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Chapter 16
On entering The Russian’s house again, I held my breath. I sort of expected Leesa to be back, but the place was quiet. The only evidence of the former drama was a hole in the plasterboard wall. The Russian looked a bit sheepish as he saw me looking at it.
“Here’s the plan,” he said. He was so like me, I always had a plan.
“Let’s go for a beach walk and do our talking there, then come back here and crash for the night. First light is at quarter-to-seven, sunrise at just after seven o’clock ...” he stopped, catching my expression.
“I’m impressed,” I said.
“I hope so. I’ve got some other impressive things to show you too, if you can be any more impressed by me,” he teased.
“Does seem impossible,” I agreed.
He put my bag down in one of the bedrooms ... I didn’t know if it was his, hmm, interesting, and he grabbed the keys and then my hand. We went out through the balcony glass doors and he locked them.
He kicked his shoes off and suggested I did the same; we left them near the door. I turned and breathed in the salt air and the view. Even at night by moonlight it was stunning; I could only imagine what it was like to live there when you could see it all the time. We took the stairs down the side of his condo and within a minute were on the beach. There were people around even at that hour and we made our way to the harder sand on the water’s edge and began to walk. It was the most magic of settings. The moon lit the water, it was quiet and balmy and The Russian took my hand. It was so private – most people on the beach wanted their own space so no one was there to witness us, ask for autographs or get photos. Magic.
He cleared his throat. “I don’t know what you want to hear ... I’ve never hit a woman and I never will, ever. Leesa just knows how to rile me ...”
“But why did you stay together this long if it was so wrong?”
The Russian sighed and looked out to sea, as we continued to walk along the beach.
“I know this will probably sound stupid, but I guess we didn’t know how to leave,” he said, with a shrug. “We were together from our school days and I knew it wasn’t a great relationship, but we had invested so much time, it seemed futile to throw it away – like it just should work or it once did, so let’s force it,” he tried to explain it. “But once I got contracted and couldn’t give her the time she wanted, things got worse. It’s one of the reasons I signed with the Saints.”
“To move here? To get away from her?” I asked.
“More or less. It was running away, or running home ... my family moved here when I started middle school … Dad got a transfer here. That’s how I met Leesa because her father kept a house here, he wanted Leesa schooled away from the city lights. As soon as we graduated, she was out of here. When I came back to play for the Saints, I knew Leesa wouldn’t want to come back, she wanted the, Hollywood lifestyle. She needs to be in the party scene and I hate that scene.”
I nodded, not saying anything in case he stopped talking. I’d never heard him say so much.
“Did you want to ask me anything?” he said.
I bit my lip, thinking. I wanted to ask him a thousand questions but I wanted the night to be about us too, what was left of it. “Do you want to get back with her?”
“Never.”
I loved that word, it was so ‘forever’. His wary eyes watched me as I prepared my next question.
“Do you want some time out to ... you know ... play the field, have a break from relationships, just have some fun? Because, I’m not interested in a fling, but I’ll understand if you need to do that.” I stopped breathing while I waited for his answer.
He shook his head. “I’ve played the field during the times we’ve been off and there’s been a lot of times. The ex has been playing the field on me for years. I hate that; I won’t live with that kind of relationship again.”
Just what I wanted to hear, my stomach settled down again. The Russian was ticking all my boxes, I was getting the security I needed to think we had a chance.
Then he brought it home beautifully.
“I wish you and I had met earlier, years ago,” he said, and my heart went straight to my throat. I swallowed, holding back tears. “I know it’s really early days, but we get each other and what we need to do.” He turned around, spinning me under his arm like a dance move and put his arm around my shoulder as we walked back in the moonlight towards his place.
I nodded. “The partner of an athlete is not an easy role.”
“But if the partners aren’t competing or jealous it can be great,” he said. “I’ve seen it around the club, like Lucas and Mia. She’s a sports physio, she loves the game, loves him, gets what he has to do and he needs her. So far, you seem calm ... no tantrums, no demands, you even make me want to work harder at being better.”
I smiled up at him, flattered he would say that. I felt the same; in fact, I was hoping my last match was going to be super impressive if The Russian was going to be watching me from one of the ten seats he had bought at the auction.
“What about Nik and Sasha?” I asked about our mutual friends, curiosity getting the better of me.
“They’re solid, but different. They’re both ambitious but not competing, so they help each other. Nik needs security and Sasha has that in buckets. Not sure about Tomás and Alice though.”
