Page 11 of Anteros' Return
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It’s Beckett.
Present day
I stood in the middle of the pitch as I let the rain wash away my thoughts. I had arrived at the kids’ training early, wanting to get out of the house. I loved my parents, but they were completely overbearing since I arrived home.
“Shit weather, ain’t it?” Daniel joked from behind. “Bet it ain’t like this in Spain!”
“You can say that again.” I stepped beneath his umbrella before he handed me a takeaway cup of something warm. Probably coffee.
“You alright? You seemed pretty out of it a minute ago.”
“I’m good, mate. All good.” I didn’t know how much of that sentence was true, but I’d roll with it until I had no other choice but to give it attention.
As we turned back to walk to meet the kids, I came face to face with little Liam, who wore a scowl, his face like thunder.
“Are you still here?” He scoffed, obviously he hadn’t done enough talking yesterday.
“You back then?” I teased, hoping that today would be better than the previous one.
“Wow, aren’t you observant?” Liam tutted on an eye roll.
I reared back, his words acting like two tiny palms that slapped me in the face.
“Liam, are we going to have a repeat of Monday?” Daniel sternly asked. He wasn’t taking any shit from him today.
“How about we try and get along, and you listen to the advice I plan on giving you?” I offered.
“Erm, no thanks.” Liam grabbed a ball from the ball bag, dribbling round the cones with ease.
“Looks like he’s staying on the bench then?” I asked Daniel as Liam worked the ball like he had years of experience behind him.
“Too bloody right he’s staying on the bench. I ain’t having it.” Daniel sipped his coffee. “So, when does the cast come off?”
“Hopefully next week, then I can start my physio and see how long that’s going to take.”
“You going back to Spain for it?”
“I don’t know. The team has arranged it that way, but they also understand why I want to stay elsewhere while I work on getting my fitness back.” I was thankful they understood. Many teams wouldn’t have.
“If you need anything, I can give you a hand.”
“You can?” I was taken aback. I didn’t know Daniel much at all.
“I’m a physio, that’s actually my day job. This is just something I enjoy on the side.” Daniel smiled.
“I might just take you up on that offer, especially if you can get me back on that pitch in record time.”
“One step at a time, and I promise the comeback will be worth it.” And with that, I believed him. I truly felt as though he wanted to help me. Maybe it was the way he spoke that made me feel like I wasn’t as alone in this as I thought. “Right, let’s get this session out of the way and we can go for a pint and discuss the next steps.”
“I like the sound of that.”
Daniel let me take control of the session. The rain didn’t bother the team as they started working on their drills. Helping them made me feel as though I was doing something good, something right.
“Liam, are you not training tonight? You’re just gonna sit on the sidelines, mate?” I called to a drenched kid sitting on a ball, sulking. “And what’s that face for?”
“Shut up,” he sneered, rain droplets running down his face. “Just go away!”
