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“I can understand that,” Janet said. “But don’t feel that you have to leave because of all this. We’re happy to have you for the next two weeks as planned. Besides, Isabelle will be miserable if you have to go home early.”
I doubt that. If anything, she’ll be relieved. I was surprised Janet even thought that after the way Isabelle ran out earlier and never came back. Maybe she thought Isabelle was upset about what had happened at the party, and hadn’t realised we’d had a fight.
“Thank you,” I said. “I’ll think about it tomorrow.”
“I bet you’ll be glad to get out of here,” Andrew said, “It’s not the nicest of places to be.”
“Yes sir. It’ll be good to get into a comfortable bed, and eat some real food.”
“Oh!” Janet said, “I was making lasagne for tonight, but I haven’t had time! How do you feel about a takeaway?”
“Sounds good to me.”
McCoy came back into the room looking a little mad, which got me worried.
“How much trouble am I in?” I asked.
“You’re not in trouble,” he said, “Richard wants you to call him later, but he’s gonna start working on getting those stories about you being drunk retracted. I think you’ll get out of this without any damage to your reputation. But I just had to politely remove some journalists from outside so you can get out of here without being photographed.”
“Do you think they’re at the house?”
“They’re not,” Andrew said. “I called Izzy and she said there’s nobody suspicious outside. But I’ll call again before we head back, just to be sure.”
Again, that feeling of inflicting trouble on an innocent family crept over me. They really didn’t deserve to have to fend off the press because I happened to be staying in their house.
“Are you gonna be okay?” McCoy asked me. “I hate to leave so soon but it’s getting late and I need to find somewhere to stay.”
I nodded. “I’ll be okay.”
“You’re welcome to stay with us,” Janet said. “Hunter and Jesse could easily share a room for a few nights.”
“Thank you, but I don’t want to put you to any trouble.”
“Well, at least come over for dinner later. You’ve come a long way, it’s not right that you spend the evening cooped up in a hotel room.”
I laughed to myself. With the money McCoy had, he probably wouldn’t dream of staying anywhere there was a chance of him being “cooped up.”
“Okay,” he said, “Thank you, that would be great.”
After saying a quick goodbye to everyone, McCoy headed out. Having him around definitely made things easier on me. It wasn’t like I was completely among strangers, but knowing there was someone from the team close by who really understood how I felt made me a lot less anxious. I still wished Leah had been able to come with him, but he was making a surprisingly good substitute.
“So, now he’s gone,” Hunter said, “is it okay for me to say how freaking cool it was to have Radleigh McCoy here?”
The goofy grin on his face made me laugh. “Yeah, I can’t believe it either.”
Hunter high-fived me the way he used to when we were kids, and a little more of my stress fell away. Temporarily, at least.
“I’m sorry,” Andrew said. “But I have no idea who he is.”
“He’s the David Beckham of American soccer,” I replied. “He’s a pretty big deal back home.”
“Really? I’d never have guessed. He seems very grounded. Not arrogant at all.”
There was nothing funny about anything that had happened that day, but hearing McCoy described as “not arrogant” set off a fit of laughter I couldn’t control.
Chapter Fourteen – Did Someone Order A Pixie?
Isabelle
