‘Just doing my job.’
‘No, you weren’t. You were doing far more than your job, Laurie.’
‘I’ve been thinking about what we were talking about the other night. You know, keeping on doing this kind of work.’
‘Yeah?’ Ross flopped down onto his back, staring up at the sky. ‘Come to any conclusions?’
‘Yes, I have. You’re right, I can’t be a proper mentor just yet, but I can start setting up a framework. Something that I can develop, with the aim of spending all my time on it later.’
‘That would work. Something like a small charity, with lots of room to grow.’
‘Yes, exactly. It would be a network, for teenagers. Maybe start with a website where they can find information about good trainers and good medical care. What they want would be the most important thing, not what other people want for them. We’d be entirely without any expectations of what the right answer for them might be.’
Ross turned to look at her. ‘And you could ultimately provide a transition out of sport and into something else if that’s what they really want to do with their lives? Or transitions into sport if that’s what they wanted.’
‘Yes, exactly. They come first, and we’d be advocates for them.’
‘It’s got a lot of potential.’
‘I’d start small, getting contacts and setting things up. And when I do retire from rowing, I can devote more of my time to it on a regular basis.’
‘You should talk to Sam about this. She’d be really interested in the idea, but she’d be the first to say that she doesn’t have your killer instinct.’
‘What?’ Laurie aimed a play punch at his arm. ‘You think I’ve got a killer instinct!’
‘You know what I mean. You’ve got the audacity to go out and push people out of their comfort zone to make something work. Sam’s got a lighter touch, she’s no less committed but she’ll kill you with kindness rather than running at you with a battering ram. It takes all sorts, and together you might be unstoppable.’
This was what Ross did so well. Putting people together. Seeing how different approaches might work in harmony instead of tugging against each other.
‘Could I count on your support?’ She hardly dared ask him. It would be a way of keeping one thread of contact with Ross.
‘Always. If the clinic can help you in any way, you only have to call.’
That wasn’t what she meant. The clinic could certainly help her, but it was Ross himself that she really wanted. Laurie hardly dared ask.
‘What about you, Ross? Will you help me?’
He pressed his lips together, and Laurie shivered in the afternoon sunshine.
‘I can’t. You know the reasons why, and that it’s not that I don’t want to. If you do this it has to be something for yourself and the kids you want to help.’
‘I’m planning on setting up a charity, not a dating agency. You want to help these kids too, I know you do.’
The reply was only half a joke. If Ross thought that this was her way of keeping in contact with him... It wasn’t, it was something that she wanted to do. But if one of the by-products was that she did keep Ross on her mailing list, and maybe in her life as well, it was an idea that suddenly appealed to Laurie a great deal.
He nodded, and for a brief moment she let herself bask in the idea that her future might contain Ross.
‘I do. But I’m sorry, Laurie, we can’t do it together.’
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
ROSS STOOD IN the doorway of the gym, watching as Sam and Laurie led the mother and toddler exercise class. Sam had brought Timothy in to help and being a little older than most of the other children in the class he was taking his responsibilities seriously, standing next to his mother and reproducing the exercises she was teaching. Clearly they’d been practising together.
Laurie was having fun, too. She moved amongst the group, helping those who needed help and quietly correcting the posture of anyone not keeping their back straight. A little girl started to fret, and Laurie spoke to her mother and then picked her up.
A month ago, Ross wouldn’t have believed what he was seeing. Laurie, smiling at the child on her hip, entertaining her so that her mother could exercise in peace. She was good with her too, bringing a smile to the little girl’s face with almost no effort at all.
‘This one works better with two...’ Sam raised her voice in a broad hint, but Laurie seemed intent on sorting through the toybox with her new friend. ‘Laurie!’