Blindsided (Game On 2)

I’d worked with McCoy for months, but there was still a part of me that was intimidated as hell by him. He’d been my hero since I was ten years old, and it blew my mind that I was playing on the same team as him.

“I don’t know,” I said. “Are you sure he’s cool with it?”

Leah laughed. “He’s more than cool with it. He’s upstairs throwing some things into a bag so he can be there as soon as possible.”

“Wow. That’s … I really appreciate this.”

“This is what team mates do for each other, isn’t it?”

“Yeah but … he’s in the UK to be with you, not me.”

“Don’t worry about that. He’s going to be here for a while. I can spare him for a few days. Or as long as it takes to sort everything out.”

“Leah. Thank you.”

“Anytime, kiddo. Just get better soon.”

Chapter Twelve – A Different Story

Isabelle

After Jesse threw me out of his room, I didn’t want to hang around at the hospital any more. I’d been t

here less than an hour, but what was the point of staying? He didn’t understand my choice, and I couldn’t blame him. I didn’t fully understand it either. I left the hospital, hopped on the tube, and didn’t allow myself to think until I was safely in my room.

With Mum, Dad and Hunter at the hospital, and Georgia who knows where, there was no need for me to shut my bedroom door, but I needed to feel safe and secure.

From the moment Jesse collapsed at the party, a sense of uneasiness settled inside me, and I didn’t know how to get rid of it.

Jesse was the only person who truly made me feel safe and losing him made me feel exposed, vulnerable.

Telling him my choice was the hardest thing I’d ever done. He looked at me as if I’d automatically jumped in to save Georgia, and that I didn’t care about him at all. In reality, I’d done everything I could to persuade her to go to the police. And I cared about Jesse more than I’d ever cared for anyone.

I didn’t have to tell him the truth. Part of me knew it was selfishness that made me do it because I didn’t want to carry the weight of it alone. All I’d done was place an extra burden on him, and he already had enough to deal with.

He was so fragile. He wanted to be seen as a big, tough footballer, but he was sweet, sensitive. I could see in his gorgeous green eyes how much I’d hurt him. Less than twenty-four hours before, those eyes had looked at me with adoration.

I wished Georgia hadn’t confided in me. I wished she had kept it all to herself, but just like I needed to unload it on Jesse, she needed to unload it on me. She was my sister. My twin sister. My relationship with her was bound to last longer than my thing with Jesse. Maybe if he lived in the UK, I would have chosen differently, but he was going away again soon.

Keep telling yourself that.

My time with Jesse had felt like more than a holiday fling. My logical side told me a long term relationship with him was impossible, but my enormous romantic streak said something different.

“Izzy?”

Georgia opened the door, looking just as tired and bedraggled as me. “Mum phoned me and said you’d left the hospital. What happened?”

I glanced up at her from beneath my eyelashes, and she said, “You told him?”

“Yeah. I told him.”

“How could you do that?” she demanded, stomping into the room and slamming the door behind her. “I asked you not to tell anyone, and the first thing you do is tell the person who is most likely to go to the police!”

Panic, and probably sleep deprivation, were making her edgy but after not calling the police myself like I wanted to, I’d hoped for a bit more gratitude.

“You don’t think he deserved to know how he ended up in hospital?” I asked.

“I think that I trusted you not to tell anyone, and you told anyway!”