Authors: Michelle Betham
‘Brandon Palmer?’ Ronnie followed Amber into the kitchen, placing the bag of Indian food on the counter and taking a couple of plates out of the cupboard.
‘Yeah. Their new striker. Young American guy. That was a signing that came out of nowhere. Who did he play for over in the States?’
Ronnie started pulling cartons of food out of the brown paper carrier bag. ‘A team based in Brooklyn, I think. To be honest, I don’t know all that much about him. But he’s quite a talent, apparently. Do you want some of this lamb madras?’
Amber nodded, opening the fridge and taking out two bottles of lager. ‘I was talking to Steve about him earlier. Brandon Palmer, I mean. It’s a signing that’s come completely out of the blue, and it seems to have taken everyone a bit by surprise. But Spartans wouldn’t just sign anyone for the hell of it. They’re aiming for a European place this season, and everyone knows they’re in desperate need of a decent striker. So they must rate him or they wouldn’t have spent all that money on him. Is he playing tomorrow do you know?’
‘Well, as far as I’m aware, he’s had the medical, and his paperwork’s through, so I can’t see Spartans not playing him if he’s available. I think the home crowd’ll give him a pretty decent North East welcome, too, don’t you? And, as it happens, I’m on the pundit panel for that match, so… Hang on, isn’t Jim going to check the new Spartans squad out? See what the local opposition has to offer this season? Why don’t you tag along with him? Get a look at their new signing for yourself?’
‘Yeah,’ Amber sighed. ‘I might just do that. I’m interested to see Brandon Palmer in action, see what all the fuss is about.’
‘He’s a bit of a looker, too, don’t you think?’ Ronnie grinned, carrying plates piled high with wonderful-smelling curry over to the dining table.
‘And he’s young enough to be my son.’ Amber smiled, sitting down and taking a swig of lager, mainly to hide the sudden jolt of – of something she couldn’t really explain. As she’d said those words, the realisation that she had a visit to Dr. Lowry scheduled for Monday morning suddenly hit her. She’d forgotten all about it. Almost.
‘Well, it’s not like you haven’t gone down the toy boy route before.’ Ronnie smirked, thankfully unaware of Amber’s brief wobble.
She couldn’t help smiling back. ‘Yeah, well, let’s not go over old ground, okay? Shut up and eat your curry. Here, have a piece of naan bread.’
Neither of them said anything for a few seconds, enjoying each other’s company without the need to speak too much. But after a lot more small talk, Amber couldn’t stop herself from asking Ronnie something she’d been wanting to ask him ever since Tenerife. She’d just never found the right time, and what better time than now, when they were relaxed and alone?
‘Ronnie, is everything okay between you and Karen?’
Ronnie put down his fork and looked at Amber. ‘Everything’s fine.’
‘Is it? Really? Only…’
He scooped up the last of his curry and ate it, looking down at his now-empty plate. ‘I don’t want to talk about it, Amber.’
She said nothing for a second, finishing off her own meal before she spoke again. ‘So, there
is
something to talk about, then?’
He almost threw his fork down on the plate, the rattle of steel hitting china making Amber jump slightly. ‘Just… just don’t, Amber. All right?’
‘Don’t what, Ronnie? Don’t be concerned about my best friend? Don’t care about how he might be feeling? Don’t care that something might be wrong?’
Ronnie sat back in his chair and picked up his lager, taking a long swig before banging the bottle back down on the table. ‘Nothing’s wrong.’
‘Well, I think it is. Every time I ask you anything about Karen you become, well, evasive, almost. As if you don’t want to talk about her.’
‘That’s because I don’t.’
Amber stared at him, his words taking her aback slightly. She hadn’t actually expected that. ‘Why?’ Her voice was quieter now, less confrontational.
Ronnie said nothing, just threw his head back and closed his eyes, letting out a heavy sigh. ‘I said I didn’t want to talk about it.’
Suddenly Amber noticed something she couldn’t believe she hadn’t noticed before. ‘You’re not wearing your wedding ring.’
He opened his eyes and sat up, looking down at his left hand. ‘No. I’m not.’
‘Why?’
‘You’re asking a lot of questions tonight.’
‘With good reason, it would appear. What’s going on, Ronnie?’
He sat forward, putting his head in his hands. ‘It’s complicated, Amber.’
‘Okay.’ She got up and went back over to the fridge, taking out a couple more bottles of lager before sitting back down at the table. ‘Looks like we’re gonna be here for a while so we might as well have another drink.’
‘Should you be indulging in too much alcohol? I thought you were trying for a baby,’ Ronnie said, twisting the cap off his second bottle.
‘Not right this second I’m not, so shut up, drink up, and tell me what’s going on.’
He took a small swig and sat back again, looking down into his bottle as he spoke. ‘Karen and I… we aren’t married anymore.’
Amber frowned, trying to take in what he was telling her. What did he mean, they weren’t married anymore? She’d seen them get married with her own eyes, just a few weeks ago. ‘I… don’t understand.’
He looked at her, his eyes meeting hers as he carried on speaking. ‘I knew it was a mistake the second I saw her standing there, in the register office. I knew it, I felt it, Amber, right there in the pit of my stomach. It was all-consuming, screaming at me to stop it from happening but I… I couldn’t do it. I wasn’t strong enough to go with my convictions, to listen to my heart because there was no…’
‘No what, Ronnie?’
He looked back down into his bottle for a few seconds. ‘I thought it was just nerves; I thought they’d disappear and that everything would be all right once the ceremony was out of the way and we were finally married again. I thought everything would just click right back into place, but I was wrong.’
‘I still don’t understand. I mean, you seemed fine on the day; you seemed to enjoy the reception… Ronnie, I don’t understand…’
‘I guess I’m better at hiding my feelings than I thought I was.’ He looked at her again. ‘Mind you, I’ve learned from the best on that score, haven’t I?’
Amber ignored that comment and took a swig of her own beer. ‘So… so what’s … ?’ She stopped talking, because she didn’t actually know what to say. She’d been expecting him to say that he and Karen had had a big row or something, that their second attempt at marriage was just going through a few teething troubles. She hadn’t expected this. ‘You said… you said you weren’t married anymore, Ronnie. What… what do you mean by that? How can you not be married anymore?’
He leaned forward, putting his bottle of lager down and resting his elbows on the table, his hands sliding round the back of his neck. ‘The marriage has been annulled, Amber. It’s over. Finished.’
Amber’s frown deepened. ‘Annulled?’ Now she was really confused. Surely it wasn’t that easy to end a marriage so quickly, just like that?
Ronnie looked at her. ‘We had this huge row on our wedding night. It was a killer, a real battle of words, and believe me, kiddo, it appeared she hadn’t really wanted to marry me again, either… Jesus, what a fucking mess…’
Amber didn’t know what to say. What
could
you say in a situation like this? When you didn’t really understand exactly what was going on.
‘She’s pregnant, Amber.’
Amber’s head shot up as she stared at him, every hidden, pushed-aside feeling she was trying to keep buried flooding through her at breakneck speed. ‘Pregnant?’ Even saying the word was hard.
‘It’s not my baby.’ Ronnie’s voice was quiet, resigned, almost. Sad. And that in itself made Amber sad, too.
‘Ronnie… Oh, Jesus, I’m… I don’t know what to say.’
‘There are only a handful of reasons why you can get a marriage annulled so quickly,’ Ronnie went on, his eyes back on his lager bottle, ‘… and it would appear that being pregnant with a baby that isn’t your husband’s is one of them. Otherwise I’d have been waiting for yet another divorce to come through. She’s made a right fool of me this time, Amber. And I can’t believe I let her. Again.’
Amber was speechless. She really didn’t know what to say. ‘I… why didn’t you say something, Ronnie? I’m your best friend; I would have been there for you.’
‘You’d just married Jim, and you were so happy. You were so, so happy, Amber, and I didn’t want to throw cold water over your happiness by bothering you with my problems.’
‘Bothering me? Ronnie, Jesus, come on! What happened to my problems are your problems? It works both ways, you know.’
He got up, walking over to the kitchen window, looking out over the small back garden, which was nothing more than a decked patio area decorated with a few potted shrubs. The sun was just beginning to set, casting a warm orange glow over the cream countertops.
‘I should never have let it happen,’ Ronnie said, staring straight ahead, his hands in his pockets. Amber walked up behind him, her arms circling his waist, her chin resting on his shoulder.
‘I really thought you were happy, being back with Karen.’
‘She lied to me, Amber. She lied in the worst possible way.’ He turned round sharply, causing Amber to quickly let go of him. ‘I mean, what exactly did she think she was going to gain by lying like that? Huh?’ He leaned back against the counter, pushing a hand through his hair. ‘It’s not like you can hide a pregnancy forever, is it? What the hell was she playing at, letting things get that far?’
Amber hated seeing him like this. She wanted him to be as happy as she was, to have finally found that one person you know you’re going to grow old with. But even she had to admit that, in the back of her mind, she’d had her doubts about Ronnie and Karen getting back together. She hadn’t said anything at the time because she’d thought Ronnie was happy, and that was all that mattered. His happiness. However, if she’d had even the tiniest inkling that he’d been feeling this way she would have voiced those doubts. She would have voiced them in a heartbeat.
‘Have you talked to her? Properly, I mean,’ Amber asked, folding her arms as she watched him stare down at the ground, his hands back in his pockets.
‘Of course I’ve talked to her.’ He sighed heavily, throwing his head back and closing his eyes. ‘I’m asking myself rhetorical questions because I still can’t get my head around it all, not really. Sometimes it just feels so surreal…’
‘I’m assuming the baby… It’s Frankie Greenham’s?’ Frankie Greenham was the man Karen had left Ronnie for the first time round. He was another big-name footballer, a goalkeeper for Kenway Town, one of the league’s biggest North West-based clubs.
Ronnie nodded, his eyes meeting Amber’s again.
‘But… I thought that was all over between them?’
‘So did I.’ Ronnie sighed again. ‘Obviously, I was wrong.’
‘I really don’t know what to say, Ronnie.’
He gave her a wan smile. ‘Well, I’m sure plenty of others will have a lot to say once the press get hold of it. I can’t believe they haven’t already, to be honest. But then, neither of us is really proud of the way things have turned out, so we’ve both tried to keep quiet about the truth. That can’t last forever though, can it? Not once the pregnancy becomes obvious.’
‘Is she… is she living with Frankie now?’
Ronnie nodded again. ‘She moved into his place in Southport just before I flew over to Tenerife. So that’s it. I’ve got nothing more to say to her. She’s got her own life to get on with now, same as I’ve got mine.’
‘Oh, Ronnie…’ Amber wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him tight, feeling a knot of sadness in her chest for this man she loved like the brother she’d never had. She hated seeing him unhappy, hated to think he was alone again when he deserved so much more.
‘It’s fine, kiddo,’ Ronnie said, kissing the top of her head. ‘It’s a relief, if I’m being honest. Like I said, before I even knew about her being pregnant I was having doubts; I knew it was wrong. And I’ve been proved right.’
Amber let go of him, walking over to the table to begin tidying away the remnants of their finished supper. ‘Was it because you had a feeling her and Frankie weren’t over? The reason why you had doubts?’ Amber asked, placing a pile of plates noisily down on the counter before opening the dishwasher door.
Ronnie shrugged. ‘I don’t know, exactly. Everything’s such a blur. And I guess I’m just trying to put it behind me now, forget it ever happened.’
Amber began loading the dishwasher, saying nothing. She was still too stunned by Ronnie’s revelations to take it all in.
‘I mean, as far as I knew she never even wanted to have a kid,’ Ronnie went on, before realising what he’d said, and his expression changed in an instant as he noticed the look on Amber’s face. ‘Oh Jesus, Amber. I’m sorry, babe. I’m really sorry. How bloody insensitive of me.’
‘No, it’s fine. It’s fine.’ Amber smiled, shutting the dishwasher door and wiping her hands on a nearby tea towel. ‘Really.’
‘I didn’t even think…’
‘Ronnie, it’s fine.’
He walked over to her, tilting her chin up with his thumb and forefinger, kissing her forehead quickly. ‘Maybe I should go, huh? It’s been a long day and we’ve got that early flight back to the North East tomorrow.’
‘No. I want you to stay. Will you stay? Please?’ The words had come out of her mouth before she’d even had time to think about what she’d said. ‘I… I don’t really feel much like being on my own and… and I don’t think you do either, do you?’
He smiled, shaking his head. ‘No. I don’t. Do you want me to go make up the spare bedroom?’
She smiled, too, nodding.
‘Okay then. You finish up in here, I’ll sort out the spare bed, and I’ll meet you back in the living room for a nightcap, all right?’
‘Yeah. All right.’ And as she watched him walk out of the kitchen, heard him almost running up the stairs, she couldn’t help but think how their lives – lives they’d thought were finally getting back on track – had suddenly become complicated all over again. And she had no idea how it was all going to turn out. For either of them.