Page 74 of Dominate
I smile and wrap my arms around her. “Maybe someday.”
My eyes focus in on Gareth’s fitted red shirt, white shorts, and black and red socks. There’s an intensity in his eyes as he stares out at the crowd, but when he looks down at his tiny escort, his expression morphs to sweet affection. As if drawn to us like a magnet, Gareth straightens and spots me and Sophia in our section.
Sophia squeals, “Gareth sees us, Mummy!” She hoots out a cheer and swirls around to show him the back of her matching jersey that she begged me to buy for both of us.
She tugs on my shirt and, with a shrug, I twirl around and show him the back of mine, too. He laughs and waves back at us. Then he makes a peace sign with his hand and turns it so we can see his two red-painted nails. Sophia’s smile could light up a Christmas tree, she’s so happy. And that’s how she remains for the entire game.
For the next ninety minutes, Sophia, Brandi, and I have a blast watching the game and joining in with the chanting crowds. Sophia and I stuff our faces with chips while Brandi educates us about the game and the rivalry between Chelsea and Man U. This is the second time they’ve played each other, and Man U apparently walloped them when they first played each other in London a few months back.
The game is a smashing success for the most part, aside from the few minutes during halftime when I overhear some of the WAGs whispering behind us.
“She is a stylist?”
“Is that really how she dressed?”
“She’s styled for me before. She’s quite good.”
“That’s the one Gareth Harris attended a funeral with?”
“I wonder which other clients she slept with.”
“Better not be my husband.”
“I wonder whose child that really is.”
Brandi cuts them a scathing look, but I ignore them because Sophia didn’t hear their comments and the very last thing I want to do is spoil this day for her by drawing attention to the situation.
Back when I decided to jump all in with Gareth, I knew that I’d be under scrutiny from loads of people. That’s one thing marrying into the Coleridge family prepared me for quite well. I don’t think I fully considered that Sophia would be under a microscope as well, though.
The thought doesn’t sit well with me.
The game is a tense nail-biter, ending in a three-to-one victory for Man U. Gareth had a stellar block on a Chelsea player right at the end, and the two went toe-to-toe with some choice words that I really wished I could hear. It looked bad enough for me to cover Sophia’s eyes, but by the time she wrangled my hand off of her face, Gareth was walking away with a haunted expression in his eyes.
Brandi leads us to the gate entrance where the players will walk out after they’ve cleaned up. I can tell Sophia has fallen even more in love with football than she was before. The spirit of it growing inside of her with everything she sees.
As soon as the stadium doors open, several people rush the gate. I look over their heads to see it’s Gareth who’s stepped out first. He takes his time, signing programmes, shirts, arms, and papers. Whatever they have, he’s signing. He smiles and seems perfectly at ease with the attention.
When he finally reaches us, he ruffles Sophia’s hair and says, “That’s a great looking kit you have on there, Little Minnow. Want me to sign it?”
“Yes!” she beams excitedly and turns around so he can scrawl his name on the back of her jersey.
Clearly in his own little world, Gareth smiles up at me and asks, “Would you like me to sign yours as well?”
I smile and shake my head at him, murmuring so only he can hear. “You can sign something else later.”
He waggles his brows at me, then asks if we’d like to go out to celebrate. Sophia cheers with excitement as Gareth nods to a security officer to let us through the gate. I see photographers snapping photos as we turn to say our goodbyes to Brandi, who’s still waiting on Hobo.
We are all smiles as we follow Gareth to his car that’s parked in the player lot, but my thoughts are jolted in a different direction the moment Gareth closes Sophia in the backseat.
“I have to tell you something,” he says, grabbing my hand and walking me around to the passenger side door.
My eyes lock on his. “What is it?”
He swallows slowly and replies, “I think I remember something from the attack.”
I drive Sloan and Sophia to a restaurant that I know is kid-friendly and has loads of arcade games that Sophia can play while I talk to Sloan. As soon as we’re settled and the waitress has taken our orders, Sloan gives Sophia a nod of approval and she dashes off without hesitation.
Once she’s out of earshot, I lean in closely. “Remember when the doctor said that something may trigger my memory of the attack?”
