Page 11 of The Scrum-Half (Lincoln Knights #3)

Matty

“We know your secret,” Mason said, sitting down beside me with a piled-up lunch tray while West, Jonny, and Devon sat down around me, boxing me in.

The four of them were virtually always together, and while occasionally they reminded me of a group of ginger cats sharing one brain cell or the penguins from Madagascar , they were a good bunch.

Except for the fact they were incredibly nosy and interfering, and while Danny and Charlie might be the biggest gossips on the team, nobody was as curious as Mason.

“Oh? What secret is that?” I asked, tucking into my curry and trying to pretend I wasn’t sweating bullets. Sure, they might not always be the most observant but if something piqued their interest, the four of them would figure out what was going on in two minutes tops.

As long as it didn’t relate to their personal lives—then they all needed a nudge in the right direction.

But since they’d all found themselves in very happy relationships, they seemed to have decided, as a group, they needed to get involved in everyone else’s.

It was like having a resident group of nosy nanas, except all of them could squat double their body weight and two of them were built like tanks.

“You have a new nanny,” Mason said in a low voice, leaning closer so we wouldn’t be overheard. I froze.

“What makes you think that?”

“Are you really going to make him list out the evidence?” asked West with a wry smile as he scooped some of his enormous portion of rice onto his plate.

“Evidence?”

“Obviously,” Devon said. “We have a list.”

“Wouldn’t be much good confronting you without it,” Jonny said, shrugging casually.

“Also, this isn’t a confrontation,” Mason said. “We’re not here to make your life difficult.”

“Really? How is this not making my life difficult?” I asked, looking around at the four of them. “My personal life is none of your business.”

“You know, you’re getting very defensive for someone who has nothing to hide,” West said as he lowered his spoon and fixed me with a long look.

I sighed and stabbed my curry with my spoon, wishing I could pick my tray up and find somewhere else to sit.

That wouldn’t exactly help my case, though.

But West had a point. I’d never hidden having a nanny before.

Everyone had been aware of the issues I’d had in the past, and getting defensive made it obvious that something was going on.

“Fine, yes, I have a new nanny,” I said quietly. “His name is Harper, he’s very good at his job, and Jack really likes him. Any questions?”

Mason grinned, looking far too pleased with himself. “No, absolutely none.”

“Did you actually know, or were you just fishing? No, wait. I don’t want to know.

” I glanced around the canteen, wondering who else was listening.

And who else might have figured it out. I didn’t know what had given me away, but maybe it would be better to get it out in the open and let the inevitable musings about how long Harper might last roll off my back.

“Don’t worry, we haven’t told anyone,” Devon said with a gentle smile.

“And we won’t,” Jonny added. “We’ll even deny it if anyone asks.”

“Thanks, but it’s fine.” For a split second I considered asking Mason and West if their partners, both of whom were drag artists, would be at The Court this weekend so I could mention them to Harper.

But I didn’t trust Ryan and Rory not to find him in the crowd and pass all the details back, and I didn’t want anyone spying on him.

Harper didn’t deserve to get caught up in this mess.

“I hope he works out,” West said. “Sounds like you’re off to a good start, though.”

“Eh, sort of.” The four of them stared at me and I realised I couldn’t leave them hanging if I wanted any semblance of peace in my life. “He might have called me out for being overbearing and, um, micromanaging him, especially when Jack was ill last week.”

“You, overbearing? Never!” Devon grinned teasingly.

“Don’t know what he was thinking. That doesn’t sound like you at all,” Jonny said, his expression matching that of his boyfriend’s, and I sighed heavily, raising my eyebrow at our number eight.

“Just because you needed a firm shove to get your shit together and be reminded that jealousy has no place on a rugby team, or in our dressing room, doesn’t make me bossy or overbearing.”

“I never said you were bossy,” Jonny said as he stabbed his fork into the heaped pile of mashed potatoes on his plate. “That’s all on you.”

“To be fair, I think it comes with the territory. Every captain I’ve ever known has a bossy side,” Devon said.

“Yeah, and at least you’re not a dictatorial arsehole like some captains,” Mason said. “You might treat us like kids sometimes, but we probably deserve it.”

“You definitely deserve it, but to be fair the four of you aren’t really much of a problem. Especially not now Jonny and Devon have gotten their heads out of their arses,” I said.

When they’d first gotten together, I’d been extremely worried about how their relationship would affect the team.

Jonny had a possessive streak a mile wide and didn’t like anyone touching his boyfriend, but after a few choice reminders and some support, he’d managed to get it in check and my fears had, largely, vanished.

Playing on the same team as a couple was definitely a new experience, but weirdly I’d never been worried that they’d break up and we’d have to deal with the fallout.

They had a together forever, soulmates vibe, which I didn’t know how to describe. It was more of a feeling than anything. And sometimes when I looked at them, I felt this overwhelming rush of jealousy and despair because fuck, I wanted what they had.

But to find that, I’d have to start dating… and that was not happening any time soon.

“That’s true,” Devon said with a nod. “We are model citizens.”

I chuckled, because I wasn’t going to argue.

“By the way, what’s the meeting after lunch about?” West asked.

“Oh, Clive wants to introduce the new social media manager,” I said, very happy to move the conversation along from me.

“I thought they were supposed to start ages ago?” Mason asked, frowning. “Like end of last year?”

“Different person. The first person they hired never started because they suddenly got offered a better job somewhere else, so they had to go through the process all over again.”

“How do you know all this?” Devon asked. “Do you get secret briefings with Clive that we don’t know about?”

“No, I just listen.”

“We listen!” Mason said.

“Eh, sometimes,” Jonny said with a chuckle. “Sometimes I have better things to do.”

“Like stare at your boyfriend’s arse,” West said dryly, smirking across the table at his former housemate.

Devon flushed slightly as he glanced down at his plate and shifted in his seat, probably so he could nudge Jonny fondly with his knee.

I had a sneaking suspicion, which I’d never been able to prove, that they’d hooked up in the club changing room at least once.

In all honesty, I didn’t want to think about what they were doing because I’d never be able to look at the changing room the same way again.

Sometimes ignorance was bliss.

And thinking about them only reminded me how fucking lonely I was.

“Who is this person then? Do you know anything about them?” Devon asked.

“Nope, nothing. Only that it’s a man.”

“At least that saves them from Danny’s terrible attempts at flirting,” Mason said, pushing his plate to the side and picking up a small bowl of noodles which was basically a second lunch.

The front row needed to consume a lot of calories during the season to maintain their huge bulk and muscle mass, and luckily the club’s chefs were good at providing decent meals to support that.

“And it saves all of us from having to watch,” West said. We all nodded and there was a smattering of chuckles and hums of agreement. Listening to Danny talk about his relationships was painful, mostly because I didn’t know how anyone could lack such self-awareness.

Although, knowing my luck, he’d find someone willing to put up with his shit long before I managed to start dating again.

Our conversation moved on to the next games we had coming up, including the knockout stage of the European Rugby Champions Cup, something none of us had expected to reach.

It had been a dream of mine for a long time to take the Knights to the level I knew we were capable of, but seeing the team actually start to reach it was another thing entirely, and I was so fucking proud of every single one of them.

I wasn’t naive enough to think we’d walk it, but I had enough belief to think we stood as good a chance as any of the other fifteen teams remaining of lifting the cup.

After we’d finished lunch, we headed upstairs to the large briefing room near the gym, filing into our normal seats. Clive was stood at the front alongside Tommy, the assistant head coach, other members of the coaching staff, and a man I didn’t recognise.

“Jesus Christ,” Mason said as he dropped into the seat next to me. “I didn’t realise we were hiring fucking models.”

“Keep it in your pants,” West hissed from his other side.

“I’m just being honest! That man is fucking stunning.”

“That’s enough, the pair of you,” I said, shooting them my best no-nonsense look.

Mason wasn’t wrong, though; the man was objectively gorgeous with a sharp jaw dusted with stubble, piercing dark eyes, dark hair that was starting to go grey around the temple, and a white shirt that hugged his athletic frame.

But… in my heart, Harper looked better. There was something beautiful about the softness of Harper’s features, his bright smile, and how he exuded sunshine from every pore.

This man was classically sexy, but Harper… Harper was my kind of sexy.

“Okay, all right,” Clive said as he waved a hand, his general signal for us to quieten down.

“Afternoon, gentlemen. Just a couple of quick things before we move on to this afternoon’s drills.

As you all know, the Knights have been looking to expand our social media team for a while and I’d like to introduce you to Ezra Kowalski.

You’re going to be seeing him around quite a bit as he’ll be taking charge of our content and social media strategy, so play nice. Ezra, do you want to say anything?”

Ezra nodded, looking around at us all. I followed his gaze as he started speaking, my eyes lingering on various members of the team.

As expected, there was the usual range of emotions from engaged and interested to bored and barely managing to hide it.

Not everyone enjoyed getting roped into the marketing team’s content creation attempts, but somehow I didn’t think Ezra would give us a choice.

I glanced behind me to where Danny and Charlie were sitting. The two of them always sat in the back row, like two kids trying to goof off. Charlie was nodding along, but Danny…

Danny was staring open-mouthed like he’d suddenly seen God.

Jesus Christ. If I was going to have to watch Danny go through the world’s most awkward and clumsy queer awakening while drooling over the sexy new social media manager, I might just give up on the idea of ever getting laid again.

Because if Danny’s terrible mullet, seventies pornstar moustache, and ability to put his foot in his mouth every time he opened it didn’t put Ezra off, then I was fucked.

But then again, maybe the reason Danny would likely get laid before me was because he actually put himself out there.

Yes, he seemed to get rejected or dumped ninety-nine percent of the time, but at least he tried . All I did was complain and moan about being single, as if the universe would magically hand me a date on a silver platter.

It had sent me Harper, though.

And while the idea of dating my nanny should have been a huge red flag, absolute no-go zone, I couldn’t stop myself from thinking about what it might be like.

Harper was everything I’d ever dreamed of in a partner, plus he’d already seen half my faults and hadn’t run screaming, and he adored Jack, which was the most important thing of all.

I just had to decide if the risk of asking him out was worth it, because if he said no, it would destroy everything in the blink of an eye.

And I wasn’t the only one who’d suffer from that. Jack’s happiness and care had to be my priority, not my own selfish desires.

Even so, the idea of saying nothing hurt more than I wanted to admit.