Page 17 of Such A Dirty Girl (Hot Creeps #6)

SEVENTEEN

SARAH

T he pitch churned underfoot as bodies collided with guttural humphs. Rushed yells mingled with the referee’s whistle, raising roars from the stands. The din was constant, but my focus snagged on two players.

Jake and Drew.

Stability, and the chaos that shadowed him.

I should have seen it throughout our relationship. While it was less apparent before Drew moved back home, he’s always been orbiting Jake. Not leeching off of his sunshine as I’d originally believed, but basking in it.

Sweaty and mud-smeared, Jake played like the captain he was. It didn’t matter that his team was down, not truly. He’d encourage and support them out of their funk. Still, they needed to win if they wanted to make it to the next round.

Drew played as if he’d rather be picking daisies.

While he’d never quite had the vigour Jake did for the game, he’d always pulled his weight.

Supported the team. But he looked like he was running around with weights attached to his ankles.

Perhaps he was feeling as guilty as I was considering his intrusion between my lips.

Both sets.

Resting my chin on my palm, I found Jake amongst the striped shirts. Darting, pushing, and crashing through the opposing team’s defence as if the game fuelled him. My heart skipped every time he touched the ball.

Eloise shrieked next to me, her hands clasped like she was at church.

‘That’s my boy! Just wait until he climbs into the next league. He’s destined for it. He’ll leave all this behind.’

I smiled faintly, proud and protective of Jake, but Eloise’s last sentence sounded off. ‘What do you mean? I’ll be with him.’

Eloise’s red lips curved, not kindly. ‘Oh, darling. You’re not premiership-wife material.

You’re sweet, sure, but in the big leagues?

’ She let her eyes skim my dress and my hair, like she was noting every imperfection.

‘You just won’t cut it. He’ll be in the press constantly. He needs a woman who can match that.’

The words sliced. I blinked, the noise of the match reducing to static as blood rushed into my ears. ‘What?’

Her voice lowered, soft but sharp. ‘You were only ever temporary, Sarah. A perfect option for climbing the lower rungs, but not his forever partner. Like a starter home, but for relationships.’

‘That’s not true,’ I snapped, heat stinging behind my eyes. ‘Jake doesn’t think that.’

Eloise’s gaze never left the field. ‘He’ll do anything to be my good boy. Even leave you. He might not know it yet, but he’ll come around.’

My stomach tensed, the air around me cold despite the press of bodies.

That was what Drew had been living under all these years.

I’d always thought of Eloise as proper but fair.

That Drew’s issues with her had merely been down to kids hating their step-parents.

But no. Outside of her relationship with Drew, she only played nice.

The manipulation. The dismissal. What must it have been like growing up in the shadows? Always being lesser?

For the first time, I understood why Drew bristled in proximity to her. Why he wrapped himself in tattoos and darkness.

It was the only way he could protect himself.

And even under the glare of Drew’s successes, Jake had adored him.

Loved him.

The whistle blew, dragging my focus. Jake’s team trudged off the field, still down at half-time, but unbowed.

I sat there wondering how much Jake would hate me if I slapped his mother.

‘He won’t leave me,’ I muttered as the team filed to the edge of the field, having an animated pep talk from Jake.

‘If he won’t, you’ll leave him.’ Eloise said, smiling down at her boy.

‘Never.’

‘Oh, but sweetheart, I know that he didn’t fall last year. You pushed him.’

And just like that, she’d gutted me like a fucking salmon.