Page 110 of Off the Pitch

“Nope. You’ve gotta walk, and I am not arguing with Ellie.”

“Mmm,” I nodded in assent as we strolled along together. For once British summer had actually made an appearance in all its glory, delivering day after day of beautiful sunshine and baking heat. Not that I got to enjoy much of it.

I’d started having physiotherapy sessions with Ellie every other day so she could torment me. I knew it was supposed to be helping me build up my strength so I could start getting back to proper training, but it was definitely more like being tortured. Especially because Ellie refused to take no for an answer, and her favourite phrase seemed to be ‘do it again’.

She’d had a meeting with half the team as soon as they’d returned from their summer break, and expressly told them that if they were hanging out with me, I was to walk everywhere. I was fucking doomed.

“You’ll get there,” Jordan said. He squeezed my shoulder and gave me a small smile. “It’s just gonna take time. You can’t rush it.”

“I guess. How’s the preseason going?” I asked, trying to distract myself.

“Fucking killing me. Trossero is torturing us. I’m not ready.”

“That’s because your lazy ass has done nothing except play video games for the past six weeks.”

“Untrue. I had a suit fitting last week; Liam and I ran wedding errands yesterday, since he and Ali still can’t decide on a caterer; and my nan made me deep clean her entire kitchen.”

Jordan’s best friend, Liam, was getting married at the end of the year to his childhood sweetheart Ali, and ever since their engagement had been announced, Liam and Jordan had turned into the most finicky pair of wedding planners I’d ever seen.

They’d give the world’s worst bridezilla a run for her money.

“And between that you played video games.”

Jordan laughed. “Yeah… but you should see my house inSkyrim. It’s fucking awesome.”

“Come on, slowpokes!” I looked up to see Kit waving to us from the doorway of the pub where we were meeting the others for drinks. His copper hair was shining in the sun, giving him a bright halo that made my knees go week. Fuck, he was beautiful.

Liam and Jordan had been trying to get us all together for weeks, and this had been the first Saturday that we’d been able to coordinate things. Mostly becausesomeonehad insisted on whisking their boyfriend off to the Maldives for an exotic holiday and two weeks of relaxation. Not that I was jealous, but I hadn’t been on any sort of relaxing holiday in years, and the idea of spending two weeks on a beautiful beach next to the crystal-clear ocean with delicious food and drink on demand was nothing short of heaven.

“Told you you were slow,” Jordan joked as we pushed open the doors of The White Horse, making our way into the cool interior of the pub. It was already packed, the nice weather driving everyone out to find the nearest source of alcohol.

“Hugo, over here!” Christian’s voice called from the corner. I turned my head to see several tables all pushed together. David, Christian, Liam, and his fiancée Ali were all seated around them. We maneuvered our way through the crowd, Jordan pushing through first and giving people pointed looks when they tried to block my path. I flopped down into a comfy chair at the end of one of the tables.

“You made it,” Christian said. He was tucked into the corner next to me, and David had already gotten up to pull Kit into a ferocious hug, already talking his ear off about something—probably the house.

“We did. Thanks for getting a table.”

“Sorry it’s not outside,” Christian said. “It’s already pretty packed and hard to get through.”

“It’s fine,” I said, a little wave of guilt washing over me as I wondered if I was the reason we couldn’t sit in the beer garden, since I still found stairs tricky.

“I’m glad we’re in here,” Kit said as he flopped onto a small stool on my other side having wrestled himself free of David’s death grip. “I burn terribly quickly, and I’d rather my skin didn’t match my hair!”

“You’re not the only one,” Ali said with a smile from her seat at the other end. “Liam looks like a lobster if he stays out in the sun too long.”

“That’s not true,” Liam protested, although the pink tint to his skin begged to differ.

“Yes, it is. Remember Italy? I told you you needed to put sunscreen on.”

“Mate, you were so burnt,” Jordan said as he slid a couple of glasses across the table towards the couple. “You looked like a fucking tomato.” Liam grumbled something into his beer while Ali laughed.

“What do you guys want to drink?” Jordan asked, turning to Kit and I.

“Just a Diet Coke,” I said.

“Same please,” said Kit. He was already deep in conversation with David again about something I couldn’t catch, animatedly gesturing with his hands. It was adorable to watch, his enthusiasm lighting his face up in the most beautiful way.

I couldn’t deny my feelings for him, but his reasoning for turning me down had made me more sad than anything else. The way his expression had fallen and his careful explanation had made me want to pull him into a hug and promise him the world. He seemed determined to deny himself a chance at happiness, as if he believed he didn’t deserve it. I just wished he’d given me the opportunity to prove him wrong. But I was never going to pressure him. The ball was in his court, and if he just wanted to be friends, so be it. That would be enough for me.

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