Page 5

‘Run it again!’

The whistle blew and Carter tipped his face to the sky, blowing out a frustrated sigh. He turned and jogged back to the line.

‘Come on, fellas,’ he called out across the sweaty line of players. ‘We get this right, then we can go and jump in that dam.’

They all eyed the water down the hill from the field. It was more brown than blue, but it looked cool and much more inviting than sweating it out on the field.

‘If there isn’t a snake in there, there will be once Hendrix gets in,’ Beau retorted from further down the line.

Carter gritted his teeth as Beau’s goons laughed. He wanted to knock that stupid smug smile off the bastard’s face, but he wouldn’t give him that satisfaction. As he’d done after the last twelve comments in the past hour, Carter lifted his head and squared his shoulders.

‘Let’s just do this.’ He clapped his hands a couple of times and accepted the ball back from Ethan. Tossing it between his hands, Carter focused on the tiny bumps rubbing against the pads of his fingers. Football. The game he loved. Nothing else mattered as long as he had it.

The whistle blew and he sprang, rushing forwards and passing off when the time was right.

‘Why can’t we get this?’ Diego kicked the ball at the tree line. Shaking his head, he ran off after it.

‘Hendrix needs to give the call,’ Matty Finch, one of the centres, said as the guys gathered around.

‘That’s not the issue here.’ Jonathan came to join the huddle.

He adjusted the brim of his hat, his mouth a serious line.

‘Carter’s the only one of you throwing a clean pass.

It’s as if you all forgot how to pass a bloody football during the off season.

I have half a mind to send the rest of you down to the local under nines club so they can show you how it’s done! ’

Instead of pride, as he once may have felt, Carter ducked his head.

‘Told you, protected species.’

‘Golden boy.’

There it was. He forced his fingers out of the fists they’d involuntarily curled into as the coach continued his tirade. Diego returned with the ball and Jonathan snatched it from his hands.

‘I want a hundred push-ups from each of you to get those arms into shape,’ Jonathan snapped then blew the whistle.

Carter crouched to get into position as groans rang out across the team.

‘Carter, with me.’

His teeth were going to break with how tightly he was clenching them. He hated when Jonathan did this, but he was the coach, so Carter followed him away from the group.

‘I thought that getting away from the clubhouse would give the memories from last year a chance to fade,’ Jonathan said as soon as they were out of earshot. ‘But it’s potent.’

‘It’s only the first day,’ Carter said. ‘Just leave it.’

‘Your mother’s worried.’

‘Then tell her not to be.’

Carter turned on his heel to join his teammates. He dropped down next to Ethan and, balancing on his toes and hands, dropped his chest to mere millimetres above the ground. ‘One.’

Carter pushed his potato bake around his plate, his stomach telling him he’d had enough but his tastebuds wishing he could cram more in.

The dining hall was similar to those at the school camps he’d been to through high school, and he’d picked an empty table near the middle to sit at.

Indy was sitting on the other side of the room with the rest of the women he’d seen at the welcome this morning.

He was having a hard time not trying to catch her eye.

But his blue-eyed beauty hadn’t even looked up from her plate, let alone glanced in his direction.

He sighed. He really needed to stop thinking of her that way. She wasn’t his .

Ethan pulled out the chair across from him but stayed standing, a steaming plate in his hands. ‘Can I join you?’

‘Yeah, mate. That’d be good.’ Carter picked up his water and downed half of it before taking one more bite of potato. It’d be hell awkward if he got up to leave when Ethan had just sat down.

‘I know most of the team from last season and other divisions, but it’s definitely gone through some changes,’ Ethan commented.

Carter gave him a grim smile. ‘Yeah, that happens when shit hits the fan. Guy and Nate took offers with different teams, Tommy made the call to jump over to the UK and Rhett retired unexpectedly.’ He swallowed down Aaron’s name, not ready to add him to the list. ‘But over on the table in the corner—’ he pointed to the front of the room, ‘—you’ll remember Beau Randall, our fullback, and that’s Liam Dodds and Jake Denny, who were props. ’

‘Yeah, I’ve had some interesting conversations with them.’

‘I bet.’ Carter didn’t need to know what they might’ve said.

He gestured to the table a few over from theirs.

‘Diego Chinchallas moved from the second row into the wings in the middle of last season and really came into his own. He’s good mates with Matty Finch, one of the centres.

Junior O’Hare is the fella sitting next to Matty and I reckon Jonathan will start him as lock this year, but we’ll see.

Jonathan’s decisions don’t always make sense, but they generally work out.

The other man at that table is Isaac Stringer, our hooker and captain for the last few years. ’

‘Yeah, I know Stringer. I think everyone in the league does.’

‘He’s a legend for sure. Just not an in-your-face one like other people on the team.

’ Carter swivelled in his seat. ‘The rest of the guys I’m hoping to get to know better during this camp.

I mean, some I’ve played with on their debuts, just not regularly.

There’s a lot of new faces, fresher than yours. ’

Ethan smiled through a mouthful of steak. ‘Good to know I’m not the only blow-in.’

Carter laughed and finished the rest of his water.

He didn’t tell Ethan that he’d pretty much been shunned by his teammates from the moment the final siren sounded on last year’s grand final.

Sure, a handful of them had said hello and made small talk with him today, which was a reassuring sign, but most hadn’t acknowledged him past needing to when he had a football in his hands.

Movement from the Windale Station staff table caught his eye.

Indy stood, her plate and cup in hand. His already full stomach swirled with the anticipation that she’d have to walk past him to put her dishes on the trolley near the bins and he swallowed down his eagerness.

How ridiculous was he? Pining for just a glance.

He looked at Ethan. ‘I wouldn’t worry about being the new guy; we may as well all be new.

’ His peripheral vision told him Indy was drawing nearer.

He waited until she was at Ethan’s back and glanced up.

The spark that jumped from her sapphire eyes into his was how he imagined being hit by a shock from a defib machine would be.

Their connection broke when she walked out of eyesight and he let his gaze fall back to the table instead of chasing after her as he would’ve with any other girl he was that attracted to.

He wasn’t at camp for girls, he was here for footy— and salvaging what was left of his place in the team.

Jonathan clapped his hands, drawing their attention.

He stood at the front of the room, his collared Scorpions polo tucked into long bone-coloured pants held up with a belt.

His coaching uniform. ‘Right, fellas, finish up and meet in the room down the hall with the giant number two on it. Team induction night.’

Carter fell onto his bed later that night, every single muscle in his body aching.

His off-season training regime hadn’t entailed anywhere near the intensity it had during other years thanks to the team drama, and damn, he was feeling every missed gym session.

Dwelling on the look he’d shared with Indy was the sole thing responsible for getting him through the session after dinner.

Did he have the same effect on her as she had on him?

Why was he focusing so much energy on her? He needed to reserve it for football.

‘You look as dead as I feel,’ Ethan said, walking into the room with his towel around his shoulders.

‘I don’t think I could move even if I wanted to.’

The room was simple: two beds pushed against opposite walls, a desk between them and an open shelving unit at the end of each bed with the door to the verandah between.

Carter and Ethan had scored the room at the very end.

The only problem was the toilets and showers were up the other end.

The room was neat and tidy, didn’t have any funky smells, and the mattress was heaven to his sore body.

Ethan pushed the door shut behind him, hung up his towel and rifled through the giant suitcase at the end of his bed, putting away clothes and shoes in the shelves.

Carter lifted his head to have a closer look at the photo frames Ethan set up on his end of the desk.

He was mildly surprised to see an image of Ethan and his bride standing together in one frame and a toddler holding a newborn in another.

‘Dude, I thought you were the same age as me: twenty-four. How are you old enough to have a wife and two kids?’

Ethan chuckled. ‘I’m twenty-eight, bonehead, but I married Nicole when I was twenty-four and it didn’t take long for Sadie to come along. We just celebrated Henry’s first birthday before camp.’

‘Huh,’ Carter said, perplexed. ‘It must be hard to be away from them for two weeks.’

‘Not as hard as it will be for Nicole with me being away, but we have support from both our parents. No little Carter Hendrixes running around anywhere?’

‘Nope, I make sure it’s well and truly wrapped. Kids are for one day, not today.’

He watched Ethan finish his unpacking and shove the empty suitcase under the bed. Carter should get up and do the same, but he didn’t want to fight against the figurative concrete filling each limb.

Ethan sat on the side of his bed. ‘Mate, is the coach your dad?’

Carter stilled. He thought this was common knowledge. ‘Nah, he’s my stepdad. My dad’s not around anymore.’

‘Right, sorry. There’s a lot of weird dynamics in this team that I’m still getting used to.’

‘I bet there are. Nothing like the Rockets, ey?’ Carter’s chuckle was dry.

Ethan shrugged and leant back on his hands. ‘Every club has an undercurrent. Another question … you can plead the fifth and not tell me, but why do the fellas keep warning me about watching my back with you? It’s not all of them, but enough to make me curious.’

Carter closed his eyes briefly. He’d known this conversation was coming, but why’d it have to be tonight? ‘I’m sure you’ve heard the rumours.’

‘About you having a beef with Aaron Mayner, getting him kicked off the team after the awards night and losing the grand final because of it? Yeah, I’ve heard them. But something tells me there’s a hell of a lot more to it than that.’

‘You’re a smart man, Gray.’ Carter raised himself up enough to pull down his sheets and put his head on the pillow.

There was an echoing rustling of sheets from across the room. ‘Smart enough to know when you’re about to plea for silence.’

The lights switched off and Carter was struck by the absence of noise.

Sure, there was a soft hum from the aircon vent pouring cool air into the room, but that was it.

His gaze wandered to the window above his bed.

The blind was down and there was only a faint light around its edges from the half-moon outside.

‘I’m only pleading because I’m sick of having to defend myself when all I was doing was defending someone a hell of a lot more vulnerable than anyone in this building. I’m the same person at the beginning of this season that I was at the beginning and end of last season.’

‘Fair enough, mate.’

Carter rolled to his side. ‘You just need to figure out if you want to take the words of others or give me the benefit of the doubt and get to know me.’

‘I’m not sleeping outside, am I?’ Ethan said through a yawn.

‘Like I said, you’re a smart man.’