The Reluctant Wag Read Online Free PDF Page A

the modelling, although that was unsettling enough; it was him. Why on earth was she letting him get to her like this? It wasn’t like her. She’d never been one of those women who needed a man in her life to feel complete. She’d had a couple of boyfriends at school, and one or two since she’d arrived in Melbourne, but only briefly and nothing even remotely serious. She’d decided she just wasn’t the romantic type, and she certainly wasn’t the type to make a fool of herself over a man. Cal McCoy had somehow worked his way inside her head tonight, and she didn’t like it. Of course he was gorgeous and athletic, but she’d never before been bowled over by a man’s looks, and she wasn’t going to let herself get carried away now – surely?
    And why did he antagonise her so much? Why did she seem to antagonise him? On the one hand, she didn’t care what he thought of her, and on the other, she hated the idea that he thought her a fool. She wanted him to think well of her. One part of her wanted his attention, another part thought she’d be best to steer well clear of him – permanently.
    She finally threw off the covers, went to her desk and turned on her new laptop. She thought that as she couldn’t sleep, she might as well send some emails. As she sorted unenthusiastically through her mail the image of Cal – and even more troubling, Cal shirtless – kept coming into her mind. Then she had an idea, and the next minute she’d abandoned her email and googled ‘Cal McCoy’. She came up with over 245 000 hits. She was stunned. Staggered. She refined her search, adding the word ‘articles’ and found his work in the Melbourne Times . She began reading.
    Half an hour later and she was feeling even more dismayed. The man could write, too! His work was engaging, and he wrote about football with the authority of an expert. Yet his articles were also written with style and laced with humour, and he wrote so clearly that even she could understand, despite her lack of footy knowledge. Cal was no chump. If only she could write like that, she thought ruefully.
    When she’d read his most recent article she began to explore some of the other sites where his name featured and soon found herself on Footy Fanatics , Australia’s biggest sports forum. There seemed to be dozens of threads devoted to him. Eagerly she read through the titles:
    McCoy Is Ripped, Ready and Raring to go
    Gotta Be Captain Courageous
    Can McCoy Win Us a Flag?
    Cal’s Top 5 Goals
    This Is Why He’s Captain
    Real McCoy YouTubes
    It was plain silly. These men – and they were mostly men – were obsessed with Cal. It was enough to give anyone a case of over-inflated ego.
    She then watched some of the YouTube videos and scanned many of the posts by the Yarraside faithful. She was intrigued by the loyalty Cal inspired in these total strangers. She read through several threads where they defended him fiercely from the verbal attacks of opposition supporters.
    Devil Man: He might be a good player but McCoy’s an arrogant tosser – too up himself to take the team with him. He’ll never lead you to a flag.
    One-Eyed Wolf: He’s halfway there already. It was his on-field leadership last year that drove the boys on. They’d kill for Cal. This is the Year of the Wolf, sonny. We’ll steamroll the Devils this year and Cal will leave your boys in the dirt.
    By the time she went back to bed one thing was clear – McCoy was a real hero to these fans, and their expectations of him were enormous. It was also obvious that he was a hated figure to the fans of opposition teams. She’d had a look at less flattering threads, where he was described as ‘Captain Dud’ and ‘Captain Bighead’. To her, it seemed ridiculous that a simple ball game could engender such passion. So many people seemed to take it so seriously. Well, she supposed there was a great deal of money involved for someone like Cal.
    One way or another, he would be under massive pressure