RHINO: A Bad Boy Sports Romance (With FREE Bonus Novel OFFSIDE!) (56 page)

“
I’ve got good news.”

Out of the top drawer of his desk he pulls an envelope which he drops on the desk in front of me.

“
I’m getting a pay rise?”

“
You’re going the fuck home.”

My heart stops dead.

“
Excuse me?”

Harrison jabs the envelope with his finger.

“
Plane tickets. Your flight leaves on Monday, it was the earliest I could get.”

“
What? Is this a fucking joke?”

“
I spoke with your manager this morning, Dougie. The ban has been lifted. Your club want you back.”

My head is spinning. “The ban?”

“
Jasper, are you concussed?”

“
It’s just, my contract-.”

“
What do you give a shit about your contract for? Your club want you back. Congratulations, it’s fucking great news. It also means that you can forget all about breaking my daughter’s heart.”

“
You’re sending me home?”

“
I think you should see the club medic on your way out.”

“
Does Penny know about this?”

“
Penny has nothing to do with this decision.”

“
I have a contract with this club-.”

“
Not any more you don’t. You have a contract with Corsham Rugby Club and your owner Alex Santos is paying for your services. It’s out of my hands, Jasper. He’s calling you back.”

I can feel my blood boiling.

“
You fucking cunt.”

I watch Harrison rise from his chair, his face reddening.

“
Say that again and I’ll knock your teeth out.”

“
This isn’t over, Harrison.”

“
It’s over, Jasper. Go back home, stay out of my daughter’s life. One cheating asshole is enough for a lifetime. She doesn’t need another prick like you fucking up her life again.”

I leave. There is nothing more I can do with Harrison apart from take out my anger on him and that’s not going to help the situation at all. I need to speak to Dougie and Alex Santos, and I need to speak to Penny.

Harrison cares more about his daughter than his club, which I have to admire. I just wish he knew how serious I was about being with her. None of that will matter, however, if he’s forcing me out and I have to go back home to finish my contract at Corsham.

Monday is two days away. That gives me hardly any time at all to call them and get this sorted. I knew this moment was going to come eventually, I just didn’t expect it halfway through the season, right at the start of my relationship with Penny, when Moxlin Tiger’s finally have a chance to make it to the play offs and turn their fortunes around.

Can I really go back to England now, and do I even have a choice to refuse? This is completely fucked up.

When I get back home I call Dougie. I’ll talk to Penny later when I’ve worked out what options I have left. The call clicks through almost immediately, and I get the impression they’ve been waiting for me to get in contact.

“
Very impressive, Jasper. You’re all over the news.”

“
I guess I’m just a natural.”

“
I have to say, I expected to see a bit more of you doing a bit more of what you do here. You know, drinking, threatening journalists, fucking everything in a skirt.”

“
What can I say? America has matured me.”

“
It’s time to come home.”

“
What did they say?”

“
You’ve been fined, which the club has agreed to pay, and you’ll need to do a course, which we’ll talk about when you get back. I take it Harrison has spoken to you?”

“
He gave me some plane tickets.”

“
Business class, Jasper. We only thought it fair. You seem to have made a name for yourself out there.”

“
It’s halfway through the season, Dougie.”

“
Corsham need you, Jasper. I take it you’ve been keeping up.”

“
I’ve been keeping up. You’re shit without me.”

“
Then you’ll be itching to get back.”

“
Like I say, Dougie, it’s halfway through the season here.”

Dougie clears his throat. He’s being patient, formal. “We’re giving you a few days to adjust and then you’ll be straight back into it. Just how you like it.”

“
What’s happened to my contract here?”

“
Absolved, which means your contract automatically defaults to Corsham Rugby Club. There’s nothing for you to worry about.”

“
This club will fall apart without me playing.”

“
That’s not our concern, and it’s certainly not Harrison’s. Tie up all of your loose ends and get on the plane, you’re coming home, no two fucking ways about it. I don’t care if you’ve fallen in love with American football, you’ve found the future mother of your children or you’ve already fathered a family of four, you are getting on that plane whether you like it or not, because from right now, you belong to Corsham. Break that contract and you’ll be acting illegally. Also, your work permit is about to run out, just so you know.”

Not so formal anymore.

I click off. I need time to think about what has just happened. Best game of my life, worst possible moment to follow it. Harrison couldn’t be happier even though it means his club will sink. I don’t know what I could possibly have done to make him hate me so much. Alright, I haven’t got the best of reputations and that night out after the first game was a bit of carnage, but since then, and since Penny and I have been routinely fucking, I haven’t put a foot wrong.

This is fucked up. I’m contracted to a rugby club in England that are obliging me to return. Moxlin Tigers have just ended my contract, which means I technically don’t have a visa to stay here any more, and then, mixed up in all of this is Penny, the girl I’ve fallen head over heels in love with.

I can’t leave Penny, which means she either comes with me, or I don’t go at all.

I need a fucking drink.

Penny

This cannot be happening. We are only halfway through the best season we have had in years, Jasper and I have real long term potential together, he’s supposed to be contracted with us for at least until the end of the season, and now this. They are lifting the ban and pulling him away. I wasn’t even consulted. This is my player, and I wasn’t even spoken to before the decision was made.

I’m trying to concentrate on the implications this has for Moxlin Tigers and forget about the implications it has for Jasper and I as a couple, because I don’t want to believe it. If Jasper goes, this is the end of us. No more bad jokes, office fucking and posh restaurants. Jasper would go back to his life, and I’d have to work out how to live mine without him.

Dad doesn’t seem to be affected by this in the way I expected of a man who is likely to see his beloved football club collapse. If Jasper goes, it isn’t just the end of our relationship, it’s the end of Moxlin Tigers too. Forever. We won’t survive this without him, he’s that important to the future of this club.

“
There’s nothing we can do.”

“
If we lose Jasper, it’s the end.”

“
There’s nothing I can do, Penny. They want their player back.”

“
He’s under contract here until the end of the season.”

Dad sighs. “Not any more he’s not, they bought him back out.”

“
You sold him? You sold our best player?”

“
He’s not even
our
player, let alone our best one, and he never was anyway. This isn’t his sport and it’s not even his country. We can get a real football player with the money they gave us. We’re 4-4 Penny, there is every chance we can survive.”

“
Without Jasper we’d be 0-8 and you know it.”

Dad shakes his head. “This fucking club does not revolve around Jasper Stone.”

“
Why didn’t you tell me?”

“
I’m telling you now.”

I’m so mad and so hurt I want to cry and scream at the same time. Dad just doesn’t seem to get it. No wonder Moxlin Tigers have been losing for the last three years. The problem isn’t the players, it’s the fucking management. The problem is Harrison Locke.

“
Jasper and I are together, you know that.”

“
Look, Penny. Jasper doesn’t belong here, he never did. You knew this was only ever going to be temporary, and at the best, until the end of the season. Jasper was always going home. Whatever you think you feel for him, forget about it and move it.”

I can’t believe I’m hearing this from my own father. Forget about it and move it. Way to be sensitive, Dad.

“
That’s your advice?”

“
How serious can you two be anyway? I mean, come on. Three years with that pitiful excuse of a human being Christopher Cole and now immediately off the rebound into the arms of the first man that shows interest in you. I’m doing you a favor.”

“
You’re making a huge mistake.”

“
Well thankfully I’m the one that gets to make it.”

“
Refuse the money and uphold the terms of the contract.”

That makes Dad laugh. It almost makes him stand up out of his chair and square up to me like he would do if I were one of his players back-chatting him.

“
Go home, Penny.”

“
Please, Dad, don’t send him back.”

I am crying now and I can’t help it. This has got to be the first time in at least fifteen years I’ve cried in front of my dad. The look he gives me makes it clear he’s not exactly comfortable with it either. Always a man of little affection beyond the manly hug, Dad looks like he’d rather escape completely than face his crying daughter.

“
It’s done, Penny. The flights are booked, the contract has been reneged.”

“
Please.”

“
There is nothing else I can do. As of Monday night Jasper is no longer covered by a work visa here.”

“
I’ll go with him.”

Now Dad gets up out of his chair and comes over, but I don’t let him get close to me.

“
No you won’t.”

“
I will, I’ll go with him. Fuck this club. Fuck this country.”

“
And what do you think will happen when you do? Do you think Jasper’s going to be able to fit you into his life as though you were always meant to be part of it? Do you think he really cares about you that much?”

I don’t know how to respond and Dad leaps on the gap in the conversation.

“
This is a fucking vacation for him. Do you understand? The rules aren’t the same. He knows that he can fuck you for a year, try and win a superbowl as though he’s some kind of superhuman and then go home at the end of it without worrying about any kind of attachment.”

I shake my head, but I still can’t speak.

“
He’s playing you, Penny. It’s what he does. It’s comfortable for him. Getting laid, staying in a nice house, having a tour guide to make his transition into a different country as easy as it could be. He hasn’t even sorted out an apartment for himself yet.”

“
That’s not Jasper.”

“
Oh no? That first night when he got drunk and naked in the middle of Moxlin and woke up in a stranger’s house, is that Jasper?”

“
Not anymore.”

Dad jabs his finger at me and I almost bat it away instinctively. He lowers it when he remembers who he’s talking to.

“
You can’t see it, but I see it every day. You’re going to hurt yourself, Penny, like you did with Topher. I’m doing you a favor. If Jasper stays until the end of the year, how much harder do you think it’s going to be when he leaves?”

“
You know what?”

Dad moves to behind his desk again, back into business mode.

“
I’m all ears.”

“
You’re the one that’s scared, not me.”

“
And how do you figure that?”

“
You’re scared of letting go. Of Moxlin, of me, of every decision that has to do with this club and it’s players, you’re scared.”

“
That’s bullshit.”

“
I don’t know you anymore. I thought you always had the best interests of this club at heart, but you don’t. You’re too old for this Dad, too rotten.”

“
Careful, Penny.”