simple. Football was his life, women for a bit of fun in the off season, but that was all.

“Do you like it, mummy? I’m a lion. Roar!”

His eyes drifted to Audrey, who stood smiling up at Cassie, her fingers in a clawed formation, and something slammed against his ribs.

This was supposed to betheirlife.

Would it have been, if he hadn’t cheated?

Or would Cassie have hated the whole footballer wife thing anyway?

He considered that. It wasn’t like she’d lived a low profile life. She’d ended up married to an MP. She’d had to campaign with him, appear in publicity photos. But that wasn’t quite the same as the pressure exerted on footballer wives. He’d seen his teammates go through the wringer because of the way the press treated their other halves. Cassidy would probably have hated that. So perhaps all was well that ended well?

Except they didn’t end well, and as Leonardo watched Cassidy wave goodbye to the other mums and take Audrey’s hand in hers, he had a suffocating feeling that he would do anything to make her smile, just once, just like she used to. What else were old friends for?

Two

“IKNOW THINGS DIDN’T end well between the two of you, but it was a long time ago, Cass.”

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