RHINO: A Bad Boy Sports Romance (With FREE Bonus Novel OFFSIDE!) (26 page)

“
You alright? You haven’t said anything for like an hour. It’s kind of unusual for you”, Alex asks me.

It’s true. I’ve spent quite a lot of this journey staring out of the window at the falling rain that looks every bit like it could turn into snow at any moment. Alex didn’t have to come at all, and it’s good of him to drive us both so I don’t have to shit myself flying.

I put my hand on his thigh and give it a squeeze. I’m still warm from that morning’s fuck, an emergency last minute hour long session just in case Mom somehow makes it impossible for us to fuck at home.

“
I’m alright”, I say, even though I don’t feel it.

“
Worried?”

“
My family are a little bit strange.”

“
Every family is a little bit strange, don’t worry about it.”

“
I just hope they like you.”

“
Do they know who I am?”

“
Dad and I were the only football fans in the house.”

“
Better then.”

“
Mom will have read about you. She knows what you’re like.”

“
What’s that supposed to mean?”

“
Nothing. That you’re-. The kind of person you are”, I say.

“
Lucy.”

“
Sorry, that’s coming out all wrong. They are excited to meet you.”

“
Just, I don’t know, relax. There’s nothing to worry about. I’m charming remember. Sophisticated. Highbrow.”

“
Don’t forget sexy.”

“
They’re going to love me.”

“
I don’t know why I was even doubting it.”

The journey takes just over four hours because of heavy traffic coming through the city, during which time the rain ceases and then begins again just as we pull up to the house. It’s colder up here than in New York, and even though it’s only just past midday, the light is already threatening to fade as though there might be a loose connection, or someone just hasn’t turned up the power enough.

While we are taking suitcases out of the boot of the car, Mom opens the front door, Gabe in her arms and Charlie half-hiding behind her legs.

“
Well get in here quickly it looks like it’s about to open up”, she says.

Inside we do the introductions, before Mom takes us upstairs to show us our separate bedrooms. I’m in the room I grew up in, while Alex has been given the guest room which has been reconverted temporarily from an office. I’m too tired to argue, and decide to address the problem secretly much later on.

Alex shows Jack and the boys the car while there is a momentary break in the rain before we all sit down in the living room and wait for Christmas to begin.

Mom’s done a few token decorations and put up an anemic looking tree in the corner. Jack is wearing a stupid jumper and Dana has bauble earrings but apart from that you wouldn’t know. Actually, even with those things, it’s kind of impossible to tell if Christmas is yet to come or whether it has already passed.

“
Good journey?” Mom asks.

“
Apart from the weather and a little bit of traffic coming through the city it was pretty smooth going”, Alex says.

“
Can’t be anything but it in a car like that. Must be worth more than our house”, Jack says.

“
Don’t even think about it”, Tracy warns her husband.

Small talk fills awkward gaps before Jack suggests an early Christmas drink which manages to get us through until lunch is served.

Mom is suspiciously quiet, and worryingly nice to Alex. I narrow my eyes at her but she pays no attention to me, happy instead to continue making sure her guest is comfortable.

Alex in response is polite to the extreme and careful he doesn’t put his foot in it, and it makes me laugh seeing him behaving in a way I never thought I’d ever see.

I have to keep pinching myself that here I am with Alex Vann Haden, sat around the dining table in the house I grew up in, and it’s not because he’s here with Dana, or he’s somehow dropped in on a charitable mission, he’s here because he’s with me.

My fucking boyfriend is Alex Vann Haden and I wish Dad were around so much he could see it. Nobody here really has the faintest idea who he is. Jack knows nothing about football, Tracy and Dana are the same, and Mark, Dana’s on again off again doctor boyfriend wouldn’t even be able to tell you who the Patriots were.

Here, Alex is even less of a nobody than I am, and I think he secretly likes it. Mark, unaware perhaps of anything about him, or maybe just being polite, even asks Alex what he does for  a living at one point during the meal. I can’t help but smile.

Tradition in this family over celebrations came from Dad, and because he’s not here anymore, even though Mom’s obviously tried to make an effort, things seem a little disjointed.

“
How’s the job going, sis?” Jack asks.

I knew this was coming. Jack smiles at me with a suggestion he’s been waiting months to ask me it, because I know full well that he thinks he’s doing better than me.

Jack, Dana and I aren’t exactly the closest of siblings, but because Jack also works in journalism, there’s always been a rivalry.

“
Good”, I answer vaguely, Alex’s hand finding mine underneath the table. “Ticking along.”

I hate talking about myself at the best of times, and around the kitchen table with my family, the worst of all.

“
Are you still at that crappy magazine?” Jack says dismissively.

“
If by c
rappy magazine
you mean Endzone, yes, and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”

“
You should be doing something worthwhile with your degree, Lucy”, Mom says.

Here we go.

“
I shouldn’t think you’d need to work at all with Alex’s salary. Football players do quite well don’t they?” Mark adds.

Alex and I look at each other before he responds. “Just a little bit better than doctors, I think.”

I don’t like the way this is going.

“
They are completely different professions though aren’t they?” Dana butts in, laughing nervously. “I don’t think you can compare the two.”

“
Oh know, I wasn’t, I didn’t mean that. Football players get to work way fewer hours.”

“
Yeah well that isn’t all that true”, I add, not wanting Alex to do himself a disservice for my family’s benefit. Mark has always been snobby about his own profession while Mom, Dana and Jack have always been critical about mine. Football players work just as hard as cancer doctors, even harder sometimes.

“
I love what I do anyway”, Alex says, trying his best to diffuse what seems like a weirdly tense situation all of a sudden. “I’d still do it even if they didn’t pay me.”

“
You might not be able to if Lucy had to support you”, Jack says.

“
Hey!”

Jack may be joking but it pisses me off.

“
At least I like my job too”, I say.

“
I like my job”, Jack confesses.

“
Yeah? Since when?”

“
Since always.”

“
You’re such an asshole.”

“
Lucy, not round the dinner table”, Mom says.

“
I’m not the one acting like it.”

“
You haven’t seen each other since your father’s funeral and you’re bickering again. This is supposed to be a family day.”

“
I’m not changing that. I just-. Can we talk about something that’s not work for once?” I say.

There is a momentary silence around the table before Tracy does us all the favor of breaking it.

“
How long have you two been together?”

Alex and I look at each other again before answering, my hand finding his this time underneath the table. I expected this. It is after all the first time Alex has met any of these people, I just miss Dad.

Dad and Alex would have got on well, despite the fact Alex has absolutely nothing to do with our beloved Patriots. No-one is saying it, but I get the impression that they’re looking down on Alex somehow, that what he does, despite being arguably the best player in the world in his position, isn’t a real job like a doctor or even a journalist is.

Oh, and what I mean by that is a proper investigative journalist for a large and well-respected newspaper, not a sports journalist like me. Jack’s always got a break because he’s the firstborn, economic graduate with the childhood sweetheart wife and the two gorgeous children, and Dana, although the baby of the family, always a social standing above me because of her high-powered city job (PA and I’m sure she’s screwing her boss) and has in Mark (although also probably screwing his secretary behind my sister’s back) a doctor and potential husband, at least in my mother’s eyes.

I’m the middle child, studious as fuck, but the one who isn’t utilizing her potential because I’ve decided to work forever for a shitty sports supplement, oh and have the temerity to hook up with a football jock.

I wish they’d understand. Dad always did, and Mom never understood his obsession with sports so much I often wondered what kept them together. I love my family, but that doesn’t mean I don’t get annoyed with their judgments too.

“
Three months more or less”, I say, “almost four”, when Alex squeezes my leg insistently.

“
That must be a record for you, sis.”

“
A month would be a record for Lucy”, Dana adds.

“
It’s a record for me too actually”, Alex butts in, while I’m still trying to prepare a retort. “I think three days was my record before that. I’ve never been much of the relationship type.”

I can see him itching to say it. Itching. Here it comes, that fucking-.

“
That’s not what the Cincinnati Chest said”, Jack says, with as smug a face as I’ve seen on him.

Alex takes it in good humor but inside I’m fuming. He’s got way more patience than me. I know a big brother’s job is to make sure his little sister is with the right guy, but there is making someone feel uncomfortable and being down right rude, and this isn’t the time for either of them anyway.

“
Grow up, Jack”, I say.

“
The Cincinnati Chest said a lot of stuff that wasn’t true. Definitely not my best moment.”

“
Who is the Cincinnati Chest”, Mark asks.

“
So this is serious, right? You two love birds”, Jack continues, ignoring Mark’s question.

“
Next question”, I say.

“
Lucy, you’re going red”, Tracy says plainly.

Alex jumps in again. “We’ll let you know when the wedding is, but until then, we’re just taking each day as it comes.”

“
And what will you do when you finish playing football?”

Where did that come from? Mom’s been quiet pretty much all the way through the meal and now that bombshell. I want the earth to swallow this table up and spit Alex and I back out in the upper west side. I hear the question as
what will you do when you finish playing that stupid game and need to do something worthwhile.
Either I’m being super paranoid or Mom really has got an issue to burn.

“
Mom, that’s kind of a weird question.”

“
No, it’s not, honey. I don’t know anything about football, but I do know it’s not something you can do for the rest of your life.”

“
What, do you mean like being a doctor?” I say sarcastically.

“
I haven’t really thought about it all that much actually”, Alex says. “Luckily I’m in quite a stable position financially so I guess I’m you’re asking me in that respect, I’m not sure it matters all that much. I’d like to continue to work in football at some level, perhaps go into coaching or management, other than that, I’ve always been interested in animals, so maybe something along those lines.”

“
The Rhino.”

My eyes go to Jack, who hides his face behind a bottle of beer.

“
I never liked that nickname”, Alex says.

I’m not entirely sure if Mom is satisfied by his response, but she leaves it for now whether she is or not. She has the kind of look in her eyes that suggests that she hasn’t quite finished with him yet, and if she’s anything like she always was she’ll be waiting for the moment to dig the knife in and twist it around.

Alex gives as good as he gets, however, and no matter how much she throws at him, he’ll be absolutely fine holding his own. I know he’s holding back out of a respect for my family at the moment, but as much as he doesn’t look capable, Alex knows his way around an argument and exactly how to win one.