Torn_A Contemporary Sports Romance Read online

  Wait. I stepped out of his embrace, not sure if I had heard him right. “The best way? For me to come with you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then what about you? Why can’t you stay here?”

  He winced, surprised by the sharp tone of my voice. “Isn’t it obvious? My career is—”

  “Yes. Your career. What about mine? Have you thought about it for a second as you concocted your plan? Have you thought about me?”

  He ran his hand through his hair twice, exhaling loudly. “I know. You have a career here and—”

  “Pathways is my clinic. I didn’t open it with my friends for nothing. And I have my friends here. I have everything here. I can’t just leave like that. I can’t just go to England, where, except you, I have nothing.”

  “Baby, I know, and if I knew there was any better way for us to work, I would suggest it.” He took my shoulders, peering into me. “I love you, Alison.” My breath hitched at his confession, and the veil of confusion enveloping me grew even thicker. He loved me.

  “And I don’t want you to sacrifice anything, but for now, I’m not able to make a compromise on this. This is a huge opportunity for me, and I can’t let it go.”

  As much as I fought against them, I couldn’t beat my tears, and the first one slid down my cheek. He caught it with his thumb and wiped it away. “Please, don’t cry. We can work this out.”

  “How? I’m afraid you’re asking for too much. I can’t come with you. And it hurts me that you think I can abandon my life here just like that.”

  “No. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want you to leave everything just for me. You’re a sports therapist, and you’d have plenty of opportunities in England, especially with your expertise and knowledge. I know people there. I’ll talk with someone and see if there’s something for you.”

  Now, this was going a bit too fast for me.

  “Please, wait. Just wait. This is too much for me. I… I need to think. Okay? I need time to think because you are telling me too much, and I have an overload of information in my head at the moment.”

  I went over to his balcony and stopped to look at the lights of the city ahead of me. Liam’s apartment complex was on the top of a hill that overlooked the city, so the view was worthy of the front page of a city magazine. Too bad that I couldn’t even appreciate the beauty of the landscape at the moment, thrown off-balance by the latest turn in events and the ugliness of my emotions.

  I could sense him right behind me, but he didn’t touch me. “I won’t pressure you into accepting this. I just want you to know that you have more options than you think. Yes, your life is here, but new beginnings don’t have to be so bad. And I know it’s not fair that only you have to sacrifice something, so this is all I am and will ever ask you. I will understand if you refuse to come with me.”

  I faced him with the lump in my throat. I needed more time to think about this. “Liam, I… I need to think about this, okay? I can’t give you an answer now, because everything is so muddled, and I don’t know what to do.”

  “I understand. Just know that I’ll fight for this. I’ll fight for us. No matter what you decide.”

  He outstretched his hand to touch my cheek, and I wished I could lean into his touch and tell him everything would be fine. But I couldn’t know that.

  So I just nodded and went inside to take my bag, hurrying to get out.

  13

  “Should I Stay or Should I Go” by The Clash went through my head on repeat, the tune and lyrics so catchy that it was stuck in my mind with no chance of disappearing anytime soon.

  I was in my office for the first time after my mini-vacation, but work did nothing to beat my bad mood. Surprise, surprise. Even a day after I found out that Liam was offered to become a coach, I couldn’t sort out my erratic thoughts.

  I didn’t know what to do, and that was an understatement. I went running this morning in hopes of getting rid of my tension, but it fell flat, which was a bummer because running always provided me a getaway from negative thoughts. I even tried a couple of yoga positions, following Claire’s advice, who was a sucker for yoga, but they only made me bored as hell. How people liked yoga was beyond me.

  Should I stay or should I go?

  I wanted to be with Liam, but I couldn’t help but feel lost. He had said he loved me, but I was the one who had to leave everything behind and start a new life elsewhere. I didn’t want to leave my clinic and my friends. I didn’t want to make a choice that could possibly be a career setback. This was making me feel so conflicted, especially since I couldn’t ask Liam to stay for me. He had already said loud and clear that wasn’t an option.

  And if we had a long-distance relationship, could that work? Could we survive being so far apart from each other with no way of knowing when or if we could ever live together?

  Ugh. So many questions. It was like I was on a TV quiz show and I had to come up with the answer to the million dollar question.

  “You’re doing great,” I said to Alicia, a 22-year old basketball player, who had a shoulder injury and was almost at the end of her rehabilitation. “At this rate, you’ll recover in no time.”

  “In time for the next season?”

  “Definitely. Maybe even sooner. You’ve shown remarkable progress. Just remember to rest your arm as much as possible, okay?”

  “Yes, sir.” She saluted me.

  Alicia was amazing and cheerful. I loved my sessions with her because we were more like old friends than a client and her therapist.

  “That’s a great attitude. You’re going to earn a medal for the best patient of the year.”

  “I can die peacefully now.”

  Ten minutes later, she was on her way out of my office when my phone vibrated in my pocket. I glanced at the clock on my desk and saw I had a few minutes of spare time to answer it.

  My heart sped up when I saw Liam’s name on my screen. I hadn’t heard from him since the night at his place, and I already missed his voice more than was probably healthy.

  “Hey, gorgeous,” he said, and my lips curled into a smile instantly. He had a strong effect on me.

  “Hey, complicated.”

  His chuckle fortified my smile. “You think so?”

  “Definitely. You’re more complicated than a Rubix Cube.”

  “I’ve never been able to solve it.”

  “Welcome to the club.”

  “Speaking of a club, I have some great news for you.”

  My pulse doubled at the words and euphoria in his voice. “Yes?”

  “I talked with Manchester United’s managers and told them about you. They were very interested in you.”

  My mouth turned dry. “They were?” I said in a screeching voice that didn’t sound like mine at all.

  “They were. And they have a position to offer you.”

  “Whoa. Are you for real?”

  “As real as it can get, sweetheart. They want you to work for them as the team’s sports therapist, and the best part? You would be the main therapist there.”

  Oh gosh. Wow. Just wow.

  “I… I…”

  “That’s a first. To have you speechless like that.”

  “Well, do you actually expect me to react any other way when you’ve dropped a bomb like that?”

  I couldn’t believe it! They actually wanted me as their main therapist? Manchester United? I must have been a saint in the previous life if they were offering me this position out of the blue!

  “You’re definitely pranking me.”

  “No, babe. I’m not pranking you. They hope you will be able to come for an interview in a few weeks. They will leave that spot open for you.”

  “They would be waiting for me?”

  “You must be deaf.” I rolled my eyes, sorry that he wasn’t here to see it. “Yes. They will be waiting for you.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you’re that special.”

  A blush crept up my cheeks. Hearing I was special from Liam did s
omething strange to my heart. “You mean because you are special.”

  “That too.”

  “Oversized ego.”

  “Ouch.”

  My laugh transformed into a sigh. Now I was even more confused. Receiving an offer from Manchester United was an honor. Actually, it was more than that, since being a sports therapist for a big team had been my dream job. I remember starting college with the conviction that one day I would become one of the top sports therapists, working for famous sports clubs.

  However, I met Marissa and Claire, we discovered we had common ground, and we decided to open Pathways together. My original dream was tucked away and forgotten, but that was fine with me then since I was opening my own clinic and climbing up the ladder alongside my best friends.

  Now, I was supposed to wig out, but I still wasn’t sold on the idea of going to England.

  “Liam… I really, really don’t know what to tell you. I need to think about this. This is a great opportunity, yes, but still…”

  “I know. I won’t push you, remember? Whatever you decide, I’ll support it.”

  “But if I decide to stay, then what?”

  For some time, the line was silent, and a twinge of pain coursed through my chest. “We will stay together anyway, of course. I haven’t had long-distance relationships, but there is always a first time for everything.”

  “Do you think you would be able to stay in such a relationship? With different time zones and lots of Skyping?”

  “Alison, sweetie, I know it’s a lot to take in, but we’ll make it work. I don’t want to give up on us just because of the stupid distance. We would make compromises to see each other as often as possible and we’ll deal with everything step by step. So don’t worry your pretty little head about it.”

  “Haven’t you heard? These days worry is my best friend.”

  “Then you have a terrible taste in friends, Claire and Marissa excluded. They’re actually pretty cool.”

  Yeah. They were the best, which was why it saddened me to think about leaving them. We had been together for so long, always supporting each other through good and bad, so I couldn’t even imagine what would my life be like without them by my side.

  “Don’t worry about us,” Claire told me that evening. She took a sip from her glass, curled up next to me on the couch. “Just think about what you want. Life is too short to have doubts or hesitations. This is a big opportunity for you, and I believe that if you went to England with Liam, it would be the best decision of your life.”

  I’d invited the girls to my place for a girls night with margaritas. I told them about my quandary and the offer from Manchester United.

  “Yes. I totally agree with Claire. It’s absurd to even put us into the equation when you’ve received such a life-changing offer! Seriously, we and our clinic will be fine. You think about yourself first, for a change. You don’t get an offer from a club like that every day!”

  “Exactly. You’ve always wanted something like this. You wanted to work for a club like Manchester United, and this is your chance.”

  “Still… It’s a big change. And I would miss you so much. I sound like a whining baby.” I picked at my nail.

  Marissa tapped my shoulder, smiling at me. “We know, sweetie. And we’ll miss you too, but you should do what makes you happy. Besides, you would be crazy to let a guy like Liam go away! That guy is sex on legs.”

  I feigned a shocked gasp. “You’re a married woman! What would Daniel say if he heard you speak this way about some other guy?”

  She placed her forefinger over her lips, pretending she was musing about something. “He would offer me a threesome?” Claire and I looked at her beneath our eyelashes. “Kidding, kidding. I’m just stating the obvious. I have eyes, you know? It doesn’t mean I have the hots for him.”

  “I have to agree with Marissa,” Claire said. “Objectively speaking, he’s hot. And he loves you, which is the most important. In my opinion, that alone should be a good enough reason for you to go with him.”

  “Yes, especially because you two get along so well, and today it’s rare to find a person who will make you feel like ‘That’s it. I found my soulmate’. We know this the best. The offer from Manchester United is a bonus.”

  “You’re right,” I said at last. “It’s just that I’m a little hurt that I have to be the one to make a sacrifice. Like, I understand he can’t stay because he is going to be a big shot and that is not something he can easily miss, but still…”

  “That is completely understandable,” Claire said in her business-like manner, always quick to offer pieces of her wisdom. “And while it’s not completely fair, someone always has to make that choice. If Jared had to move out of the state, I would follow him, no doubt about that.”

  “True,” Marissa agreed. “I would do the same if Daniel had to move somewhere else. That’s life.”

  “I sound like I’m nitpicking too much, right?”

  “No, not at all. Moving to another country is a big change, so take your time. It’s not easy to make such a decision, so don’t be so hard on yourself. We’ll support you no matter what you decide.”

  “You two rock.” I pouted. “I would really, really miss you.”

  We burst into fits of laughter. Seriously, they were the best. “We promise to hang on Skype every day,” Marissa said.

  “Okay, maybe not every day because I would quickly get bored of you,” I replied.

  Claire snorted. “Yeah, right. You wish. You have to promise us to let us visit you every once in a while.”

  Marissa snapped her fingers. “Yeah. We could go on cool trips around England. I always wanted to visit it.”

  We spent the rest of the night talking about nothing and everything, having a blast like always, which helped me reach my answer. Somehow, the missing pieces of the puzzle came into place, and everything became clearer.

  I could try living with Liam in England and see how it would go. I could always go back if things couldn’t work, but then, Liam believed in us, so why would I feel any differently?

  He was a wonderful person and whenever I was with him I felt like I was on the top of the world. I was invincible. I could do anything.

  And a cherry on top was the offer from his club. Just thinking about working there gave me the chills, and if I missed this great opportunity, I would probably regret it for the rest of my life.

  So I would make a leap of faith. It was decided.

  I would go with Liam to England.

  14

  The next day, I couldn’t wait for my work to finish, excited about seeing Liam for dinner and impatient to tell him my decision. I felt like I was on the right track, and the smile on my face was permanent.

  We had made a plan for me to come to his place, and I was counting the hours until the end of my shift, planning what to wear tonight.

  I decided on a black pencil skirt with a floral shirt and a pair of black five-inch high heels, which was sophisticated and sexy at the same time. Spraying a bit of my favorite orchid perfume, I topped my look with a black mini-purse and a cardigan.

  The moment Liam opened the door, I was all over him, my hands restless.

  “You missed me this much, sexy? I’m flattered.”

  “Shut up and kiss me.”

  His lips were on mine the next moment, his hands running through my hair in a bid to pull me closer. I arched my back and ground against him, purring when I sensed his cock hard and ready for me. The familiar feeling of the special connection I had with Liam permeated me, and I wondered how I could have ever doubted us. I didn’t want to lose him.

  “Now this is what I call a warm welcome,” I muttered into his lip and nibbled the spot on his jaw before I stepped away from him. “So, what’s cooking?”

  “Come with me.” He wrapped his fingers around my hand and led me to his kitchen. “You look stunning.”

  “Thanks. You too.”

  He was more than stunning. His polo shirt fit him like a
second skin, just like his dark jeans that provided a nice view of his sexy ass.

  His spacious kitchen was filled with odors that promised the most delicious food, and my mouth watered. The long dining table held a delicious-looking ravioli with mushroom sauce, eggplant parmesan, and a huge caesar salad.

  “I reckon you like Italian cuisine?” He winked at me.

  “No, how did you figure that out?” I took in all the dishes. “You really tried hard for me, didn’t you? Trying to impress me?”

  He wrapped his arms around my waist from behind, burying his head into my neck. “Haven’t I already impressed you?”

  “Hmm, you’re almost there.”

  He chuckled, and a puff of warm breath caressed my skin. I shivered. “All for my girl.” My girl.

  He kissed the hollow of my neck, moving his lips slowly and sensually, and a moan slipped out of my lips. I closed my eyes and tilted my head to the side, allowing him more access, almost forgetting about the food. As much as I wanted him, it would be a shame to skip the tasty-looking dishes while they were warm.

  “It’s not fair. You’re seducing me when we have these delicious dishes on the table. I want you so badly, but it would be a crime to eat them when they are cold.”

  He moved away with a smirk. “You’re reading my mind. You’re right. Let’s dig in.”

  “When did you start cooking?”

  “My mother loved cooking, so she taught me when I was eleven.”

  “Eleven? Impressive.”

  “Yeah. My dad couldn’t cook to save his life, but I took after her. I grew to love cooking so much that there was a time during junior high when I thought I was going to become a chef. Imagine that.”

  “But your passion for soccer was stronger?”

  “That’s right. I was playing since I was eight, and I had a dream all along of starting a professional soccer career.”

  “How old were you when you started as a professional?”