Final Score (48 page)

‘Jesus-fucking-Christ,’ he groaned, and she could hear how out of breath he was, which sent a shiver right through her, as she pictured what he’d just done. She wished she’d been there to see it. ‘What the hell did we just do?’

‘Phone sex.’ She smiled, pulling her fingers out of herself and closing her legs, enjoying the final few seconds of a lingering tingle. ‘And I needed that like you wouldn’t believe.’

‘I love you so much,’ Jim said, his voice finally starting to return to normal. His wonderful, low, deep voice, with that undeniably sexy accent had won her over all those years ago, and it was still doing the same to her now.

‘I love you, too,’ she whispered, wriggling back into her knickers. ‘And I miss you like crazy. I can’t wait to come home.’

‘Then we get to do what we just did then for real, right?’

‘The thought of that happening is the only thing getting me through these last couple of days.’

Another groan, and Amber smiled again, her hand absent-mindedly touching her breasts. Oh, God, she wasn’t going to go for this again, was she?

‘You hold that thought, honey. You hear me?’

‘I hear you, handsome. Good luck for the game tomorrow.’

‘You’ll be watching?’

‘I get to see you if I do, don’t I? Goodnight, baby.’

‘Goodnight, beautiful.’

She ended the call, looking down at the phone for a few seconds, as though staring at it would suddenly make him materialise.

‘I need a drink,’ she sighed, hauling herself up from the couch and heading over to the kitchen. She washed her hands, then found the last of the cava she and Ronnie had opened yesterday, pouring herself a glass. She hoped the bubbles would go straight to her head, because she always liked that feeling. That slightly woozy but not-quite-drunk sensation that anything with bubbles caused her to feel.

Taking another quick sip she put her glass down and walked out into the hall, gently pushing open the door of the nursery. Rico was asleep, curled up on his side, his little cuddly rabbit snuggled in beside him. She smiled, walking over to his cot, pulling the blanket he’d obviously kicked off back over him.

‘Sweet dreams, baby boy.’

A knock at the door made her jump, and she quickly left the nursery, closing the door behind her. She had no idea who it could be; she didn’t know anyone around here. Her family were a good few miles away from Palma Nova, and they’d call her first if something was wrong.

She walked over to the door, putting a hand on it but making no attempt to open it. ‘Who is it?’

‘Amber, it’s Ryan.’

‘Ryan?’ She flung open the door. There he stood, bold as brass and twice as sexy. His dark hair was pushed back off his face, which carried that heavy stubble he always liked to sport – he’d let it grow back to verging on the point of a beard length again, and she couldn’t help but think how hot it made him look, along with those tattoos that she still found incredibly sexy. Despite herself. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘Can I come in?’

‘What are you doing here?’

‘Are you gonna keep asking that?’

‘Until you give me an answer, yes.’

‘I came to see Rico.’

She raised a sceptical eyebrow, folding her arms. ‘Does Dave French know you’ve absconded?’

‘I haven’t “absconded.”’

‘Does he know you’re here?’

‘Well, he probably does by now.’

Amber threw her head back and sighed. ‘Ryan! What about Max?’

‘What about him? Look, Amber, it’s really nice out here and everything, but, can I come in, babe?’

She stood aside, letting him through, closing the door behind her. ‘Does Max know you’re here?’

‘I didn’t tell him I was coming, no. But then, I didn’t know I was coming myself until last night.’

Amber narrowed her eyes, her arms still folded. ‘Why? What happened last night?’

‘Amber, baby, can I just see Rico and grab a drink first before we get into anything? I could murder a beer.’

‘There’s some in the fridge. And Rico’s in the nursery, but he’s asleep. So don’t pick him up, okay? He’s slept all through the night since we’ve been here, and I’d quite like to keep it that way.’

She waited until he’d gone into the nursery before she walked back into the kitchen, grabbing him a beer, and one for herself. She had a feeling she was going to need it.

She took a sip, looking back out at the rapidly darkening view in front of her. The lights of the marina were starting to twinkle in the distance, the sound of crickets becoming louder now that the sun was fast disappearing. It was peaceful. It was beautiful. But she had the wrong man here with her. The man she wanted to share all this with was back home.

‘Has he been okay? In the heat, I mean.’

She turned around to see Ryan walk into the room. ‘He’s been fine. He’s been getting loads of attention, everywhere he goes. And not just from his family here. Everybody loves him. And, he’s been asking for you.’

Ryan’s face broke into a huge grin. ‘He said “dada?”’

‘He said “dada.”’ Amber smiled.

‘Shit! Who’d have thought a couple of years ago that something like this would make me the happiest frigging man on earth?’ He looked at her, their eyes locking together. ‘We did good, huh?’

She broke the stare, looking down at the white-tiled floor. ‘He’s our beautiful little man, so, yeah.’ She raised her head to meet his gaze. ‘We did good.’

‘Amber…’

‘I’ve got you a beer. Come and look at the view from outside, come on.’

He picked up his beer and followed her out onto the terrace. ‘My contract with Newcastle Red Star – it’s up at the end of the season, you know that, right?’ He sat down beside her on a huge wicker couch covered in deep-red cushions.

‘It’s my job to know these things, Ryan.’

‘Max wants me to join L.A. Gamers.’

Amber looked at him, her head turning so fast she’d made herself dizzy. ‘L.A. Gamers? I don’t… why would he want you to move to Los Angeles?’

‘He says it’s an amazing opportunity. The Gamers is one of the biggest and best clubs over there; it attracts the biggest names, it gets some of the largest crowds. They average gates of over fifty thousand a match, Amber. That’s more than most top-flight clubs over here in the UK attract, even during the biggest, most important games. They… they’re offering me this relocation package I can’t even begin to get my head around, and the money I could make out there in sponsorship deals alone, before we even start to talk about the wages…’

‘Why would he want you to move to Los Angeles, Ryan?’

Her eyes weren’t leaving his now, they were staring at him, asking him a question he was going to answer for her. Because he had to.

‘He thinks if I… he thinks if I move to a London club, if I stay in the UK – he thinks I’m going to lose my focus.’

‘Lose your…?’ She frowned, confusion sweeping across her beautiful face.

‘I’m in love with you, Amber. I’m head-over-heels, ridiculously in love with you and he’s right. Max is right. If I stay in the UK – if I move down to London, I’m not gonna leave you alone. I’m not. Because I can’t be around you and not want you. I can’t watch you with Jim and not want to
be
him. I can’t do that. So Max is right. Maybe a brand-new start, well away from all that – maybe that’s exactly what I need.’

‘But… Ryan, you’ve… you’ve tried that before. You went to CD Adeje…’

‘That was on loan, Amber. I always knew I was coming back home, but this time – this time it’d be permanent.’

‘I… Jesus! This is a shock, I… what about Rico?’

Ryan bowed his head, closing his eyes for a brief second. ‘It’s gonna kill me, being away from him for so long. It’s gonna fucking kill me, because I love him so frigging much, Amber…’ He looked at her, and Amber felt her heart ache as she saw the tears in his eyes. ‘I love him. And I love
you
.’

‘Ryan, I… Are you going?’ she whispered, trying to get her head around everything he was telling her, because she was finding this really hard to understand.

‘I don’t know.’

‘This is crazy…’

‘Come with me.’

Her head shot up again, her eyes instantly meeting his. ‘Come
with
you?’

‘We could have a fucking fantastic life out there, Amber. Me, you, Rico… think about it, babe.’

She shook her head, getting up and going back inside. ‘You don’t know what you’re saying.’

‘I know
exactly
what I’m saying, Amber. I love you, and I love that baby of ours, and all I want is a life for the three of us…’

‘I
have
a life, Ryan, do you understand that yet?’

‘He’ll hurt you.’

‘Oh, Jesus, we’re back on this now, are we?’

‘He’ll hurt you.’

‘And I’ll get over it, but I’m not leaving him.’

‘Think about it, baby. A whole new life in Los Angeles, with more money than we could ever possibly spend in our whole frigging lifetime…’

‘Is that all that matters? Money? Because I
have
money. I have more money than I ever thought I’d have. And Jim, well, he’s a multi-millionaire so I doubt we’re ever gonna have trouble paying the bills.’

‘No, Jesus, of course money isn’t all that matters. I’m just trying to say… we’ll have no worries, Amber. None. We could even get a house on the beach. How great would that be for Rico, huh? And they’d love you over there…’

‘Is this why you’ve come here? To put all this on me? Because it really isn’t fair, Ryan.’

‘A whole new start, Amber. Away from someone who is only going to hurt you, and you don’t deserve that.’

‘But I deserve
you
, huh?’

‘We were good together once.’

‘Once,’ she repeated, turning and walking into the kitchen.

‘Why do you keep going back to him, Amber? Why do you keep
marrying
him?’

She swung around, glaring at him. ‘He is my world, Ryan. Why does nobody seem to understand that?’

‘You keep marrying him because I think you’re scared to face up to something else – something you
know
is there. You just don’t want to face it.’

‘What the hell are you talking about?’

‘You’re just scared to let go of him because he’s been in your life for so long. That’s all. He’s familiar. He’s safe. But it’s okay, y’know? To let go of him.’

‘I don’t
want
to let go of him.’ Her voice was quiet, her arms folded back across her chest, putting an almost defensive barrier up between the two of them. ‘I love him.’

‘You got scared because you fell for a man who was a decade younger than you, and in your world that didn’t feel right.’

She shook her head, her eyes staring right at him.

‘But it’s okay, to feel scared. But marrying a man you
think
you want to spend the rest of your life with, just because he’s always been there? Admit it, Amber. You still have feelings for me, and they run so much deeper than you want to believe.’

She threw back her head, letting loose a loud laugh. ‘Jesus, you are something else.’

‘We’re a family, Amber.’

‘No, Ryan. Enough! I’m not getting into this.’

‘I love you.’

‘So you keep saying. But it doesn’t make any difference.’

He said nothing, but he didn’t take his eyes off her. He held her gaze, determined not to walk away from this until there was no fight left in him. And that was never going to happen. Never.

‘I don’t want you to go,’ she said quietly, leaning back against the counter. Her voice suddenly changed, carrying a tone of something verging upon defeat now. The whole atmosphere had changed, right there, in an instant.

‘And I don’t want to go without you. But if I stay in the UK, I can’t promise things are gonna be easy, Amber. For either of us.’

She felt tears start to prick the back of her eyes, and she quickly wiped them with the back of her hand, finally turning her head away from him, breaking that stare.

‘I don’t want you to go,’ she repeated.

‘Then come with me.’

She took a deep breath, throwing her head back, wiping her eyes again as more tears started to fall. ‘How’s it come to this, Ryan?’

‘I don’t know, baby. I guess we all made some bad choices along the way, and now we’re left with no other option but to go with the only choices left to us.’

‘I need to talk to Max…’ she said, moving away from the counter to go and look for her phone, but he gently grabbed her wrist, stopping her from going anywhere.

‘And what exactly are you gonna say, Amber?’

‘This is crazy. You can’t go to America. I don’t want you to go.’

‘But you don’t want
me,
right?’

She looked at him, right into those dark-blue eyes of his, her head now a mess of emotions. He had no right to turn up here and lay this on her. He had no right.

Pulling her arm free of his grip she walked back over to the counter, keeping her back to him as she leaned forward, closing her eyes. Her head was spinning now. Yes, she’d known his contract was up at the end of the season, and yes, she’d always known he’d make another attempt to move back down to London, she knew all that. And was that what she’d always secretly hoped for? Really? Deep down, had she actually
wanted
him to move closer?

She kept her eyes closed, breathing in deeply as she became aware of him behind her now. She could feel him standing there, and she was doing nothing to stop him because her head was all over the place when not half an hour ago all she’d been able to think about was rushing back home to be with her husband. The man she loved. The man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with, right? Wasn’t that the plan?

So why wasn’t she turning around and doing something to prevent whatever this could be from starting? Why wasn’t she doing that? Hadn’t she learned anything over these messed-up couple of years?

She pulled her stomach in, clenching her muscles as she felt his hand rest on her thigh, his breath warm on the back of her neck. The danger signals were all too obvious, screaming at her so loudly she could hear them ringing in her ears and still she was doing nothing to stop this.

‘Ryan…’ One half-hearted attempt at making him stop. Yeah, that was going to work. And, anyway, she didn’t want him to stop.