Rags 2 Pitches: A Secret Baby Sports Romance Read Online Free PDF Page B

world of opportunity outside of just playing for a team. I had that with Manchester Club, with WBA, I wasn’t so sure.
    “They’re offering a package. Not only money, but housing too. I need to use that as leverage so that my brothers and sister can come live with me eventually. I need that more than ever now, because things are getting bad. The social keep sniffing their bloody noses in and it’s just a matter of time until they pull them in and I’ll never really get to see them again. They deserve more than that.”
    Shit, she had to understand that. We had only been going out just under a month, she couldn’t make demands on me, especially this dream which didn’t affect just me, but my siblings too.
    “You know what, all I hear is me, my siblings, and me again. I just don’t seem to feature in the equation!” With those words she stood up. I was never a person that was good with words. This was the main reason I would be shit at being a solicitor or any other profession that needed words. I tried to think of something to say, but as I searched for the words, before I looked up again she was gone. Probably on the bus back home. I wanted to reassure her, tell her that nothing would come in our way, but just like she had planned out her life and it involved going to university and getting a degree, I had planned out mine. And if it involved moving to Manchester, then so be it. If she couldn’t understand that, then this relationship was over.
    I just didn't know which one hurt more right now, her not trying to understand or me probably having to leave.
     
    Chapter 10
    Nicola

    “Dad, you’re home!” I hadn’t expected that, especially on a weekend. He was always claiming that he was on a business trip and preferred to leave on a Friday night so he had a clear head for Monday, but we all knew that it wasn’t true. Everyone needs to switch off, even corporate heads like him.
    “I was waiting for you. Your mum said you were in Croydon with Michelle.”
    I nodded, I didn’t feel like being interrogated. Right now, Ryan was talking to the manager of Manchester Club about possibly leaving London and going up there. The only thing I wanted to do right now was go to my room and cry.
    “Well, were you?”
    “If Mum says I was there, then I was there. Why?”
    I was being defensive and the last thing I wanted was an interrogation. The man was never at home, and he had the cheek to ask me about my whereabouts.
    “Funny that. I saw Michelle’s tweet about being at a football match.”
    I stopped with my hand on the bannister, ready to turn around and face the music. Since when did he go on Twitter, let alone know Michelle’s Twitter handle? This felt surreal; I knew nothing about his life and I was pretty sure that he knew nothing about mine.
    “I never knew that you were into football.”
    “How would you when you are never at home?”
    He smirked, “Now, you know I’m always working.”
    I bit my tongue, because I was going to say something, anything, to put him in his place, but I couldn’t; no matter what he was my dad.
    “Yes, but if you want we could go to a match together.”
    I needed to leave before the tears started rolling down my cheeks. I had walked all the way home. I hadn’t stopped, not even for a second.
    “I wouldn’t want you to get distracted,” he said.
    Now, he had my attention, he knew. This conversation was a threat; he wasn’t interested in spending time with me. Then again why should he? He hadn't been for the last ten years or probably more.
    “Going to a football match is getting distracted?” I raised an eyebrow, thinking that he should just get to the punchline.
    He held onto my shoulders as he stood at the bottom of the stairs. This cold house that I had lived in for so many years and that I called home, felt more like a prison as he spat his words at me so confidently, “Yes, distracted. I talked to your mum and she will be taking you to school and back if I am not at