UNLESS IT’S YOU (THE HART SISTERS #2) BY CHRISSY HOPEWELL – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Authors: Chrissy Hopewell
- Language: English
- Genre: contemporary romance
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
ETHAN
Thursday, 04 July
The tattoo artist did a bollocks job inking the England Rugby rose on
sixteen-year-old Leo’s biceps, and I barely resist the urge to go and
find the bloke to kick his arse for taking what little money this kid has.
“What do you think, Coach?” Leo’s voice wavers, one arm stretched out
for me to see, the other with a muddy rugby ball tucked underneath. He’s so
eager for my approval—for any adult’s approval, really. That’s what having
no parental support will do to a kid. Makes them permanently insecure. Ask
me how I know.
Kids like Leo are the reason I started volunteering as a coach at
Sporting London—a charity in London for underprivileged teenagers—after
leaving professional rugby five years ago. I spend weeknights training them
to play, hoping to give them something else to focus on besides their
depressing home life, something wholesome and healthy and hopeful.
That’s what rugby was to me. The game got me through a lot in life, and
now I want to give back to the kids who are growing up like I did.
“I think you should’ve talked to me before letting some untrained arse
come at you with needles. And you should’ve waited till you were
eighteen.”
“I just wanted one like yours.” He flinches when I gently touch the red
skin with a finger.
And now I feel guilty for being a bad influence, when all I really want is
to be a good one. Leo’s mum’s been gone for a decade, his dad doesn’t
provide, and he just got dropped in foster care as a teenager. He’s had a
rough go. Like most of them.
I glance down at my exposed sleeve tattoos, my right arm covered from
shoulder to wrist with Celtic knotwork, spirals, crosses, and a shield and
sword. My left forearm is inked with red roses to represent England Rugby,
and my biceps is adorned with ivy, trees, and a mountain. Rugby and being
outdoors are two of the three things that saved me when I was growing up
with one parent: a mum who was never around, and when she was, never
paid me much attention.
The third being Ben, my best friend, and his supportive, stable, and
perfect parents. They’re the reason I learned to play rugby in secondary
school, and why I even got to university on a rugby scholarship, then
showed enough promise that I got picked up to play pro after graduation. I
was even better than Ben. It was the first time I was top choice at
something.
But now Mum is really gone, and apparently, I can’t handle it.
“We’ll get it fixed. I know someone.” I drop his forearm and wave at the
group of teens jogging around one of the rugby pitches in Regent’s Park,
north London. “Now go do a lap, then pair up and throw with Callum.”
For More Read Download This Book
EPUB