Striker (68 page)

Chapter Thirty

Amber knocked quietly on the door of her dad’s office, slowly pushing it open. She felt sick. The nerves had taken hold on the drive over to his club’s training ground and they showed no signs of abating any time soon, but she had to do this. Before the press got hold of everything and took it into their own hands. The last thing she wanted was for him to find out anything else about her and Jim’s relationship from a newspaper.

‘How are you today?’ Freddie Sullivan asked, not looking up from his computer as Amber walked into the office, closing the door behind her.

‘I’m… fine. Are
you
okay?’

‘Well,’ He looked up from his laptop, his eyes fixed firmly on Amber, ‘… apart from the fact I’ve just found out my best friend started sleeping with my daughter just days after she turned sixteen, I’m fine. You here for a reason?’

Amber took a deep breath. This really
wasn’t
going to be easy. ‘Dad, I… I’m sorry. For everything that happened, but it wasn’t entirely Jim’s fault…’

‘No. I know it wasn’t,’ Freddie said, slipping his glasses onto his nose and turning his attention back to his laptop. ‘You were a very grown-up sixteen-year-old, Amber. Possibly a little naive, but I’m sure you knew exactly what you were doing. He was the adult. At the time.’ He looked at Amber again. ‘
He
should have known better. You were still a child.’

She looked out of the window, at the grey sky and the naked trees that shook slightly in the cold wind. It was a dull and depressing day, yet she didn’t see that. She felt as though every day was a beautiful day now, and that was because she finally got to wake up next to Jim, and stay there. Nobody had to run off or hide away or leave as soon as the sex was over. She could lie in his arms and make those plans she’d always wanted to make but had never had the chance to, until now. She just had to make her father realise that Jim made her happy. He was the only one who
could
make her happy. She knew that now.

‘I thought we’d been through all of this, Dad…’

‘Yes, we have. But do you have any idea how it feels for me to look at him now and think about what you two... What you and him… You were sixteen-years-old, Amber. You were still my baby girl, do you get that? You were my little girl, and
he
was having sex with you.’

She winced slightly at her dad’s words, turning away from him as she spoke. ‘We’re getting married, Dad.’ It was the best way to deal with this situation. Just come straight out with it. Skirting around the issue wasn’t going to help matters. Her father was never going to be jumping through hoops at the news so what was the point in trying to make it any easier or drag it out for any longer?

Freddie Sullivan looked up at Amber again, sliding his glasses down to the end of his nose as he did so. ‘Married?’

‘Me and Jim,’ she sighed, leaning back against the window sill. ‘We’re getting married.’

‘You… I didn’t even know you and him… You’re
together
?’

She nodded. ‘I love him, Dad.’

Freddie started searching through his drawers for something. Whether he needed that “something” or not Amber couldn’t quite work out. ‘You don’t love him. You just think you do. You were infatuated with him, that’s all.’ He found whatever he’d been looking for and slammed the drawer shut, looking straight at her. ‘It’s time to grow up, Amber. You’re not sixteen anymore.’

‘No, I’m an adult, Dad, and regardless of what you think I know my own mind, okay? And I know that the only man I’ve ever loved is Jim…’

‘I brought that man into my house,’ Freddie interrupted, ‘… over twenty years ago, and what does he do? He takes my teenage daughter to bed, turns her head, and this is what happens! You’re not marrying him, Amber. I won’t allow it.’

‘I’m sorry?’ Amber laughed, folding her arms, unable to believe what she’d just heard. ‘You won’t
allow
it? I might be missing something here, but, when did we become Amish?’

‘Don’t be flippant, Amber.’

‘You can’t tell me who I can and can’t marry, Dad. And I didn’t come here to ask your permission. I came here to tell you what was going on myself before Jim and I go public.’

‘Go
public
?’

She nodded, not looking forward to telling him the next bit of news, either. ‘We’re flying out to
Spain
in a few days. Jim, he’s… he’s been offered the manager’s job at
Malaga
Athletico…’

‘Whoa, hold on there, rewind a bit.’ Freddie got up from behind his desk and walked out in front, leaning back against it. ‘
Malaga
Athletico? But, he picked Red Star over them, didn’t he?’

‘Apparently so.’

Freddie stared at his daughter, waiting for her to finish the story.
 

‘We need a fresh start, Dad. Away from here. Away from the past, from the prying eyes and the press intrusion and… and Ryan.’

Freddie looked down at the ground for a second, scuffing his trainers against the front of his battered old desk. ‘Yeah, you sure can pick ‘em, sweetheart.’ He looked back up at her. ‘Why couldn’t you and Ronnie have worked something out, huh? You two made such a beautiful couple. Why couldn’t you two have stayed together?’

‘We were never really in love, Dad. Not with each other. I’ve never felt that way about Ronnie and he’s never felt that way about me, and anyway, stop changing the subject.’

‘So, you and Jim are getting married then nipping off to
Spain
to live happily ever after sipping sangria on the terrace of your millionaire’s mansion, is that it?’

‘Now who’s being flippant? Y’know, I could’ve just gone ahead with all of this without telling you a thing, given the way you feel about Jim…’

‘I’m surprised you didn’t. Why change the habit of a lifetime?’

She looked away, over her shoulder, out of the window. ‘I didn’t ask for any of this, and I certainly didn’t want it to turn out this way, but…’

‘It did. And I think we all need to start dealing with it like grown-ups, don’t you?’

Both Freddie and Amber looked over to where Jim stood in the office doorway, his hands in the pockets of his trademark dark suit, his eyes covered by the aviator shades he always wore. Even in the midst of this less-than-comfortable situation Amber thought he looked hot. He looked handsome and sexy and she couldn’t stop the memory of the shower they’d shared that morning from flooding her head, a beautiful shiver crawling up her spine that was making her thighs tingle and her stomach jump about.

‘I’d prefer it if you didn’t tell me how to handle this situation,’ Freddie said, his eyes following Jim as he walked over to Amber, sliding an arm around her waist and leaning in to whisper something in her ear, which did nothing to calm her somersaulting stomach, her thighs tingling even more the second he touched her.

‘You okay, honey?’ he asked, squeezing her waist, sending what felt like a million tiny electric shocks coursing right through her.

She nodded, but she wasn’t okay. Not really. How could she be when her relationship with her dad – the man she loved more than anything in the world – was so strained? They’d always been so close, and now this threatened to tear them apart, and she hated that. But she couldn’t – she
wouldn’t
walk away from Jim, or let
him
walk away from
her,
not again.
 

‘Both Amber’s mother and I trusted you, Jim.’

‘We’ve already been through this, Dad…’

‘And we’ll go over it again, Amber. My choice.’ He looked straight at Jim. ‘Her mother and I trusted you. Yet you reeled her in…’

‘He didn’t “reel” me in, Dad. Jesus…’

‘You took my sixteen-year-old little girl and you… I carry that image around in my head all the time now, are you both aware of that? Hmm? This image of my best friend having sex with
my
little girl and no matter how hard I try, I can’t get rid of it.’

Jim squeezed Amber’s waist again, looking down at the ground for a few seconds, letting Freddie’s words sink in. ‘I really am sorry. For the way things turned out.’ He looked up at Freddie. ‘We didn’t exactly go about things the right way.’

‘You shouldn’t have touched her, Jim.’

‘I wanted him to, Dad. You have to believe that. It was
me
who instigated sex,
me
who wanted to sleep with him. It was
me
. And yes, maybe I
was
infatuated with him, at first, I can’t deny that. He was this handsome, sexy older man, this famous footballer, and he was best friends with my dad! What sixteen-year-old girl
wouldn’t
be infatuated by that? I wanted him from the second I saw him…’

‘I don’t want to hear this, Amber…’

‘From the second I saw him I wanted him. More than I’d ever wanted anything, and I don’t care if nobody understands how that feels, because
I
know. And, yes, he hurt me. He hurt me like you wouldn’t believe, but all the time I was away at University he was still there, in my head, like some movie playing on repeat that I couldn’t switch off. So when I came back home, and he was there, and he was single again… He wanted me, too, and I
know
I should have been strong enough to walk away because, if I had, then there’s a possibility that none of this would have happened, but…’ She looked up into Jim’s eyes, and it was as though a waterfall of emotions were cascading through her, overwhelming her, almost, ‘… but I’m glad I was weak. I’m glad.’

‘Even when he walked out on you a second time?’ Freddie asked, throwing a quick glance in Jim’s direction.

‘I need him, Dad. And I need
you
to understand that. We’re together, and it doesn’t matter whether you approve or not, that’s the way it is. The way it’s going to be. But I love you, so much, and I really don’t want this to get in the way of our relationship. I don’t want that, Dad.’

Amber felt hot tears sting the back of her eyes, looking at Jim in the hope that would stop them from falling, but all it did was make them escape faster.

Jim leaned forward, kissing her mouth, his thumb gently wiping the tears from her cheek.

‘I can’t pretend I’m happy about this,’ Freddie sighed, watching his daughter in the arms of his best friend. A man he’d once trusted. A man who’d betrayed that trust. But a man who, quite obviously, loved Amber. And
she
loved
him
. So who was he to stand in the way of her happiness? ‘But I guess I’ve got no choice. Have I?’

Jim looked over at Freddie, his arm still tight around Amber’s waist. ‘I’ve loved her for over twenty years, Freddie.’

‘Well, you had a bloody funny way of showing it for most of them, Jim.’

‘I know. I know I did, but… Look, maybe it’s time to stop raking over the past and move forward. We can’t change anything that happened back then, but we
can
make sure the future is a good one. And all I want to do is make Amber happy. That’s all I’ve ever wanted. And now I’ve finally got the chance to do that.’

Freddie looked from one of them to the other, shaking his head, his arms still folded against him in a slightly disapproving manner. ‘The pair of you should have had your heads banged together a long time ago,’ he sighed. ‘So, Amber tells me you’re flying out to
Spain
to look into the manager’s job at Malaga Athletico. You’re taking my little girl away from me, then?’

‘Nothing’s set in stone,’ Jim replied, silencing his phone as it rang from within the confines of his jacket pocket. ‘I haven’t even spoken to the Red Star board yet, and I don’t intend to until I’ve checked things out over there. But I think Amber and I… I think we need a new start. Wherever that turns out to be.’

‘There’s a lot to talk about. A lot to sort out,’ Amber smiled, directing her words to her father, but looking at Jim when she spoke. ‘All I know is that, somehow, we’ll work this out. And then I might finally get that happy-ever-after I always dreamed about.’

*

‘Shit!’ Ryan said, slamming the empty glass back down on the table, even though most of it had ended up down the front of his shirt rather than in his mouth. ‘Get another round in, Gaz, come on! Speed it up a bit, mate. I’m dying of thirst over here!’

‘You need to calm him down,’ Debbie hissed at
Gary
as he got another round of drinks in at the casino bar. ‘He’s on a hiding to nothing over there. Have you seen the state of him?’

‘What do you want me to do, Debs? Carry him home?’

‘If that’s what it takes.’

‘Don’t be so fucking stupid. What are you still doing here, anyway? I thought you were meeting the girls at ten-thirty?’

‘I am. I’m just not sure I should leave you alone, I mean, we’ve been here before, haven’t we?’

‘Jesus, Debbie, I think I can handle a pissed Ryan Fisher. And this is tame compared to some of the states he’s been in.’

‘You think so? He’s not safe to be left on his own,
Gary
.’

  
‘He’s not
on
his own, though, is he?’
Gary
said, indicating the group of girls who’d draped themselves over Ryan in the corner booth they were sitting in.