Always on My Mind (Stanmore FC Soulmates #2)

10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

“Come on, Tessa, please,” Niamh begged, forcing her bottom lip into a pout. “You’ll really be helping out the club. And it’s only part-time. You’ll still be able to work at the magazine.”

Tessa heaved a sigh. The last thing she wanted was a part-time job that put her in Jamie’s vicinity. But the London Pursuit had been giving her fewer assignments, and her bank account was reaching a point where she wasn’t sure she could afford her next trip to Tesco. But Jamie. . .

“I don’t know if I’m right for it,” she argued. “I’m not a social media manager.”

“You do socials for the magazine,” Niamh said. “It can’t be that different for a football club. And Nelle needs someone to cover the women’s team.”

“Who was covering it before?”

“No one.”

Tessa blinked. “No one?”

“Rebecca posted to our pages herself after getting some graphics from Nelle,” Niamh explained. “But now that we’re promoted, Rebecca says she shouldn’t have to. Plus, we’re playing in the big stadium, so we need more marketing to fill the seats.”

Tessa shook her head and got to her feet, disappearing into the kitchen to avoid her flatmate’s pleading eyes. Unfortunately, Niamh followed. Tessa didn’t look at her and reached up to the cabinet for the ruse of making herself something to eat. But to her dismay, her side of the cabinet held only a jar of peanut butter and a half-finished box of biscuits. Niamh’s side was bursting with crisps, crackers, dried fruits, and nuts—everything a young footballer could put away and burn off the next day in training. Tessa’s stomach rumbled. She needed to get to the grocery store.

Pulling her phone out of her pocket, she opened up her banking app. Her eyes misted over at the number and she cursed her measly salary at the London Pursuit . Especially since her next paycheck wouldn’t come through for another week.

She slammed the cabinet and faced Niamh, who eyed her with a raised brow.

“Fine,” Tessa said with a frown. “I’ll give it a go.”

“Yes!” Niamh cried, pumping her fist in the air before yanking Tessa into a hug. “It’ll be fun to have you at work too!”

Tessa wished she could say the same. She adored Niamh, but the thought of seeing Jamie again already had her stomach in knots. Maybe with the amount of other people around, it wouldn’t be too bad. Jamie would be another face in the crowd. Even though Jamie’s face always managed to hold Tessa’s attention. At the party, she hadn’t been looking. Knowing Jamie was there, though. . . Tessa wondered if she would be able to keep herself from seeking Jamie out. She would have to give it her best shot.

The September morning sun warmed Tessa’s face as she walked out on the pitch with Nelle, who Tessa found business-minded but friendly. Billie had always said good things about Nelle, so Tessa hadn’t been nervous to meet the Stanmore head of social media. The job seemed simple enough—take loads of pictures and videos at training, edit things down to fifteen to thirty-second clips, and post three times a day. For forty pounds an hour, Tessa wouldn’t complain.

The men’s team were running a drill with the goalkeepers, while the women’s team played a four-on-four match on their side of the pitch. Tessa remembered Niamh complaining the first day about training with the men, but she hadn’t said much more since then. Tessa assumed that meant it was going smoothly.

It seemed to be as she observed from the boundary. Tessa focused on the women’s team, her eyes finding Jamie in spite of herself. Jamie had always moved with the efficiency of a well-oiled machine. Her muscles and joints created a familiar dance as she dribbled the ball away from her defender and passed it up to Zahra, who scored after one touch. Their side cheered and exchanged high fives. Jamie’s radiant smile made Tessa’s breath catch.

“I really appreciate you doing this,” Nelle said as they came to a stop on the touchline. “With the men’s season already underway, I had no idea how I was going to manage the women as well.”

Tessa shook her head to clear it of Jamie’s laugh. “Oh, sure, yeah. No problem. I’m sure I’ll have loads of content by the afternoon.”

“If you’re ever stuck, do the question game,” Nelle said.

“The question game?”

“When they’re going into or coming out of the locker room, have a question prepared to ask each player as they pass you. ‘Which club d’you think will win the league this season?’ ‘What footballer has inspired you the most?’ ‘What artist would you want to see open the Champions League final?’ Stuff like that.”

“Does it have to be football-related?”

“No, it could be anything.”

“So. . . I could ask who their celebrity crush is?”

Nelle giggled. “I love that. Can I steal it for the men’s team, too?”

“Better yet, let’s ask them all together and post to both pages,” Tessa suggested. “If everyone’s training together, we can show that on social media.”

“Brilliant!” Nelle agreed with a grin.

Even though Tessa wouldn’t be working with them directly, Nelle still introduced her to the men’s team. She knew Jordan already, but the rest of them she had never officially met. The manager was especially warm, with joy-reddened cheeks and a friendly smile.

Tessa disclosed to Nelle that she was Niamh’s flatmate and had already met most of the women’s team at their housewarming. After being introduced as the social media assistant, the women embraced Tessa. Most of them, quite literally, pulling her into quick hugs before they returned to training. The only person she didn’t know was Rebecca, the manager, but she was nice enough, albeit focused. She greeted Tessa with a professional handshake, thanked her, and then was off to say something to her goalkeeping coach.

Jamie approached last. Tessa’s shoulders stiffened at Jamie’s outstretched hand, but she refused to let anyone around know there was tension. She forced a small smile and wrapped her fingers around Jamie’s palm, doing her best to ignore the shooting warmth that went up her arm the moment they touched. A quiet gasp from Jamie told Tessa that she felt it too.

Jamie cleared her throat. “Nice to see you again.”

“You too,” Tessa said, and it didn’t feel like a lie. The truth was, touching Jamie made her more relaxed than anything. Even nerves about doing the new job faded.

Jamie let go first, but maintained eye contact for a long moment afterward. She held Tessa’s gaze until Monika called her name, and she had to turn her head. Tessa watched the swish of the brown ponytail and ached to run her fingers through Jamie’s hair.

The sound of Rebecca’s whistle drew Tessa from her preoccupation with Jamie and made her alert. Pulling out her phone, she shot some videos of the women’s drills. Rebecca wanted to work on set pieces. She split the team up into two teams, one playing defense and one playing offense. Jamie was on offense. Tessa had to remind herself to move the camera off Jamie’s flexed, gorgeous legs, and get shots of the others. She couldn’t let this job turn her into the creepy friend from Love Actually who only filmed Kiera Knightley.

But Jamie stole the show when she launched herself into the air to meet the ball with her head, steering it right into the top right corner of the net.

Tessa’s heart fluttered as she watched Jamie’s joy. Tessa hadn’t seen that in a while. When Jamie was at Arsenal, she was riddled with anxiety. In fact, Tessa had talked her down from more panic attacks than she could count. The few times she caught a Manchester City match, Jamie walked around the pitch with a furrowed brow and a frown. Something was different at Stanmore. For the first time, Jamie appeared to be enjoying football.

In an uncharacteristically cheeky move, she blew a kiss to the camera. Tessa grinned. Smiley, playful Jamie was. . . cute. There was no other word for it. And Tessa found herself wishing she could kiss those smiling cheeks again. It was easy to ignore missing Jamie when Jamie wasn’t around. But when she was, Tessa’s chest cracked open with the misery of it.

Damn that forty quid an hour.

When the athletes wrapped up on the pitch, Tessa parked herself in front of the exit to the dressing rooms to deliver her celebrity crush question. The first few answers were expected, with several names of models thrown out. Hector mentioned Bella Hadid. Peter O’Riley switched to actresses and named Sydney Sweeney.

“Jordan, who’s your celebrity crush?” Tessa asked the goalkeeper, and he tugged off his gloves.

He pulled out the chain hanging around his neck from under his kit and flashed his wedding band before pressing a kiss to it. “My wife.”

“Awww,” Tessa said before she could stop herself.

“Oh, come on, give us a real answer,” Nelle urged through a laugh.

“That is a real answer,” Jordan argued. “My wife is more famous than I am.”

Nelle rolled her eyes as he made way for Paige.

“Paige, who’s your celebrity crush?”

“Jordan’s wife,” Paige answered, snorting through the word “wife” as Jordan whirled around, affronted.

“Oi!” he warned.

“You be nice to Laci,” Paige quipped. “Or I will be so, so nice to her.”

They elbowed each other playfully as they walked down the tunnel. Tessa’s mouth turned up into a smile. Maybe the men and women could train together peacefully. Paige and Jordan teased each other, Hector and Zahra exchanged a few flirty looks, and Monika and Callum gave each other tips on the best way to take a penalty as they walked.

Jamie approached next and Tessa braced herself as she asked, “Jamie, who’s your celebrity crush?”

Jamie’s face froze, and Tessa saw a glimpse of panic behind her eyes. She recovered quickly, blinking and clearing her throat, but Tessa knew it was a ploy to buy time. Jamie had never been attracted to men. There was no way she had an answer ready to go.

“Er. . . ” she trailed off. “Hozier? I guess?”

Tessa bit her lip to hold back a laugh. For someone who didn’t want people to know she was a lesbian, Jamie was not hiding it well with that answer.

Neriah, who was behind Jamie, halted. “Hozier?”

Jamie blinked. “Is that odd?”

“No, but it is gay,” Neriah said with a scoff.

The color drained from Jamie’s face. “But. . . he’s a man.”

“And? Have you seen that man? He’s not for the straights.”

“I don’t understand—”

“Okay, why don’t we get your celebrity crush, Neriah?” Tessa intervened, and Jamie shot her a grateful look before she disappeared down the tunnel. “You seem to have put some thought into this.”

“Mine are a tie between Bad Bunny and Kristen Stewart,” Neriah said.

“Thank you for that extremely bisexual answer,” Tessa joked.

Neriah chuckled and shrugged. “I am what I am.”

She went down the hall, and Tessa continued the interviews. She hoped Jamie wasn’t overthinking the moment with Neriah. But Jamie was who she was. And that meant she would be kicking herself for hours, all while coming up with a list of male celebrities to use instead in case she ever got that question again.

When the interviews were over, Tessa approached Nelle about the footage.

“Hey, d’you think we could leave out Jamie’s answer and Neriah saying it’s gay?” she asked.

“No worries,” Nelle said. “I want to post the interaction between Paige and Jordan. It shows the men’s team and women’s team are friendly, which is what our owner wants.”

Tessa let out a sigh of relief. She didn’t want Jamie to get an earful from her father for something Tessa came up with.

“When the women are done for the day, could you get some b-roll footage from their dressing room?” Nelle asked. “I think some before and after shots could be cool for the opening match day post.”

“Sure, no problem,” Tessa agreed.

She followed the team out the tunnel and walked to the women’s facilities.