Page 177 of The Striker (Gods of the Game 1)
“Vincent and I had a misunderstanding that…escalated over the weekend, but we sorted it out. I promise it won’t happen again. Sir,” I added quickly.
“It better not.” The vein in Coach’s temple pulsed again. “I’ll let it slide for now, but if I catch one bloody whiff of dissent between you two today or any other day, I won’t be so lenient.Now get the hell out of here and join your teammates in training. You’ve missed enough work this past week.”
Relief flooded my veins. He wasn’t benching me or making me, I don’t know, scrub the stadium with a toothbrush.Thank God.“Yes, sir.”
The meeting had gone far better than I’d anticipated, but I hightailed it out of there before he changed his mind.
I only missed warm-ups and the first five minutes of training, so it didn’t take me long to catch up.
The rest of the team didn’t hold my absence on Saturday against me—they had wives, girlfriends, and beloved family members too; they understood—but I could tell by their stares that they were curious about Scarlett and my meeting with Coach.
“What happened?” Adil pounced during our first break. “What did Coach say?”
The other players drifted over, their ears perked as I summarized our conversation.
“You’re lucky, mate.” Stevens slapped me on the shoulder. “If the match had been a loss and not a draw…”
Shudders rippled through the group. If we’d lost, I’d be six feet under the pitch instead of standing on it.
I’d watched a replay of the match. We’d played well, but so had Holchester. They didn’t have any megastars in their current lineup—Bocci was the closest they had to one—but they were incredibly cohesive. That was their biggest strength and our biggest weakness.
Hopefully, that changed this season. We were already playing better together now that Vincent and I had patched things up, but we had room to improve.
“Forget the match,” Samson said. “I want to hear about your secret girlfriend.DuBois’s sister?” He whistled. “Ballsy. Very ballsy.”
Heads swung between me and Vincent, who was walking toward us from the water station.
I was not in the mood to discuss my love life with anyone right now. Luckily, Vincent cut in before I had to respond.
“Is this training or is this a gossip session?” he asked pointedly. “We’re not here to discuss our personal lives unless you want to tell us about the girl you hooked up with during our last away match.”
The rest of the team laughed and elbowed an embarrassed-looking Samson. He’d brought a girl back to the hotel but refused to tell any of us who she was, which was unusual for him. He was typically an (over)sharer.
“Man, Captain, why do you have to always do me like that?” he said with a shake of his head.
Vincent grinned. “You make it too easy.”
We didn’t get a chance to speak further. Greely shouted at us to gather for our next set of conditioning drills, and our good-natured teasing immediately morphed into concentration.
Our assistant coach was running today’s training. He was usually nicer than Coach, but he ran us ragged. By the time practice ended, no one had the energy to do more than shuffle into the locker room for a hot shower and a change of clothes.
“Thanks for running interference earlier,” I told Vincent. We’d finished cleaning up around the same time, and I fell into step with him as we walked toward the car park. “When the guys were asking about Scarlett.”
He lifted a shoulder. “She’s my sister. I don’t want those idiots thinking about her inanyromantic way.” He side-eyed me. “Too fucking late for you, though.”
I smirked.
“How is she?” Vincent asked. “I talked to her on the phone last night. She says she’s fine, but you know her. She’ll say she’sfine even if she’s forced to run a marathon barefoot over hot coals.”
“I know.” Scarlett’s stubborn resilience was one of her most admirable and most worrying traits. “She’s feeling better. Still lethargic and in pain sometimes, but she’s taking the week off work to fully recover.” It’d been her idea, which gave me a measure of relief. She wasn’t pushing herself to jump straight back into work. “She has a call with Lavinia today to discuss the tabloid and showcase situations.”
The paps were staked out at RAB again, but Scarlett was most nervous about the showcase. She worried that Lavinia would pull her as the lead.
I had conflicted feelings about the issue. I wanted Scarlett to get the chance to shine, but the thought of her enduring two more months of rehearsals made me break out in a cold sweat.
There was only so much the human body could take.
“Good. I’m glad she really is feeling better.” Vincent sounded relieved. We turned the corner toward the final set of exit doors. “What about the pap situation? They’ve been hounding me too, but not as much as you two.”