Extra Time (2 page)

‘Want to join me?’

Fuck it! Everything else could wait.

‘Do you miss her?’ Gary looked at Ryan out the corner of his eye as they finished up the last of their coffee over what had been an unusually long and somewhat more leisurely than expected breakfast. This pre-season trip to Spain and the Canary Islands was turning out to be a more relaxed affair than anyone could have anticipated, but that was mainly because Newcastle Red Star’s recently-married manager, Jim Allen, was still very much in the ‘honeymoon period’. And because of that, he was being far more lenient with his rules than was the norm.

‘Miss who?’ Ryan asked. A purely rhetorical question, of course, because he knew exactly who Gary was talking about.

‘You know who,’ Gary said, leaning back in his seat and stretching out his legs.

Ryan looked at him. He knew what he was trying to do, but it wouldn’t work. He wasn’t going to give anyone the satisfaction of knowing how he was really feeling. He was stronger now; there was no time to be weak, not anymore. Being weak had cost him big in the past, and he wasn’t going there again. ‘Why would I miss her, Gary? I’m with Ellen now, aren’t I? And she understands the kind of relationship I need; a relationship that doesn’t involve any kind of commitment.’

Ryan Fisher was twenty-seven years old, tall, dark and indecently handsome, in a rough-and-ready sort of way. With his multitude of tattoos adorning both highly-toned arms, and most of his back, constant stubble that sometimes materialised into a beard when he was feeling particularly lazy, unruly, dark brown, messed-up hair and a smile that seemed to give him the ability to attract any girl he wanted, he was the kind of man that a lot of women fantasised over. A bad boy, a troublemaker, that was Ryan Fisher. Or, at least, it had been.

A highly talented, ridiculously well-paid professional footballer with Newcastle Red Star – one of the biggest and most successful teams in the top flight of the English game, and current league champions – Ryan was lusted after by a never-ending succession of wannabe WAGs, and envied by those men who would do anything to have his life, to be who he was. But Ryan’s life hadn’t always been perfect; it still wasn’t. It probably never would be. But the outside world didn’t need to know that. His past had had enough of an airing over the last few months. It was time to leave all that crap behind him now and concentrate on the forthcoming season; it was time to show them all that Ryan Fisher was back, bigger and better than he’d ever been.

‘So?’ Gary persisted, standing up and pushing his chair back under the table.

‘So, what?’ Ryan sighed, following suit.

‘You’re telling me you’re really over her now? Amber, I mean.’

‘Yeah, I know who you mean, thanks, Gary.’

‘And it can’t be easy at the minute, can it? Having her around all the time.’

‘She isn’t around
all the time
, Gary,’ Ryan said, shoving his hands in the pockets of his combat pants.

‘Yeah, but she’s
here
, isn’t she?’ Gary went on, obviously not taking the hint to drop a subject that Ryan really didn’t want to talk about. ‘In fact, she’s
right
here. Look.’

Ryan turned his head slightly as Gary nudged him, catching sight of Amber as she walked into the breakfast room, all flowing dark red hair and tanned skin, her incredible long legs shown off to perfection in a short white dress and wedge-heeled sandals. Amber Allen. Beautiful, crazy, ice-queen Amber Allen. Or, at least, she’d been a bit of an ice-queen when he’d first met her a year ago, on his return to the North East of England. Back then he’d been Red Star’s multi-million-pound new signing, their star striker, and she’d been Amber Sullivan, a beautiful, feisty sports reporter with too much attitude and a smile that had floored him the minute he’d set eyes on her.

But their first meeting hadn’t exactly been all sweetness and light. Far from it. There’d been no flirting, no secret smiles or furtive touches. They’d practically hated each other on sight, even though he’d known he wanted to fuck her the second she’d walked into the room. But that was Ryan Fisher. He was used to getting what he wanted when he wanted it, and Amber Sullivan – as she’d been back then – had proved to be a challenge he hadn’t been able to ignore. He’d almost won, too. Almost. He’d fallen in love, for the first time in his life. Once he’d thawed the ice-queen, knocked down those barriers she’d built around herself, the ones that had stopped her from finding the love she really deserved to find, he’d honestly thought his life had changed for the better. He’d thought he could finally put his playboy past behind him and settle down. But he hadn’t banked on
her
past catching up with her. And he certainly hadn’t banked on that past being his boss. Jim Allen was a hurdle he just couldn’t get over, and he’d let that get to him, just a little too much – with almost career-ending consequences. But he’d fought back; he’d come through it all, everything that had happened. He’d come through it all. But nobody had promised him it would be easy from now on. Ryan had loved Amber. He’d loved her, simple as that, and even
he
wasn’t deluded enough to think that that was going to change any time soon, even if she
was
now Amber Allen, wife of one of the most successful football managers ever to grace the Premier League. She was his boss’s wife. And he just had to deal with that. Somehow.

‘She’s looking good,’ Gary whistled as Amber bent down to pick up something she’d pulled from her pocket and promptly dropped on the floor. Ryan continued to watch her as she slowly stood back up, laughing at something Jim whispered to her on his arrival by her side, his arm snaking around her hips in a protective, almost proprietorial manner. Ryan felt his heart shudder in his chest, unable to tear his eyes away from a scene he didn’t really want to witness. His ex-fiancée and her new husband – his manager – acting all loved-up right there in front of him, even if they had no idea he was watching. He didn’t think they cared, anyway. It had been like that for the past couple of days, ever since they’d all arrived here in Tenerife for the last leg of their pre-season tour. So far all they’d done was chill out and relax before they played their match against one of the island’s local teams tomorrow evening. But relaxing had been difficult for Ryan. He couldn’t ignore Amber and Jim, couldn’t ignore their stolen kisses and not-so-subtle attempts at touching each other when they thought nobody else was watching. And Amber had looked so hot as she lay round the pool in a tiny black bikini – no wonder their boss couldn’t keep his hands off her. After all, Ryan knew exactly what Jim was getting once he got his new wife back inside the privacy of their hotel room. That thought alone depressed him more than anything, despite the fact he had a beautiful woman of his own back in Newcastle, just waiting for him to come home. It was nothing serious, of course, because Ryan didn’t do serious, not anymore. He’d tried it once and look what had happened. But he had someone there if he needed her. And he did need her, or he needed a distraction, anyway, and Ellen was proving to be just that – a beautiful distraction. A role she was rapidly making her own.

‘You okay, mate?’ Gary asked, squeezing Ryan’s shoulder.

Ryan nodded, finally tearing his eyes away from Amber. Although he hadn’t missed Jim’s hand slipping down onto her perfect backside, giving it a sly squeeze. Shit! He’d been such a fucking idiot to let her go.

‘You never stood a chance, Ryan,’ Gary said, as if reading his mind. ‘Not with the past those two had.’

‘Yeah,’ Ryan sighed, following Gary out of the room, a headache starting to form right behind his eyes that he could well do without, especially with a training session in 30 degree heat looming. ‘So everyone keeps telling me.’

Amber swung the car into a parking bay and quickly jumped out, recoiling slightly as the midday heat almost knocked her backwards. Twenty minutes in a lovely, cool, air-conditioned car made you forget how incredibly hot it was outside.

Sliding her sunglasses down over her eyes, she walked quickly out of the car park, almost jogging across the small road that led onto the busy coach park at Reina Sofia Airport as she made her way towards the arrivals entrance.

Walking into the busy airport, she pushed her sunglasses back up onto her head and stood still for a second, breathing a sigh of relief. She was just glad to be out of the heat for a little while. It was so hot on the island right now, so stifling, that any shade or escape was welcome, no matter how brief.

Looking up at the huge screens that hung from the ceiling, she scanned the list of arrivals to see if Ronnie’s plane had landed on time. It had. Five minutes early, to be precise, so she quickly headed over to the arrivals gate, joining a handful of other people who were waiting for friends/relatives/clients to arrive on this beautiful Spanish island.

Amber Allen was living a life she hadn’t expected to be living. But she was more than grateful that her life had turned out the way it had. Just a year ago she’d been the Sports Editor for News North East. It was a job she’d loved, a job she’d been good at. And she’d honestly thought she’d always be there, that she’d never leave. Because she hadn’t wanted to, not really. But a lot had happened over the past year. She hadn’t banked on becoming involved with one of the most high-profile, most talked-about footballers in the game – Ryan Fisher. She hadn’t banked on that, and she certainly hadn’t banked on everything that had come with that relationship. She hadn’t expected to let it get so far, to care so deeply about a man who had so many problems. A man so much younger than her. A man who had caused her to break her strict, self-enforced no-footballer rule. She hadn’t expected any of it. And she certainly hadn’t banked on Jim Allen – the love of her life; a man who’d hurt her so badly in the past, not once but twice. A man she hadn’t really thought she’d ever see again. She hadn’t banked on him walking back into her life. But from the second he’d taken the manager’s job at Newcastle Red Star a year ago she should have known that everything would eventually come to a head. Still, she certainly hadn’t expected – less than twelve months on – to be Jim’s wife. Mrs. Amber Allen. Something she’d dreamed of being since the age of sixteen. Just thinking about that made her stomach flip over in a barrage of glorious somersaults, and she couldn’t help but smile to herself, staring down at the ground for a brief second in case people thought she was slightly crazy, grinning away like some demented idiot.

But marriage to the Premiership’s hottest – in more ways than one – manager wasn’t the only change in Amber’s life. She’d finally bitten the bullet and left News North East for pastures new. Top footballing agent, Max Mandell, had been on her case for months, telling her she could easily become the female face of football on national TV, bombarding her with texts and phone calls, job offers that just seemed too good to be true. She’d never been someone who enjoyed being the centre of attention, never been one to court publicity or feel that urge to become a celebrity of any description – despite her father being a famous ex-professional footballer himself, and her husband being about as high-profile as you could get in the world of football right now. But Max had worn her down with his almost dogged persistence, and with Jim’s encouragement she’d joined Max in London a few weeks ago for a series of interviews and meetings, which had culminated in her landing the job of presenter/reporter for Cloud Sports, a major satellite TV sports channel. She had, indeed, become their new face of football, and the fact it now meant that she also got to work alongside Ronnie – her best friend – well, that just made it all the more perfect. Of course, it was going to mean working in London a lot more, and long periods away from Jim loomed on the horizon, which she wasn’t particularly looking forward to, but she was enjoying the challenge. Football was her world. The people involved in the sport were her life. It was where she wanted to be.

As bodies started to stream out of the arrivals exit, Amber craned her neck to see if she could spot Ronnie. She knew he’d be travelling light, just hand luggage, so he wouldn’t have to hang around by the baggage carousel. He should be one of the first out of there.

Ronnie White. Her best friend. An ex-professional footballer-turned-TV pundit, they’d known each other for years, slept together a few times, and remained as close as two people could be, on a purely platonic level. He’d just remarried his ex-wife Karen, and as far as Amber was aware that was all going well, second time around. She couldn’t be happier for him. But the summer break had meant they hadn’t really seen all that much of each other since his wedding, and she couldn’t wait to see him now. To start working with him. It was just another amazing chapter of this dream-come-true life she’d suddenly found herself living.

She checked her watch. Jim would have the squad out training now, despite the fierce lunchtime heat. He wanted them to be ready, to be used to the temperatures this island could throw at them, even though all their games would be evening kick-offs, when the temperatures were cooler – but only just, at this time of year.

She smiled again at the thought of Jim. Jim Allen, her handsome, beautiful, all- American man. With his grey-flecked hair and that low, deep accent of his, she didn’t think it was possible to be more in love with anyone than she was with him. In some shape or form he’d been her world for over twenty years, made love to her when she’d been just sixteen years old and a star-struck teenager, and he’d been a twenty-seven-year-old teammate of her dad’s at Newcastle Red Star.

Their history had been chequered, to say the least. There’d been a lot of pain, a lot of heartache; people had got hurt – Ryan had got hurt, her father had got hurt, and that was something she really hadn’t wanted to happen. Telling him that one of his oldest friends had slept with her when she was still a teenager was a memory Amber couldn’t erase. The look on his face when he’d found out about her and Jim, it still made her flinch. But all that mattered now was that Ryan seemed to be okay, her dad was slowly coming to terms with everything, and Jim was finally where he belonged. With her. The way it always should have been.