Playing Dirty(68)

“And?” I raised my eyebrows. “Is he sure now?”

She shook her head. “I don’t think he has much of an idea,” she replied. “He said there’s a meeting with all of the producers at the end of the week, and then he’d get back to me and let me know. But….” She paused and let out a sigh. “But since I talked to Josh the way I did, it’s possible that he could sway everyone into voting against me. It was stupid for me to ever be involved with him.”

“I feel your pain, trust me. I never should have gotten involved with Hannah.” I said, rolling my eyes. “She’s tried to ruin my life more times than I can count. And yours, too, if I might add.”

“Yeah. Hey!” Kate suddenly said as she pointed towards the muted TV. “There we are!”

I groaned as I saw the caption beneath the footage: “Hunky Footballer Jay Walsh Steps In!” Reaching forward, I tried to turn the TV off, but Kate held up her hand.

“As disgustingly crass as it is for the reporters to cash in on you doing that,” she said. “It’ll do your reputation good, Jay. You could probably use that, to be honest, after that whole drug rehab scandal.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m sure Hannah will find a way to twist it somehow,” I replied. “Just give her time. She’ll come up with something. She always does.”

“Well, at least she doesn’t have my career to trash anymore,” she said. She kept her voice light, but I was impressed with how she was dealing with things. I had a feeling that before she’d met me, she’d controlled her image tightly. This had to have thrown a wrench in her plans to have a spotless career, but she was taking it like a champ.

“Come here,” I said, patting a spot of floor next to where I sat. “I want to snuggle with my girlfriend.”

Kate smiled. “After the horrible day we’ve had, I like the sound of that,” she said as she lowered herself down and rested her head against my shoulder. “I like the sound of that a lot.”



***



The next few days were incredible. I barely let Kate out of my sight; she went back to Lizzy’s to drop off some of her things and reunite with her sister, but aside from that, we were together all the time. The season was almost over and when I finished, I’d be able to spend every morning with her. I was so excited—I felt like a little kid waiting for a holiday.

Even though I hadn’t been thrilled to see Kate and myself on the news, helping out at Manchester Airport, I couldn’t deny that she’d been right. It was good for my reputation—now all of the tabloids were calling me the “Hunky Helper” instead of whatever slang they could come up with after all of Hannah’s little articles. Even my coach was impressed—he’d slapped me on the back and told me I’d done a good job. My mates teased me, naturally, but after a stern look they calmed down.

“Shut up, you lot could do well to learn something from Jay,” Coach had snapped one afternoon when my mates couldn’t stop calling me Hunky Helper. I’d just grinned. It felt better than I’d expected it would to be recognized for something nice.

One morning, a few days later, Kate burst into the bathroom when I was in the shower. She grinned at me and tossed her hair back over her shoulders, and just the sight of her was enough to make my mouth go dry; after dating countless women over the years, somehow Kate managed to excite me every day. I wanted to spend the rest of my life staring at her, looking deep into her green eyes and wondering how I’d gotten so bloody lucky.

“I got an email from the producers,” she said after knocking on the glass door of the shower. “I haven’t read it yet. Can you come sit with me?”

I nodded. “Of course,” I called. “I’ll be right out.”

Suddenly, my heart was pounding in my chest, and I grinned to myself. I couldn’t believe it—I’d never been nervous for another person before, and here I was.

Oh, well. As they say…there’s a first time for everything.





Chapter Twenty-Four

Kate



I paced nervously from one end of the room to the other as I waited for Jay to get out of the shower. The past few days had flown by, and I was jolted out of whatever happy, warm place I’d been in when I saw the subject line from my producers.

My heart was pounding in my chest. Somewhere in my inbox lay the keys to my future. I was afraid to open the email without Jay by my side, and it didn’t even occur to me to feel embarrassed if the news was anything less than amazing. I knew he’d be supportive of me no matter what it was.