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‘He’s going to offer you your job back, isn’t he?’ said Guy with a knowing smile.
‘Yeah,’ said Rob. ‘I reckon he is.’
‘What are you going to do?’
‘Not sure. I’ll find out what he wants first, then speak to Hannah. But I’ll make him suffer either way, obviously.’
‘That’s my boy.’
‘Look, Rob,’ said Mark, his foot jiggling nervously despite his best efforts to sound nonchalant. ‘About last Saturday. I might have been a little hasty.’
‘A little?’ said Rob, his eyebrows making a break for the heavens.
‘Yes, a little,’ said Mark tersely. ‘Tensions were running high, things got a bit heated.’
Rob nodded and folded his arms. ‘Right. And this sudden change of heart has been prompted by . . . what, exactly?’
Mark turned his palms upwards.Here it comes, thought Rob. ‘We got another coach over to take your place, but to be honest he’s not a patch on you.’
What a surprise, thought Rob. Any coach available to drop everything and up sticks to Club Colina in May was guaranteed to be shit. ‘Right. So what are you asking, exactly?’
Mark sighed heavily. ‘I’m asking you to come back for the rest of the season.’
Rob said nothing for a moment, eyeing Mark carefully. ‘I’m not sure that’s going to work, to be honest.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because Hannah is going to be staying in the hotel for the next few days.’
‘And she’s your girlfriend?’ sneered Mark, like he’d been right all along.
‘No, she’s not my girlfriend. But she wasn’t my girlfriend a week ago either, and somehow that didn’t seem to matter.’
‘Olly told me she was gay,’ said Mark. ‘That true?’
‘I’m pretty sure that’s none of your business,’ said Rob, wondering if that was Olly’s attempt to make amends for the problems he’d caused. They stared each other down for a moment, both knowing full well that Rob held all the cards here.
‘Right, well. The offer’s there, if you want it. I’m not going to beg, obviously.’
‘I need to speak to Hannah first. It changes our plans.’
‘Fine,’ said Mark, standing up and putting his sunglasses back on his head. ‘Just let me know by tonight. If you’re up for it, I’ll send the other coach home tomorrow, and you can pick up with the new group on Sunday.’
Rob nodded, wondering what Hannah would say. It was a chance to get his summer back on track, but it would also mean the end of their road trip together. It felt like their relationship had been teetering on the edge of something new and exciting for the past few days, and the thought of saying goodbye made him feel sick.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
‘Well, this is lovely,’ said Kate, coming back from the bar with two gin and tonics and giving Hannah a warm smile. ‘So nice for us to have a chance to get to know each other.’
Hannah forced a smile in return, wondering what Kate would make of her and Rob’s slightly unconventional situation. She was also struggling to reconcile a woman who looked as young and fresh as Kate being Rob’s mum – only some crepey skin on her chest when she leaned over gave any indication that this was a woman who was pushing sixty, possibly older.
‘So, you and Rob make a beautiful couple,’ said Kate happily.
‘Oh,’ said Hannah. ‘Thanks.’ What else was she supposed to say?We’re not actually a couple and we’ve never kissed each other, but we were definitely planning to have sex later, before you called.However open-minded Kate was – and it was reasonable to assume she was considerably more liberal than Hannah’s own mother – it still sounded stupid. And the last thing Hannah wanted was to have toexplain. She sipped her drink, feeling tired and scratchy, but also rationalising that even if they were in the room next door to Kate and Guy, she and Rob would still be alone together, dog-free in a big bed with a whole night ahead of them. They’d just have to be slow and silent, which might actually be kind of amazing. She shivered at the thought of it, even though the air felt warm and sticky.
‘Oh, here’s Guy,’ said Kate, looking as relieved as Hannah was. ‘Where’s Rob?’
‘He’ll be along in a minute,’ said Guy. ‘We bumped into Mark, who runs the tennis coaching. I think he might be offering Rob his old job back.’
