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Thankfully Jenny didn’t know enough about soccer to realize there were two transfer windows, and I would’ve been able to move after six months were it not for my medical issue.

“I should head off to the hospital,” I said, finishing the last of my coffee quickly. I wanted to get out of here before I made more mistakes. I was usually so calm and collected, but Jenny seemed to give off some vibe that fried my brain and stopped me from thinking straight.

“I thought your appointment wasn’t until three?” Jenny asked.

“I just told Daisy that so she would leave me alone,” I lied. Jenny was picking up on every little detail today. “If you’re going to miss me that much I can stay longer?”

“I’ll manage,” Jenny replied. She immediately pulled out her phone and started messaging someone. I wondered if that was the same man she was meeting for a date later this week. I would deal with that problem later. Say one thing about important hospital appointments, they do at least provide a distraction from other issues in life. I headed to the hospital three hours early. My afternoon was going to be miserable, but at least I could spend my time cheering some people up.

-*-

Soccer wasn’t a huge sport in the US, but it was growing in popularity and kids loved it. In many parts of the country, more kids played soccer than any of the traditional US sports. That meant I could walk around hospital without being recognized until I walked into the children’s ward. At that point, I started attracting glances, and heard my name as sick children tried to walk around or at least sit up to catch a glance of one of the few Americans playing in the Premier League.

“Hi, my name’s Jaxon Foster,” I said to the nurse in charge. “I phoned yesterday and said I would spend a few hours with the children this afternoon.”

The nurse hadn’t recognized me immediately on-sight, but she recognized the name. “Of course, Mr. Foster. I’m so glad you’re here. I didn’t tell any of the children you would be visiting in case you failed to show. You wouldn’t believe how often celebrities say they will pop in and never do.”

“That’s unfortunate,” I said. And not at all surprising, unfortunately. Some of my teammates did exactly that. Back in England, the club provided regular opportunities for players to do their bit in the community, but most of them tried to get out of it. I included myself in that category. 

I’d canceled three hospital visits arranged by the club’s community liaison officer until I finally went along to one after Daisy got on my case. She’d insisted it would be a good photo opportunity and improve my image, but after spending ten minutes talking to the children, I asked the journalists to leave and kept the entire thing a secret, much to Daisy’s frustration. Now I tried to visit children’s wards as often as possible, and always insured I did so in secret without any cameras around. Except for the cameras owned by the kids or their parents, anyway.

My motives were partly selfish. There was nothing like seeing children struggling with cancer and disease to make you realize that you have an easy life in comparison. Before visiting these types of children’s wards, I’d assumed children would struggle to handle their illness, but they were almost always braver than adults. They were certainly braver than me. Most kids dealt with illness like it was just another challenge to be beaten; I found it inspiring.

Some of the children were able to walk around, so I talked with them for half an hour, and made sure to sign autographs and smile for the photos. Not many of the parents knew who I was, but I heard children explaining my background to them. 

I then moved on and went from bed to bed, speaking to the children who were unable to get up. Most of them had at least one exhausted-looking parent by their bedside, but a few were alone. I spent the most time with them. In the end, everyone got a photo if they wanted one, but that was all I could do for them and it drove me crazy. I had money, but that wouldn’t make a dent in the medical costs for a facility like this.

One thing I never did was ask the children how they were. Whereas adults—especially in England—would pretend they were fine, children had a remarkable tendency to be honest. One child I asked in England had told me, without a second’s hesitation, that he was feeling sick because of the chemotherapy. My own illness had been unpleasant enough; I couldn’t imagine what it must be like for a child to have to go through cancer treatment.

At three o’clock, Daisy burst into the room, having no doubt been looking for me for some time now. She stormed over and practically dragged me out of the ward.

“Hurry up,” she said. “You’re going to miss your appointment.”

“That would be a shame,” I replied sarcastically.

“Don’t joke about it,” Daisy said. “This isn’t just any old meeting with your physio.”

I sighed and followed Daisy to the Neuro-Oncology Ward. Might as well get this over with.

Jaxon was lying to me. Just when I’d almost begun to trust him again. When we talked over coffee it was like picking up where we’d left off four years ago, as if his kiss with Emilia never happened. It scared me how quickly I was able to forget his betrayal. I’d never come close to forgiving him in the four years I’d spent at college, but now that I saw him in the flesh it was hard to hate him. In my mind, I had turned him into evil incarnate, but the truth was he was just a normal person. A normal person who had done a horrible thing.  

People forgave far bigger transgressions than what Jaxon had done to me, but it wasn’t just the fact that he’d kissed someone else. Not only had he cheated on me, he had not even bothered to apologize, as if the effort it would take to make it up to me was just not worth it.

The more time we spent together, the more I slipped back into the mentality I’d had four years ago. Back then I had been nervous, scared, and slightly disgusted by my feelings for Jaxon. I was no longer a virgin, and yet I still felt those feelings creeping back as we sat and talked about mundane things like Jaxon’s relationship with his father.  

We’d nearly made it through an entire conversation without me hating him, but then he lied to me. It was so obvious. His hospital appointment wasn’t until three o’clock and yet he was in a rush to leave me before midday. What could he possibly be doing in that three-hour slot? Or more to the point,
who
could he be doing in a three-hour slot? It’s not like we were in a relationship—he didn’t technically have to hide his sexual relationships from me, although if he was going to, I wish he would do a better job about it.

The short walk from the coffee shop back to my office left me drenched in sweat again, so I filled up the water bottle I carried around for my commute and drank it down in one go. It didn’t help lower my body temperature, but at least it might stop me fainting. The air-conditioning took longer to cool me down this time, so I was still hot when Sam burst into my office.

“How did it go?” Sam asked.

“Good,” I replied. “I’ve made notes and will send an email out later today. We need to get a contract drawn up.”

“So Jaxon is going to consider our offer?”

“Yes,” I said, nodding my head. “It’s going to have to be a good one though.”

“Doesn’t matter. If we get him to sign, it will mean huge things for this club. Keep adding zeroes until he puts pen to paper.”

“When do we get him to take a medical exam?” I asked. “He’s meeting his physio at the hospital later this afternoon.”

“He is? Get down there and see what’s going on.
His
medical concerns are
our
medical concerns from now on. Get a copy of the report and pass it on to our medical team for analysis. We will do our own review as well, but this will give us a head start.”

“I’m not sure he’ll let me into the meeting,” I said.

“You’ll find a way,” Sam said as he left my office.

I spent the next few hours typing up my notes and then sending emails to the legal team to help them prepare a draft of the contract. The hospital Jaxon mentioned was far enough away to justify taking a cab. That should help me avoid the worst of the heat, assuming I managed to get one that had air conditioning.

I arrived at the hospital fifteen minutes early, so I sat down in the back corner of the waiting area where I would have a good view of Jaxon and Daisy when they arrived. I used the time to email Aaron, and planned our “date” for tomorrow night.  

I needed to be out of the house for a few hours one evening or Jaxon would never believe I had a date. I chose a spot out of the city, so that Aaron would drive there and then give me a lift home. It was a little deceitful, but he wouldn’t mind. I would have let him in on the plan, but the fewer people who knew that I was trying to make my stepbrother jealous the better.

Daisy showed up just before three o’clock and looked around frantically for Jaxon. She almost saw me a few times, but I held my phone up in front of my face and she didn’t seem to recognize me. Eventually she gave up waiting for him, and walked around the hospital following the signs somewhere.  

I stood up and decided to follow her. If Jaxon was already here, then that meant he might be telling the truth about his whereabouts for the last three hours. That would be of some comfort at least. Daisy stopped a lot to look at the signs. She didn’t know where she was going, but she did know what she was looking for. Eventually she walked into the children’s ward. I waited around the corner, looking at my phone trying to appear inconspicuous. A few minutes later, she walked out with Jaxon close behind her.

The two of them were arguing; or at least Daisy was telling Jaxon off and he was just dismissing her. I had no idea why he’d hired someone who seemed to disrespect him so much, but perhaps he liked powerful women. I tried to shake the thought of Jaxon with Daisy from my mind, and followed them to the other side of the hospital. Finally, Daisy said “here it is,” and they walked into the Neuro-Oncology Ward.

Neuro-Oncology Ward? Jaxon wasn’t here for a regular physical. For the first time today, I felt cold. Goosebumps appeared on my body, and I shivered, even though sweat was still dripping down my back. The Neuro-Oncology Ward was not the kind of place you went to for a casual appointment. Something might be seriously wrong with Jaxon and he didn’t want to tell me about it. Whatever it was, it couldn’t be good news.

-*-

“I haven’t seen you in so long,” Aaron said, once the waiter had brought us our drinks. “I don’t even know where to start catching up. How’s the new job? I guess that’s as good a place as any.”

“It’s not been
that
long since we saw each other. I came to that party you threw for Millie’s birthday.”

“Yes, but we didn’t speak much then. I was too busy making sure nothing got broken.”

“Well, the job is fine I guess. It’s not exactly what I expected to be doing out of college though.”

“I don’t even understand what it is you’re doing there,” Aaron admitted. “You just described it as contract review and negotiation, but that sounds like a legal thing.”

“To be honest, I’ve just been given this job because the company is an important client of my stepmom’s. I don’t even think it’s a real job. Before I had even started they transferred me to New York United.” I’d been hoping to avoid too much conversation about Jaxon, but if Aaron was going to ask me about work then we’d end up discussing him eventually.

“New York United? The soccer team?”

“That’s the one.”

“So you’re doing contract negotiation work for New York United?” Aaron asked. Here we go; three, two, one. “Isn’t that the team Jaxon might sign for?”

“Bingo. That’s why I’ve been given the job. They think that Jaxon will sign for New York United just because I work there. I guess they assumed that we were close.”

“But you
were
close? Weren’t you?”

I tried to casually shrugged my shoulders, but forgot I was holding my drink and managed to spill some on my hand. Way to act casual, Jennifer. “We used to get along,” I said. “Obviously we weren’t like a real brother and sister. We only knew each other for about a year until I went to college, and then we sort of drifted apart.”