“So, there’s nothing going on?”
“Of course not! She’s like a little sister to me as well.” I shifted uncomfortably for a moment as an image of Yaz in her lycra popped unbidden into my mind.
“Fine.”
“That said, I think you should do something about her security and her risk-taking behaviour.”
“I’m not her father, Heath. She’s never taken well to me bossing her. Even my stepdad has a job of it.”
“Well, you could at least find out about this Brazil thing.”
“Yeah, right. I’m sure there’s nothing in it, though. She goes off on tangents all the time – it never actually comes to anything. Anyway, if she was thinking of going away, I’d have thought you’d be glad. She seems to piss you off something chronic recently.”
“She doesn’t piss me off.”
Max snorted. “Could have fooled me. Listen, I know Yaz can be an annoying little shit, but you should really lay off. If anything, it’s winding my missus up and Mia’s got enough going on.”
For some reason Max’s statement caused a flash of anger to shoot through me, so strong that I almost wanted to punch him in the face. “I don’t think she’s annoying.”
Max’s gave me a disbelieving look.
“You know as well as I do, Yaz has idolised your idiot self since she was a little scrap of a five-year-old. You didn’t seem to mind before, but now it just pisses you off. To be honest, she seems to find you just as annoying as you find her nowadays, so I don’t think you have to worry about discouraging her romantically anymore. Her days of mooning after you are finished. So you may as well try not to be such a bastard around her. Right?”
My mouth felt dry all of a sudden as I let Max’s words sink in.
“Right,” I managed to croak out. “I’d better go home and sleep. I’ve got another shift tonight.”
Yaz didn’t look up as I walked by Mia’s desk and I rubbed my chest absently to soothe the ache that seemed to have settled there as I strode for the exit.
Chapter 4
She looks amazing out there
Heath
“Are you sure this is okay?” Penny asked as we walked down from the car park to the beach. “They won’t mind me just turning up?”
“Course not,” I said as I slung my arm over her shoulder. She looked up at me with that quizzical look that Penny often wore, as if my casual affection was unexpected. It was the same look she’d given me yesterday at work when I asked if she wanted to come down to the beach rugby after work today. I didn’t see what was so bloody confusing. IlikedPenny. She met all my specifications for a girlfriend, therefore it made complete sense for me to invite her places. Yes, okay, maybe I hadn’t actually made any sort ofrealmove on her yet. It just never seemed to be the right time, or the atmosphere was off, or the setting wasn’t right. But that didn’t mean that I wasn’tgoingto make a move. Of course I was. I was Heath Markham, for God’s sake – Bournemouth’s answer to George Clooney. Maybe it was just because Penny was the woman I had decided I was going to be serious about that I was finding it hard to kick things off. Yes, that probably explained it.
“Any blighter can tip up and play. Anyway, I want you to meet everyone.” There it was again – that slightly baffled look. Before I could ask her about it, Teddy had jogged up to us and punched me in the arm.
“Ow, what was that for, you little shit?” I said as I slipped my arm from Penny’s shoulders so I could rub the biceps of my other one. “Don’t make me put you in a headlock again.” I reached up and ruffled his hair. When he tried to duck away, I got him in a partial headlock, but was nearly thrown to the ground for my trouble. Twelve-year-old Teddy had been a lot easier to mess with than this great big nineteen-year-old monster. “I thought you were still at uni.”
“Summer hols. Thought I’d come back to see the grumpy bastard. At least that way I get some of Mia’s cooking.”
Teddy was Max’s stepson. Kind of. Max had never actually been married to Teddy’s mother, but she’d moved in with him when Teddy was nine. When Teddy’s mum tired of the quiet life in Bournemouth and left for London, Teddy was fifteen and didn’t want to go with her. It’d been a rough road. Teddy had had a lot of abandonment issues, which he took out on Max for a while. Then two years ago Mia had arrived on the scene. Teddy had taught her self-defence and found out what it was like to put someone else’s needs above his own. That, combined with Max’s steadfast insistence that he wanted Teddy living with him, had helped Teddy to come out of the arsehole teenage stage. Now that Teddy was at uni, he came back down here any chance he could. I wasn’t convinced he saw his mother more than twice a year.
“Ted, this is Penny.”
“Oh right. Yeah, hi.” Unfortunately, despite the lack of genetic links, Ted seemed to have developed exactly the same social skills as his stepfather. His interactions with attractive women comprised unintelligible grunts and poor eye contact. Jesus, how was this kid surviving at uni? Did he see any action at all? I just had to hope that he’d found a charming wingman, just like his stepfather before him. (I swear that man owes me nearly all his undergraduate shags.)
“Come on, this way, Penny,” I said, brushing past Ted and leading Penny down towards the pitch.
“Oh dear, I thought there’d be more girls,” she murmured. I wasn’t used to Penny sounding nervous. She was always so self-assured. But then I only really interacted with her at work, and there she had every reason to be self-assured. Penny was an intensive care consultant and one of the most confident, capable people I knew.
“There’s usually a few here,” I muttered, scanning the beach for Yaz. Verity was in London. She’d told me there was some trouble with a bid they were competing for up there that wasn’t going so well. Max told me that “some billionaire tosspot was giving her gip”, whatever that meant.
“Don’t worry,” Mia said as she drew alongside us. Max had ordered her a smaller Sandbaggers top, but it still looked ridiculously large on her. “There’s no tackling and these great louts can’t shift their bulk very fast. We run rings around them. Hi, I’m Mia, you must be Penny. Max won’t let me play now with balls flying around.” Her hand went to her small bump.
