Page 69 of Blindsided By You

On the other half of the pitch, the Duncraig team mirrors them, confidently flipping a ball around, while ignoring their Cluanie opposition. The message is clear: we’re not threatened by you.

Our boys are a burly lot, but a couple of their blokes are man-shaped mountains. I offer a prayer that Geordie’s speed will keep him out of their clutches. Bruises from last week’s match still bloom mauve and yellow across the gold of his stomach and ribs. No doubt tonight there’ll be more, but hopefully no broken bones. Geordie would be gutted to have his season cut short by injury.

“No doubt the blue and white will be taking home the win today,” Laura says, a proud smile on her face as her eldest son, Todd finds his mother in the crowd. The scrum half is a cocky wee rooster of a lad, known for his scrappy attitude. He waves up at Laura with a confident grin before strutting back to join the warm-up.

My phone vibrates in my pocket. I retrieve it, glancing at the screen with a frown. The last thing I need is a client with an urgent problem. This game is the only important thing on my calendar today and I don’t want to miss it. But the name on the screen is not a client—it’s my boss. Well, former boss, I suppose, though even now I don’t dare to ignore a call from Kieran MacGregor, CEO of the Highlanders.

“Kieran, hi.” I clasp my phone tight to my ear to drown out the sound of the crowd.

“Where the hell are you? Lots of background noise.”

“I’m at a match. Five minutes from kick-off.”

“Surprised to hear so much noise from a local crowd. And for a small town team.”

I stiffen at the faint derisory note in his voice. Pride and defensiveness surge in me. These lads may be small town, but the guys shambling across the field below me are as dedicated as they come, as hungry to win as the flashy players in the pro teams. Maybe more so when you’re not playing for the money, butwith your heart.

“Big turn out,” I say. “The whole town’s here. That’s how we do things up north.”

Kieran has lived all his life in Glasgow, so even the clubs he played for in his youth had a city veneer. He needs to come up here if he really wants to understand rugby.

“Well, I need to see if I can tempt you away from the bright lights of Cluanie. Listen, Jenna, the place has gone to hell while you’re away.”

As the referee strides onto the field, his jersey a gaudy slash of pink, the crowd’s mutterings become a clatter drowning out Kieran’s next words.

“What’s that?” I raise my voice.

“I said we need you back. Not in November. Now. What do you say? I’ll even add in a little bonus as a sweetener. Few thousand pounds. A bit of cash to spend on some shopping, maybe? I know you won’t have been doing too much of that up there.”

I bite my tongue, holding back a sharp retort. Shopping? That’s what he thinks I’d spend a bonus on? Not the mortgage on my apartment, or upgrading my car, or even just saving it because that’s what sensible people do with money. Certainly not investing it back into my new business, which has already attracted more clients in six months than I’d dared hope. Typical of a man like Kieran to assume a woman’s first thought would be clothes and shoes.

And that little dig about ‘up there’—the subtle contempt in his voice when he talks about Cluanie, as if civilisation ends at Glasgow’s city limits. As if I’ve been stranded in some cultural wasteland, desperate for retail therapy.

I feel the comfortable press of Grant and Laura flanking me. I soak up the comforting blanket of the hometown crowd wrapped around me.

Below me, Skylar and her friend jump up and down, enthusiastically waving the “BRANDON BOOTS IT BEST” sign she made in our office yesterday afternoon.

My gaze sweeps across the field and there’s Geordie, his smile wide as he and Nathan jog forward to the halfway line where the two teams gather for the toss. As if he feels my gaze, he turns towards me, lifts his chin, and then—giving me a taste of my own medicine—shoots a mischievous wink. Something warm and certain settles in my chest. In that moment, my heart knows its decision.

Connor and the Duncraig captain step forward to meet the referee and the coin spins off his thumb, glittering in the sunlight, the future of the match perhaps hanging in those few seconds of flight. At the same time, I give Kieran the answer that determines my future, too.

The home crowd roars in approval as Cluanie wins the toss, and Connor elects to play into the brisk breeze in the first half, a tactical choice to face the challenge head-on while legs are fresh.

“I didn’t hear that,” Kieran yells down the line. “Say again.”

“I said I’m not coming back, Kieran.” I bellow back at him. “Not now. And not in November. You’ll have my resignation letter on your desk on Monday.”

My pulse quickens, not with doubt, but surety. I’m backing myself here, giving my fledgling business the space and attention it needs to fly. And I’m backing Geordie and me too. Our relationship is still new, still secret—fragile even—but I want to give it a chanceto be so much more.

Who would have thought Rachel’s pesky little brother would transform into the man running confidently across that field? Having found him again here in Cluanie after all these years, I’m not about to walk away before we’ve properly begun. I watch him take his place behind the kicker, shoulders squared, focused, and ready, oblivious to my decision that will change everything for us both.

Chapter 37

GEORDIE

Thegroundrushesupto meet me as my knee slams into the turf. My determined grip on his legs fells the Duncraig man like an unruly tree across the sideline, the ball in his hands spilling loose. I topple after him, jerking my head away from his flailing boot, only to faceplant in the mud. Musty earth fills my nostrils, and I taste the grit in my mouth. Ploughed by thirty pairs of rugby boots for nearly eighty minutes, the field’s looking worse for wear and so are we.

Evenly matched, the two sides have battled, seesawing between attack and defence. We’ve run in our share of points. Brandon Smith’s in top form, converting Brodie’s first half try, nailing three penalty goals, and adding a flashy drop goal. But sitting on seventeen points is not enough, with Duncraig matching our converted try, and their solid kicker landing five out of five penalties.

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