am. You are incredibly strong, and you always have been, so it doesn’t surprise me in the least that you’re tackling this.”
“Thank you.” Her brows knit together as she lifts her eyes to mine. “I’m sorry if I was rude earlier. You didn’t deserve that.”
I shake my head. “I’m sorry too.”
She offers me a soft smile and moves to close the door, but I stop her for one more second, dipping my head down to meet her eyes.
“But before you drive away, I need you to know you’re not the only one who’s changed.”
“Okay?” she says it like a question as her eyes dip to my mouth.
My voice is low and controlled when I add, “Maybe I’ll be able to show you more of that in the future.”
Her lips part in surprise as I step back and close the door, turning on my heel to walk away from Tilly Logan. But something deep in my gut tells me I’m not walking away for good. And frankly, if Tilly knew everything about me, then there’s no saying what she’d think of the person I am today.
I toss and turn in bed for a full hour with Tilly Logan at the top of my mind. How could I be thinking of anything else? Her confession in the lift shocked me, and I still can’t believe how wrong I was for thinking she was the same party girl I remembered her to be.
Five years ago, she would outdrink me at the clubs. I’ve never been a huge drinker. My nonno and nonna would always serve wine with dinner, but it was merely for food pairing, never to get drunk. I guess that act took away the allure of alcohol for me, so more often than not, I find myself sipping the same drink for hours at an event, just holding it to feel social.
Tilly was always on a mission, though. She and that group of friends she ran with all seemed to be in competition with one another to be the hottest, the drunkest, or the wildest. I’d usually seek Tilly out earlier in the evening to get her away from that lot before things got truly out of hand.
Now, to think of her sober and doing it on her own…it really shows me just how far she’s come from when she lived here before.
Five Years Ago
Santino: You dead?
Trouble: No, why?
Santino: I haven’t heard from you in three weeks.
Trouble: Don’t you have other girls to warm your bed?
Santino: You know I have a thing for the Scottish lassies. Are you free tonight? I could come to yours.
Trouble: No, I’m sick.
Santino: Really? Are you hungover?
Trouble: No personal questions, remember? Rule number four.
Santino: How could I forget?
When Tilly doesn’t reply after my last text, I pause and debate what to do next. It’s been three months of us hooking up casually, and while I know we have our hard and fast rules like no personal questions, the fact that I haven’t heard from her in three weeks makes me worry that she really could be feeling poorly.
I wouldn’t worry about her if I didn’t know her mates to all be selfish fucking twats who only care about themselves. And she’s so damn stubborn, I bet she hasn’t even told her brother who lives here in London now. The club’s been travelling a lot the past few weeks, so knowing Tilly, she wouldn’t want to bother him while he’s in the middle of his first season here.
“Fuck it,” I growl, standing up from my desk. “Rules were made to be broken.”
In a flash, I’m at Tilly’s building in Soho with soup and sweets in hand. My nonna always said that food heals the soul, and since I didn’t want to waste more time making homemade pasta, store-bought chicken noodle and Cadburys are the best I could come up with.
As I knock on the door and wait for her to answer, I can’t help but feel nervous. This is the first time I’ve ever done something like this for a woman. As the lawyer for a football club, I’ve adapted to the footballer way of life. Casual sex, partying, zero strings. I know at thirty-one that probably makes me pathetic, but being in a relationship is just not something I want out of life. Not after knowing my past and where I come from.
Tilly Logan didn’t want commitment either, so we’ve been each other’s booty call for the past few months now. We even came up with