Page 41 of Payback
My eyes brighten. “Exciting! I haven’t been to many either, so we can fangirl together.”
Sloan smiles at the two of us commiserating before handing me a Bethnal Green shopping bag. “Throw this on over your blouse.” She smiles and waggles her eyebrows.
“Thank you for picking this up. What do I owe you?” I ask, pulling out a white official-looking jersey from the bag.
“Don’t bother. I already tried to pay for mine and was shut down,” Freya states with an eye roll.
Sloan helps me put the jersey on over my hair, and I smooth out the expensive-feeling fabric over my hips. Gareth frowns curiously at the back of it.
“Did I get something on it?” I ask, reaching around but my attention is completely diverted when loud music erupts in the stadium.
The Bethnal Green F.C. team marches out onto the field, and the first person I spot is Uncle Vaughn. I feel a sense of pride at the sight of him down there looking all serious in his buttoned-up polo as he walks alongside the coach. Off to the side of them is Indie, who is impossible to miss with her neon green glasses and curly red hair piled on top of her head. She smiles and waves at our section, and we all wave right back.
My eyes scan through the players as they spread out on the field for their final warm-up before the match starts. I feel a pang of guilt when I realise I’m not looking for my cousins.
I’m looking for Roan.
I finally find him, his bronze skin contrasting beautifully against his crisp white uniform as he nods at something Mac says. His muscles are flexed and on full display beneath the tight fit of his jersey. I can even see those enormous quads of his peeking out from under his shorts.
I thought he looked fuckworthy for the shoot the other day, but I was wrong. In his uniform like this, with an intense look in his eyes and his focus on the match he’s preparing for…This is Roan’s fuckworthy look.
He takes a warm-up pass, and I can’t help but notice how powerful he looks out there, like he’s ready to take on the world. As if he feels me staring at him, his eyes move through the crowd and land right on me. He doesn’t wave or give me any physical indication of noticing me. He just stares at me with a look that says, “I see you, mooi.”
I do my best to hide the flush I feel all over my body from my family. Although, it’s not the girls I’m worried about noticing. It’s Gareth, who seems to be watching me very closely.
The players line up on their spots for the start of the game, and it’s that moment that Vi yells over all the loud cheering, “Oh, Allie, did I tell you?”
“Tell me what?” I ask, angling my ear so I can hear her better.
“I set you up with a date for tonight.”
My face falls and I turn to look at her in confusion. “With who?”
She smiles at Sloan before turning her attention to me. “With Roan.”
“Roan?” Gareth barks in unison with me. But all of our attention is diverted because kickoff has just happened, and Tanner is driving up the field, fast and furious.
I do my best to calm my heart that’s pounding in my chest like a jackhammer over the idea of being up close and personal with Roan again. I just started feeling like I could breathe for the first time since the night we went out for drinks. Now he’s going to come in and turn me inside out.
That’s a problem because the more time I spend with Roan, the more time Iwantto spend with Roan. He’s funny, and sexy, and charming in a way that’s so utterly believable. And he’s ten times more perceptive than I ever took him for the night we met. Frankly, it’s frustrating because I know we’re a bad idea. I know that after the awful thing I did, getting close to him isn’t wise. Any relationship that starts off with a lie like the one I’m hiding is doomed to fail. But he and my family seem bound and determined to shove us together at any available opportunity, making it really hard for me to resist him.
I put Roan in the back of my mind to focus on the match, which is a real nail-biter, and not only because of what happens on the pitch.
The most interesting spectacle to watch is what happens in the stands.
Gareth, Sloan, Vi, Hayden, Belle, and Poppy all morph from normal, society-functioning humans into rabid beasts that are being teased with a slab of bloody, fresh meat. Even Freya seems to be losing her mind along with them. I begin to wonder if it’s a British thing, a Harris thing, or if I’ve somehow missed out on some sort of Incredible Hulk green elixir that everyone shot up before the match. Whatever it is has turned them all from loving, supportive people to vicious, I’ll-cut-a-bitch, terrorists.
I’m so terrified of getting my hand bitten off that I remain completely silent through the entire game as they scream obscenities at the ref and call out the players who should be passed to. At one point, Vi stands on her chair and screams at her dad to have the coach put Lionel in the game. I don’t know who Lionel is, but according to Vi, he’s the best centre back they have and Booker is getting nailed out there.
During the second half, Vi starts a chant that the entire stadium joins in on. It’s such a powerful sight, I actually get tears in my eyes. It’s even more awesome because it was all started by this little blonde powder-puff of a woman who isthatpassionate about her brothers’ soccer careers.
With only a couple of minutes left in the game, Roan takes a bad tackle to the leg. Luckily, he gets right up and is seemingly unharmed, but Indie isn’t pleased. She’s flailing at the ref like another adorable little psychopath, and I begin to grow worried about her blood pressure.
The game finally ends in Bethnal Green’s favour thanks to Roan’s successful penalty shot at the end. Watching him celebrate his game-winning shot with Tanner and the rest of his teammates gives me the most intense goosebumps of my life.
After the game, Vi leads us all through a door that’s guarded by security. “Let’s go congratulate the boys and then there’s a place where we can all change,” she says as we grab our bags from the security officers and make our way through the hallways.
The smell of sweat becomes strong as we meet head-on with the other team that is slinking into their changing room. One of the players stops Gareth to say hello, but I continue following the rest of them, who have found the boys, talking to the press.
