Page 183 of Off the Pitch

“I’m just concerned. I worry about you. I mean, you don’t even have a house.”

“Not true,” I countered. “I have many houses.”

I’d never told my brother I’d kept the flat in Lisbon. He thought I’d sold it when everything went south with my football career, and I’d declared drunkenly that I was never returning to Portugal. I’d thought about selling it many times, but I’d never been able to bring myself to part with it. It was like I was holding onto a part of my life that I couldn’t bear to let go. It represented what could have been.

“You don’t have one you live in permanently.”

“I don’t need one,” I shot back. “I’m never in one place long enough.”

“Why not? Don’t you want to put down roots?”

“That’s boring,” I groaned. “Life is too short to be stuck somewhere.”

Why was it that whenever I was around my brother, I always felt like I was a child again? He’d always been more serious and responsible, but these days I wanted to lean as hard as possible the other way just because he always made me feel so small.

“Fine, fine. I won’t argue with you,” Lucas said.

“Thank God.” I did a little fist pump, and he sighed. “Cheer up. I have a surprise for you.”

“Oh? Do I want to know?”

“Yes! I’m going to stay for Christmas. At least, if you want me to.”

“Really?” Lucas’s eyes went wide, and he smiled. I hoped I wasn’t going to end up with too many lectures just because he now had an opportunity to see me every day. I wasn’t one of his players. I was old enough to make my own stupid mistakes. “Don’t you have a tropical hotel and young men to get to?”

“Technically, yes, but I’ll cancel the hotel. The young men are trickier, but I’m sure they’ll survive without me.” Lucas shook his head but didn’t say anything. My preference for flings and one-night stands was another vaguely sore spot between us, but apparently he’d decided to leave that for today as well. Even though I would have given him virtually the same answer about men as I had about houses—life was too short to be stuck with one man.

“Anyway, Lara asked me to stay, and I couldn’t say no to her. I’ve also been asked to save the environment, which is nearly too much commitment for one day,” I said wryly.

“Well,” said Lucas, giving me a small smile over the edge of his coffee cup, “at least it’s a start.”

Chapter Four

February

#shit

Jordan

“What the fuck was that, man?” I yelled, grinning as Liam shot me a dirty look from the other side of the training pitch.

“My impression of you!”

“You wish.”

“True. If I was doing that, I’d have missed by fucking miles,” Liam called, retrieving the ball from where it had ended up after his pass had spun wide.

We were all wrapped up against the freezing February wind, doing passing drills and working on our speed, even though most of us would rather be in the gym instead. But Alex, the assistant head coach and all-around taskmaster, had said that wasn’t on the agenda, so we were all outside, freezing our nuts off instead.

He’d said it could’ve been worse. And considering he’d made us train in the pouring rain before, I knew it could’ve been. It still sucked ass being out here though when the toasty training centre was so close by.

“You with me?” Liam asked, passing a ball swiftly to my left foot. It drew my attention back to what I was supposed to be doing.

“Yeah, yeah,” I said. “I was just giving you a moment to recover. You looked outta breath. You’re getting old, man.”

“What the fuck?” Liam grinned. “I’m not old.

“Please,” I snorted. “You’re like twenty-six. Practically fucking ancient.”

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