Page 4 of The Hooker

And I don’t know why my right hand always feels warmer and tingles until I fall asleep. It doesn’t matter if I shower or workout after he does it.

I always fall asleep with one hand warmer than the other.

CHAPTERTWO

Jamie

I don’t remember when I fell in love with Daisy. It just kind of…happened.

One night, after a brutal test match against Ireland, she drove me home and smiled at me like she always does. Her pale skin practically illuminated by the streetlights, freckles sprinkled across her nose, brown hair damp from the storm, curling around the edges of her cap, and I squeezed her hand at the end of our handshake. When I walked inside, I closed the door behind me and realised my heart was pounding and my hands were sweaty, and all I wanted to do was go out to the driveway, pull her car door open and kiss her.

She’d left by then.

I stood in the hallway for ten minutes with the lights off, which I hadn’t even realised until the next day when she asked why I didn’t turn the veranda light on like I usually do. I’d stumbled out an excuse, and she’d looked at me funny and I realised what the feeling was in my chest.

Love.

I’min lovewith the assistant physiotherapist for the national rugby team I play for.

To say I’m fucked is an understatement.

If I knew how she felt, it wouldn’t be so bad. All we’d need to do is sign the declaration of personal relationship form with management and Adam would treat me instead of her. Unfortunate, because I prefer Daisy, but if it meant I could date her, I wouldn’t care.

But…she’s never given me any indication of her feelings outside of friendship, and if that’s all I can have, then I’ll take it. Friends we’ll be until she finds someone else to love and leaves me behind to carpool with her partner and forgets I exist.

It’s not like we spend much time together outside of work besides texting about TV shows and seeing each other around the neighbourhood.

Not like we get much time to do anything besides footy, which was how I liked it. Until Daisy started driving me home from games and leaving me in my empty house while she went back up the road to her dog.

“Fucking pathetic.” I shake my head at my coffee, drink the dregs, and grab my gear to start the day.

It’s my turn to drive, and we’re dropping her dog at her brother’s before we head to training. It’s out of the way, and we have to leave earlier, but it means I get more time with her. More time to talk to her and smell her fresh scent and have cuddles with her little ruby Cavalier King Charles spaniel. Cuddles with Daisy would be better, but I’ll take cuddles with the dog over nothing.

She got Westley in the off-season and doesn’t like leaving him alone for so long. Luckily, her brother’s family moved closer and his wife works from home and offered to look after him when we’re overseas or have long training days.

I understand why she cracked and got him. It’s lonely working long hours and leaving the country for weeks when you don’t have anyone to come home to. It makes her life more complicated, but she fell in love with him when she saw a breeder advertisement on TradeMe when she was looking for a car and couldn’t imagine her life without him, so here we are making accommodations for her puppy who she essentially co-parents with her brother’s family. Thankfully, her niece has learned to pat Westley gently. For a few weeks there, I thought her entire family was going to break apart.

I open the gate to her garden and make sure it’s closed firmly behind me so Westley doesn’t escape, and knock on the ranchslider.

Daisy appears and gestures for me to come in, and I step into her space. It’s decorated in light blue and reminds me of the ocean. Westley skitters on the linoleum floor and yips hello. His tail wags so quickly he falls over. I bend to scratch behind his ears, and Daisy slips his lead on while I’m distracting him.

She’s braided her hair away from her face and hasn’t put her cap on yet so I can see her whiskey eyes. She’s in the uniform the staff wear, a loose black tracksuit in rainproof material. Long sleeves and long pants, the only skin showing are her hands and face; she’d freeze otherwise with how small she is. Unfortunately, it covers her toned arms and round ass, but I shouldn’t be looking at her like that, anyway.

I’m wearing the pink jersey and black shorts the players wear to train, unity and all that shit, and always have more skin showing than her. I prefer the cold and overheat easily, especially when I’m pressed against other guys in a scrum. And Daisy always focuses on my arms when I wear short sleeves. Or at least I think she does.

“You ready?”

“Yep.” She grabs her bags by the door, and I take Westley’s lead from her so she doesn’t trample the dog under all her stuff.

I open the boot, keep Westley away from our feet, and take the bags from her, piling them on top of mine.

I round the car to open the passenger door for her, and when she’s seated, I pick up Westley and settle him on her lap.

I pull into the quiet street and turn the corner towards her brother’s. Daisy lifts the takeaway cup I left for her in the cup holder and takes a sip. She drinks a green thing called matcha that tastes like grass before switching to coffee when we get to training. She laughed in my face when I tried it, and if I hadn’t been trying to avoid puking all over the steering wheel, I would have enjoyed her wide smile. If I have time in the mornings, I try to grab her some from our local café.

She’s quiet this morning, staring out the window and absently running her fingers through Westley’s silky coat. Sometimes if she has a restless night, she’s quieter, the same way I’m quieter after a game.

My phone rings through the bluetooth system when we’re ten minutes away from her brother’s, and I glance at who it is. “Do you mind if I answer?” I ask. “It’s Mum.”

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