Page 39 of Playing for Keeps

Instead, I’d been consumed by jealousy.

The same kind of jealousy pulsing through me now just because Ethan had said something nice about her.

It was fucking ridiculous.

I was fucking ridiculous.

I stared ahead at the field as the game restarted. Watching the kids run around soothed me slightly.

Okay. So I was never going to be fully okay with the past. But as long as I wasn’t letting it get in the way of the future, then it would be all okay.

I reached out and grabbed Jonathan’s hand. He looked slightly startled, as I normally didn’t initiate PDA, but he happily held my hand while we watched the rest of Theo’s game.

Theo’s team had a break before their next game. They crowded around their coach, eating oranges while he did a debrief of the game.

Shit, watching Theo now, a streak of mud on his face, hands sticky with juice from an orange, I was struck by how much he looked like Ethan at the same age.

Theo laughed at something his coach said, and the familiar sound startled me.

“Oh god, he does have my laugh,” I said.

Ethan threw me a grin. “I told you. I thought it was a unique sound that the universe could never replicate, but apparently I was wrong.”

Theo came over to us then and we all gushed over the try he’d scored.

“You need a signature move for when you score a try,” Ethan told him. “Like the salute Uncle Luke used to do. It looked something like this.” Ethan gave a much exaggerated version of the salute I used to think was the epitome of cool when I was a teenager.

Well, I did it the first time because I thought it looked cool. Afterwards I did it because it amused Ethan. Every time I scored a try, I’d locate Ethan on the field and salute in his direction just to make him laugh.

Char grinned. “I’d forgotten about that.”

I was about to conjure up a defense of my salute when I was interrupted by a teenage girl. “Excuse me, can I please grab a selfie with you?”

“Sure.” I plastered on my best grin as the girl crowded in close.

Ethan watched the girl walking off. “She must not have recognized me.”

I smirked. “Or else she has standards and doesn’t want to clog up her phone with photos of just anyone.”

Another parent whose kid had just played against Theo sidled up to me. “Are you Luke Hunter from the Marauders?”

“Yep, I am.”

“You’re having a fantastic season. Awesome try the other night.”

“Thanks.”

“Can I grab a photo of you with the kids?”

“Ah…sure.”

“I’ll take it if you like,” Ethan volunteered.

The woman looked at him and smiled. “Thanks.”

“So, are you a big rugby fan?” he asked as she and her kids arranged themselves around me.

“Oh, the biggest,” she gushed.