Team Tomás (The Saints Team #2) (12 page)

I went into my room, closed my
bedroom door and fell onto the bed. I curled into a fetal position which was
surprisingly comfortable and wished Mom was here. Still no tears. I’m sure I
was in shock... I could barely hear my heart beating. Twenty minutes later, I
forced myself up and to the bathroom for a shower. I came back, turned down my
bed and got in. With the lights off, then I cried a river. It poured out of me.
Grief, pain, embarrassment, hurt, loss, all the emotions. My face was swollen
and my eyes stung.

My phone vibrated again and I
looked at it. Still Tomás trying to reach me. I listened to his phone messages.

“
Bella
, it’s Tomás. Answer
for me.”

 “Al...iss, please return my call.
I want to tell you what is happening.”

 “Al...iss please don’t do this,
take my call. Call me anytime tonight, anytime.”

I think you have enough on your
hands Tomás without worrying about calling or texting me, I thought.

There were also several text
messages from him and one from Mia checking up on me. She must have texted when
I was in the shower. I shot her back a quick text telling her I was okay and
not to worry and that I was turning in. I mentioned I was going to ignore my
phone for a while so not to panic if she couldn’t reach me.

Thank God I had my work to go to
tomorrow—a blessing to be busy in my new job and to have the company of Kay,
Sasha and Jim. Otherwise, I would have had to be in my own space all day, in
pain and alone, or at college lost in a lecture, trying to focus and trying not
to think of him.

I took a deep breath and opened Tomás’s
texts. I didn’t want to read them but I wanted them to have some explanation in
there that would make everything okay again and ease the ache in my chest.

TOMÁS: Alice I need 2 explain.
It’s a history thing. pls

TOMÁS:
Bella
, don’t do this
I am sick about it. Call. Need to talk to U

Wow, you feel sick Tomás,
imagine how I feel and I don’t even have a back-up guy.

I sat upright in the dark of my
room and made a plan. I would text him back, then I would move on. Tomorrow I
would throw myself into my job with gusto and into my studies to get the
semester finished. I was busy, too busy to think about Tomás or Finn or any of
these guys who wanted something that was more than me, clearly more than I
could give them.

I wrote a text in my head and then
tapped it into the phone. I knew he wouldn’t come around—it was late now and he
knew I lived at home. I read it again and then, signing off, I sent in to Tomás.

ME:            Hi T, it’s ok. I
understand, no explanation needed. It wz fun & thx 4 the G8 D8s. C U around
the club maybe.

Tomás rang me within a minute of
me sending that text. I don’t know how he was explaining to Julieta about the
texts and phone calls and I didn’t care. I didn’t want to answer, I didn’t want
to hear his voice again especially when I was weak and pathetic and likely to
believe anything fed to me. The phone beeped to tell me there was a phone
message and I listened to it.

“Al...iss, I need to explain.
Please take my call,
bella
.”

A few minutes later, a text
message arrived.

TOMÁS: A, please, I know U R awake
reading this, call me. Tx

I put my phone on the charger and
decided to turn it off altogether. I had never done that before, but
disconnecting from the world was just what I needed. And then I slept fitfully,
seeing in the morning light.

Chapter 23

Thank God for hot showers and make-up. The water took
some of the swelling out of my face and I practiced smiling to try and get my
eyes more open and less swollen. I don’t know if that is scientifically proved
to work but I was kind of desperate.

It sounds weird but I felt as if I
grew up overnight, as if I had been let into a new club and had a bucket load
of life experience poured on my head. Dad had left for work by the time I got
up and Ryan and I moved around each other with our usual morning grunts.

I arrived early and found Jim in;
he seemed oblivious to my slightly swollen face but I wouldn’t get it past
Sasha Saxon of the Saints. Jim and I talked about the game for a few minutes and
I thanked him for the conference opportunity on Friday and Saturday. Within
fifteen minutes Sasha and Kay swanned in. It was going to be a great week for
the team—Jim said the office morale was always up after a win and it made our
job with the media and marketing so much easier. Kay gushed about the game and
we all joined in again.

“Do your boys play soccer?” I
asked after her two young sons.

“They do.” She lowered her voice.
“But Spencer prefers track and field and Cooper likes swimming... don’t tell
anyone,” she joked with a wink.

“My lips are sealed,” I assured
her. We sat and logged in, getting Monday underway. I hadn’t turned on my
phone, as I didn’t want to know if he had called or not called. Later, when I
was feeling stronger, I’d clear my phone of all that. Sasha studied me but
didn’t say anything initially until Kay went to photocopy a document.

“Are you okay?” she asked. “You
look sort of... drained.”

Yep, she nailed it—that’s just how
I felt.

“I am thanks, Sash, big weekend,”
I said by way of explanation. “I had the conference too,” I reminded her.

“Oh yeah, any talent?” she asked.

“Yeah, there were some great
presentations,” I teased.

She gave me a wry look; that
wasn’t quite the talent she was talking about. We heard the coffee van arrive
outside and Jim gave a shout of relief from his office.

“I can’t do Monday without a
coffee,” he said, appearing and waving a twenty dollar note at us. “My shout
for Monday if you girls order and collect?”

“Done!” Sasha jumped up and took
it from him. “C’mon Alice, help me carry. The usual?”

“Please, but make it a large,” Jim
said, returning to his office.

Kay came around the corner and nodded.
“Oh yes, yes,” she said as if coffee was an orgasm. She reached for her purse
and we told her it was Jim’s shout. A coffee orgasm might be the closest I came
to one for a while... already with the pathetic jokes and it was only nine a.m.

We exited the building and joined
the coffee queue at the van again. It was a smaller queue this morning. Most of
the football staff wasn’t in yet, but the security team was—somehow The Russian
had beaten us to the front again. I was beginning to think he had some sort of
spy network of alerts going with the coffee van crew.

Sasha appraised me while we
waited. “Mm, cute .. schoolish. I like that pinafore.”

I had on a grey pinafore, white
dress shirt, black tights and black shoes and it was one of my favorite
outfits, even if it did look a bit like a school uniform.

 “I like that too,” I said,
admiring her outfit. She wore a hounds-tooth short skirt, black tights and a
black zip up jacket.

“I have a matching hounds-tooth
hat too, but it’s a bit much for the office.”

“Did you make it?” I asked.

She nodded. “I sold two of my
designs last week.”

“Good on you,” I said, impressed.

The Russian—all glorious
six-foot-five of him, ambled past with a coffee for him and Ed. He checked me
out.

“I like the schoolgirl look,
Alice,” he teased. “Most becoming. An all girls’ school?”

“Of course,
The-Bless-Me-Now-College-for-Wayward-Girls,” I said, looking down at my
pinafore.

The Russian burst out laughing, a
huge, booming laugh that matched his size. He shook his head at me—no comeback
for that one—and continued on.

Eventually, back at my desk and with
my skinny cappuccino in hand, my first priority was to select some of the great
shots from the weekend’s game as they came in from our official photographer
and drip feed them on our website and Facebook page over the week. I wanted to
start the morning with a brilliant shot and of course, amongst the photos was
the beautiful Tomás Carrera in action. I tried not to look at them but I was
drawn to them like a magnet. It would get easier, I knew that. I picked a Lucas
shot—the fans wanted to see their captain in a hero pose.

Shayne, our football manager,
appeared in our area. He said a few words to Jim and then came out to see me,
greeting us all.

“Got a gig for you this morning
Alice; could be good for some social media exposure,” he said.

“Sure, great.” I looked up at him.
Shayne, as a former player, had kept up his fitness and still looked damn good.

He continued, “Ed’s got a junior
clinic from ten o’clock at the school down the road. It’s only an hour and Ed
could use a bit of profile-raising. It would be good to get some shots of the
young kids in action having fun too—we need to keep the youth recruitment and
clinics in the spotlight.”

“Sounds good,” I said. “I’ll go
catch Ed and attach myself to him.”

Shayne laughed. “Yeah, that’s a
plan, thanks.” He turned to Sasha. “Maybe, Sasha Saxon from the Saints, you
could use the shots for a small story in the next newsletter?”

“Super, for sure, Shayne,” she
said, with a grin.

 He moved over to have a chat to
Kay about getting some extra tickets in the VIP area and I stuck my head into
Jim’s office.

“All good with you if I go with Ed?”
I asked and he gave the thumbs up and also handed over the camera from the
bottom drawer of his filing cabinet.

“Might be better than your phone,”
he said.

I took the camera and went to the
office next door to mine to catch Ed. I rapped on the door and opened it when
Russian’s voice boomed out a request for me to enter.

“Alice, twice in ten minutes! What
a pleasure.” He grinned.

“Yeah, thanks Russian. I’m just
here to see Ed,” I said, and laughed as The Russian’s face fell.

“First visitor ever for Ed.”
Russian smirked.

Ed gave him a rude hand sign and a
grin, and turned to me. He was shy and quiet spoken.

“Shayne suggests it might be good
if I tag along with you to the clinic this morning and get some pics of you and
the kids in action for the clinic promotions. That okay?” I asked.

“Sure,” he said, “leave here in
thirty minutes? I’ll pick you up at your desk.”

“Perfect,” I said. “Well thanks guys,
sorry to interrupt the engine room.”

The Russian grinned and Ed
laughed.

“The place would shut down without
us,” The Russian agreed.

I walked back to my office to find
a huge delivery of flowers had arrived and was sitting on my desk. I inwardly
groaned. Don’t do this Tomás, I don’t want everyone to know that we’ve started
and you’ve got two on the go.

Sasha grinned at me. “Well, who
did you impress on the weekend?”

I cringed. “I did wash the car,
maybe Dad sent them,” I joked. They were beautiful, a huge bunch of mixed flowers
of all colors and scents—I had Tomás’s roses at home and now flowers at work;
it was either a feast or a famine.

“So come on, tell us,” Kay said.

I moved them to the spare table
against the wall where we could all enjoy them and opened the envelope with
dread.

What the... ?
The card
read:
Didn’t get to say goodbye but would love to say hello again, Dane.

I breathed a sigh of equal relief
and disappointment. I didn’t want them to be from Tomás but I kind of did too.
I was pathetically torn. There should be a manual for this stuff. I looked up
to see Kay and Sasha looking at me expectantly.

“They’re from a guy who was at the
conference. A really nice guy, he’s a film event promoter,” I said.

“What’s his name?” Sasha asked.

“Dane...” I had to think about his
surname for a moment. “Dane Frazier. I’ll have to call and thank him. They’re
divine,” I said, and buried my face into them.

“He’s hot,” Sasha said and I
looked up and over at her.

“How do you know?” I asked.

“I found his Facebook page,” she
said.

Kay and I both moved behind her.

“Very nice looking young man,
Alice,” Kay approved. I swear sometimes she forgot she was only a decade older
and instead, had taken the office mother role. “And not cheap… I like a man who
sends flowers.”

“He’s lovely, but I’m not the only
one who noticed at the conference,” I assured them. And he had made my morning
a bit brighter, thanks Dane.

“I think you might be the only one
he noticed though,” Kay said, with a glance to the flowers.

*****

Before I knew it, Ed appeared beside my desk carrying
a bag full of soccer balls for the clinic. Sasha looked up at him.

“Got the address and the first aid
kit?” she asked him. I looked at her, surprised, and she explained. “I always
do a checklist before I leave home and the office.”

“Got them,” Ed confirmed.

“Got your phone?” she asked me.

I nodded. It wasn’t on, but I guess
I had to bite the bullet and put it on since I was leaving the office and
should be contactable.

“Camera? Clean hanky?” Kay asked
with a wink.

“Yes thanks, Mom.” I smiled,
waving the camera at her.

“Got Ed?” Sasha asked, and Ed
smirked at her.

“I’ve got Alice, come on,” he said,
nudging me out.

I grabbed my bag and followed Ed to
his car—a sedate sedan but fairly new. “A work vehicle,” he explained. “Tax
deduction for the business.”

“Ah ha,” I nodded, not that his
driving preference really required any explanation but the guys seemed hung up
on car appearances and their contracts allowed them to spend big on a car if
they wanted to do so. He stuck the bag of balls on the back seat and we got in the
front and belted up.

The god of broken hearts must have
been protecting me; I saw a black Ducati motorbike turning into the club
grounds and coming towards us. It was Tomás—I don’t know if he was coming to
see me, the football manager or get physio, but thank fuck I wasn’t in the
office. That’s all I needed. I ducked a little, pulling down the sun visor, and
watched in the side mirror as he turned past us, not seeing me in the car.

Ed started the car and checked the
address on the sheet supplied by Shayne. I sat dying, willing him to drive—move
it, let’s go, put the foot to the floor for pity’s sake.

I watched in the mirror as Tomás
parked and pulled off his helmet. He ran his hand through his hair. Oh my, he
was gorgeous sitting straddling that big black bike with his jeans on and a
leather jacket. Ed saw him—
damn, can we just get going here? Please don’t
come over to the car, please, pretty please.

Ed put down the window and called
out a greeting and Tomás replied. I sat far back in the seat, staying out of
sight. I breathed a sigh of relief as Ed put the window up, and turned the car
towards the road.

I put the sun visor back up and turned
my attention back to the lovely Ed. I hadn’t spoken more than twenty words to
Ed since I started at the club—he was sweet and shy and I was the new girl, so
it would be good to get to know each other. It would help with my job too. We
started talking about the game and I congratulated him on a good performance,
not that I’d have a clue, but that’s what you usually said.

“Thanks.” He smiled. “This is my second
year with the club and it’s coming together now; it takes a while to learn to
play as a team, but they’re a good lot.”

“Are you a career player?” I
asked. I was pretty sure Tomás was a professional player, you know full-time
and no college qualification.

“Actually, I’m an accountant,” Ed
said, surprising me. “So is Kaiser… uh Nik. Have you met him?”

“German Nik?”

“Yeah, that’s him. I look after
our business books and some of the players’ finances as well.”

“So how did you get into
security?” I asked.

“Well The Russian was working part-time
just doing some security work when we first met and he’d roped some of us guys
in if they were short staffed.” Ed shrugged. “Easy work, just hustle a few
people along and look as though you don’t want to be messed with. He had the
idea to take over the Saints’ security and it just built from there. We have
about eight clients now including the Saints and we rent that space from them.
I do the accounts and a bit of security work when needed.”

“Really? I didn’t realize the
business expanded out of the Saints’ office. Most impressive. So what are The
Russian’s qualifications?” I asked.

“He’s tall,” Ed said, delivering
the line without a smile.

He glanced to me and we both
laughed.

“He’s got a management degree,” Ed
said. “He’s handy with the contracts and a few other things.”

“Yeah, I wouldn’t want to run into
him in a dark alley,” I said.

“His size is handy for a security
company,” Ed agreed. “Jackson is a carpenter, Josh is a full-time player...” he
rattled off names and I waited, dreading the name he would get to eventually.
“...Tomás, he’s a whiz at I.T. can fix anything, but I don’t think he’s
qualified, Lucas has a history degree...”

I tuned out. A whiz at I.T., so he
could fix my laptop, phone or anything else that needed tweaking. What I needed
him to do was fix my broken heart, but he wouldn’t be getting a chance to do
that any time soon unless he had a good story to spin.