13
Ben arrives early for the training session on Thursday evening. He wants to talk to Cassie before the players arrive, to assure her he isn’t trying to suggest he can do a better job than her. When I called him last night to tell him he’d got the green light to join us, I was honest with him about her reservations. And I can tell she’s still got her defences up from the way she folds her arms across her chest.
I don’t know how I feel as I watch him walking across the pitch towards us, his muscular body more obvious today under a tight orange T-shirt. Conflicted, I suppose would be the best way to put it. I can’t pretend it’s not very distracting when he flashes his gigantic smile at me, and after our chat on Tuesday evening I am more curious about him. He really wasn’t what I was expecting when it was just the two of us, but I remind myself that tonight he’s just here to be part of the team.
‘Ladies,’ he says by way of greeting, then to Cassie, ‘I’m genuinely honoured to be here.’
‘And we’re happy to have you,’ I say quickly, when it becomes evident Cassie isn’t going to respond. I nudge her in the side and she glares at me.
‘Perhaps you’d like to start by telling Cassie your thoughts on what you saw of the Tuesday session,’ I suggest to Ben.
‘Sure.’ He turns his grin her way. ‘When we train at Millford, they start us off with stretches, lateral lunges, high kicks, short bursts of running, then we go into game play, and it looked like you had that spot on. I wasn’t there to see the whole thing, but Lily tells me you finished off with penalty practice, which is nice because everyone feels good when they score or save a goal, so it means everyone has the opportunity to go home on a high.’
‘Anything you might switch up?’ I ask, while Cassie maintains her stubborn silence.
‘Just that it was all quite serious, and while you want everyone to stay focused and work hard and be the best they can be, in these early days it’s just as important to work on building team spirit and making sure the players have that real sense of a group effort, so you don’t have anyone trying to stand out at the expense of the rest of the team.’
‘Is there anything you’d suggest?’
‘At Millford they do these little initiations when someone new joins, like everyone doing a performance of their favourite song or a party trick or whatever, anything that gets the rest of the players either laughing or joining in. I did find it helped break the ice for me when I first joined.’
I tell him about our plan to hold a rounders game on Saturday.
‘That’s exactly the kind of thing,’ he says. ‘Honestly, so much of it is about developing that team mentality. If you haven’t got that, you’ll really struggle to succeed.’
‘Is Bailey okay about you being here?’ Cassie asks, the first words she’s said to him.
I follow her eyeline and see Bailey making his way towards us, with Levi and Scott not far behind him.
‘Yeah, he knows I’m here to help, not to try and steal the limelight,’ Ben assures her. ‘And he’s more than used to me giving him footballing tips.’
She nods curtly and I’m glad he doesn’t seem too put out by her standoffishness. It’s no worse than I expected and at least I had the chance to warn him.
I turn to welcome the trio of players, and I swear Scott and Levi pull themselves up to their fullest height as I introduce them to Ben, which convinces me we made the right choice bringing him here. Even if all his presence does is make each of our players step up a gear, it was worth pushing Cassie to agree to it.
Elliot, Jacob and Adio are next to arrive and they jostle each other like excited schoolkids when they first clock Ben. There’s no denying he comes with kudos, despite his suspension. He’s one of the top goal scorers in the Premier League this year. He’s achieved what they barely dare dream of.
Of all the players, it’s only Craig who doesn’t react enthusiastically. Instead he regards Ben with a cool expression, back stiff, as if he sees him as a threat. Ben either doesn’t notice or doesn’t care. I imagine he’s come up against this kind of machismo plenty of times during his career. But as he’s taller than Craig– and in fact all the players except Elliot– Craig will have to look up to him physically, even if he doesn’t metaphorically.
Bob and Dad arrive just in time for the warm-up, having stopped off to pick up some agility training rings and hurdles for Cassie from the sports superstore just outside Hamcott. Both thankfully hide any scepticism they might still be harbouring as they shake Ben’s hand and welcome him.
Barbour and his two sons put in an appearance not long after that. His youngest, Nathan, is apparently desperate to meet Ben, so he can tell his friends at school, and Barbour has brought folding chairs so they can sit and watch the team training and say hello at the end.
Ben encourages Cassie to run the session just like she did on Tuesday, proposing that while she organises the players, he’ll move among them and flag up anything he thinks they could be doing better. And from this set-up, Adio gets to learn how he can make his crosses more accurate and Nico gets some tips on how to best avoid injury from a wayward tackle.
From where I’m standing, Ben appears to slot in as if he was always meant to be there. I think even Cassie starts thawing towards him when she sees the positive effect he’s having.
But the real turning point comes after a misjudged ball from Ben himself flies straight towards Barbour and his sons, catching Nathan smack bang on the side of the head. It almost knocks him off his chair.
As Cassie and I race over to check on him, out of the corner of my eye I notice Ben sprinting in completely the opposite direction– towards the exit– at full pelt, and my heart sinks. Just when he was starting to look like an asset for our team, he turns out to be nothing but a coward. I feel slightly sick at the thought of how hard I fought to have him here and how easily I was taken in by him.
But seconds later he reappears at the gate and comes hurtling towards us until he’s kneeling in front of Nathan, who is thankfully shaken but not hurt. He ignores the furious glare Barbour is throwing his way and apologises to Nathan, who nods solemnly when Ben asks if he thinks he’s going to be okay.
‘Do you know what makes me feel better when I’m hurting?’ he asks, to which Nathan shakes his head.
‘Haribo,’ Ben says, producing a packet from his pocket, which makes the little boy’s eyes light up. ‘I always keep some in my car for moments like these,’ he explains.
And I think all our hearts melt a little when Nathan shyly accepts the bag of sweets from him. It does make me feel guilty for jumping to the wrong conclusion so quickly.
‘And do you know what else I think might help you feel better?’ Ben says, beckoning for me to pass him the offending ball. He retrieves a marker pen from his other pocket and scribbles his signature in big letters across the surface.
‘This is for you,’ he tells Nathan, whose eyes are now wide. ‘You can tell all your friends at school about the time you got splatted by Ben Pryce from Millford City. That sound like fun?’
Nathan nods furiously and looks up at his dad, who by this point is thankfully looking less like he wants to murder Ben.
‘Say thank you,’ Barbour says.
‘Thank you,’ Nathan repeats dutifully.
Ben gets back to his feet and ruffles Nathan’s hair. ‘All right, then we should probably get back to training. Turns out even I need to work on my passes. I’ll buy you a new ball,’ he promises Cassie as they turn back to where the rest of the team are waiting.
‘I should hope so,’ she says. But there’s a lightness in her voice that wasn’t there previously.
‘Maybe he’s not such a bad fella after all,’ Barbour says to me, looking down at Nathan, who’s now chewing a gummy bear and clutching the ball in his lap.
‘Maybe not,’ I agree, back to wondering if there’s more to him than people give him credit for. And when the session wraps up, Barbour even shakes Ben’s hand.
‘So, same time and place next week?’ Ben asks Cassie as he helps stack up the cones. I watch her body freeze. This was, of course, sold to her as a one-off.
‘Give us two minutes for a quick confab, would you?’ Dad says, beckoning me over to join them.
‘Sure,’ Ben says affably. ‘I’ll just wait over there with the kids.’
The three of us huddle together and Dad asks what we thought of the session.
‘I thought the players looked quite uplifted,’ I tell them. ‘There was just something a bit extra from them today.’
Dad nods. ‘I agree. And most of them seem pretty keen to have Pryce back again. So what do we tell him?’
We both turn to face Cassie, who sighs then admits she did find it easier having two coaches on the pitch. ‘It didn’t feel like he was trying to take over,’ she concedes.
‘Do we know how long he’ll be around for?’ Dad asks me.
‘At least the next few weeks, I guess. I imagine he’ll be called back to Millford at some point, but we could ask him to stick around until then.’
‘All those in agreement?’ Dad says.
I look over to where he’s kicking a ball back and forth with Barbour’s boys, all three of them grinning their heads off. It overrides any last doubts. I raise my hand.
‘I can’t quite believe I’m saying this, but it’s a yes from me too,’ Cassie says.
Dad nods again. ‘That’s three yeses then. Let’s go over and break it to him.’
Ben turns his grin our way as we approach, like he already knows what we’re going to say.
‘As long as you know we can’t pay you,’ Dad starts.
‘I just want to help,’ Ben assures him.
‘And it won’t cause any problems with Millford?’ Dad checks.
‘They won’t even know I’m here.’
‘With twenty-two excitable young players and an occasional fan dropping by to watch? It’ll be on social media in no time,’ Dad says.
‘It’ll be fine,’ Ben insists. ‘My lot are always on at me to try and create a bit of positive publicity, so I can’t see them complaining. Not that that’s why I’m here, of course.’
‘Nevertheless, perhaps you and I should put our heads together and come up with a press release that we can run by your PR team,’ I suggest. ‘To make sure we’re the ones in control of the narrative.’
‘Now?’ he asks, with a playful look in his eyes.
Did I intend to hint at that? Even if I didn’t, I’m not against the idea now he’s suggested it. It’ll give me another chance to try and suss him out.
‘We just need to get everyone out of here so the academy can lock up but yes, after that, let’s hang back and have a quick chat about it,’ I tell him.
This time, Ben suggests going to a little family-run Italian restaurant, another ten-minute drive from the academy.
‘How come you know all these great local places?’ I ask him as we’re shown to our table.
‘I’m always down here in the summer, visiting Bailey and our parents. I’ve actually got a place over by Redmarsh, for when I’m not up north with Millford. I don’t get to spend a lot of time in it, but I assume I’ll live in it properly one day.’
‘You’re not a secret Rovers fan, are you?’ I ask.
‘Fulham. My dad bought me their strip when I was about seven and that was that. My manager at Millford would lose his mind if he knew. They beat us at our last meeting. I didn’t know whether to be happy or sad.’
‘Does your brother support them too?’
‘He does, but my parents follow Millford City now. I’ve told them they don’t need to feel obliged to, but they always get tickets when we’re down here playing the London teams. I guess they’ll be following Crawford now too– to keep things fair with Bailey. How about your mum– will she come to the matches or is she not into it?’
I swallow back the discomfort I always feel when I first tell someone about my family set-up. ‘She lives too far away. She moved to Cornwall when I was little.’
‘Oh I’m sorry.’ He instinctively moves his hand towards mine, but stops just before he touches me. ‘Do you still see her?’
‘When I can. We text each other all the time, and her and Dad still speak now and again. We’re kind of used to it now, but we do still miss having her here. I’m glad Dad’s always had Hamcott Park– and now Crawford United– to keep him busy.’
We’re interrupted by a waiter arriving to fill our water glasses and take our order. I haven’t even looked at the menu yet, so I have a quick read.
‘Let me know if there’s anything you’d like to share,’ Ben says.
‘That would be pretty much everything on the starters list,’ I tell him. ‘And I haven’t even got to the mains yet.’
‘We could order one of each and eat tapas-style,’ he suggests.
‘What he said,’ I tell the waiter, handing my menu back without another glimpse.
When we’re alone again Ben asks, ‘So back on the subject of Crawford, how do you think the session went this evening?’
‘Aside from the part where you nearly murdered a four-year-old?’ I tease.
He winces. ‘Not my finest moment. It’s probably best not to put that in your press release.’
‘I’m very happy considering it was only the second get-together. Of course there are a couple of niggles– Nico can’t be giving the ball away so often, and those silly little slip-ups from Levi will put so much pressure on Elliot– but then I have to remind myself to keep my expectations in check. Of course they’re not going to be as good as Hamcott Park’s players– at least not yet.’
‘You’ll get them there– just give it time. I think Jamie and Craig are showing a lot of promise up front for two players who are only in their first week on the team. I can see them being a really strong double threat once they get used to each other’s rhythm.’
‘Strong enough to be a threat to you?’
He laughs. ‘Let’s not get carried away.’
‘Getting back to the press release for a minute, I’m thinking we should focus on how you’re selflessly giving up your free time to help out a little-known local community team,’ I suggest. ‘That shouldn’t give Millford anything to grumble about.’
He smiles. ‘I reckon they’ll love it. Like I said earlier, they’ve been thinking about ways to give the media something more positive to say about me before I get back to playing matches, to keep the sponsors happy. When it comes to protecting their brands they prefer us to be squeaky clean.’
‘You could always use this as your opportunity to address what went on at that Hamcott game, while you’ve got something constructive to offset it against. I’m no expert, but you never know, it might stop the papers raking over it again and again.’
‘Much as I’d like that, I can’t really go into it. It’s just...’ He sounds uncharacteristically flustered. ‘I’m sorry, it’s complicated.’
I study his face, wondering if I really want to know what provoked him that day.
Quickly recovering his composure, he adds, ‘Anyway, it’s not like the papers didn’t paint me in a bad light before this– even if, in my opinion, I’m no worse than anyone else in the league. But the best thing I’ve learned since I started at Millford is not to worry too much about what other people think of me. Someone will always have an opinion– that’s just football– but you can drive yourself crazy if you take it all to heart. I couldn’t do what I do if I was constantly stressing about it. Although in case it’s not obvious, I do care what you think.’
And there it is again, another casual comment dropped into the conversation that takes me by surprise. He holds my gaze as I process the fact that he’s basically just admitted he wants me to like him. It’s hard not to, of course, when he’s so friendly and engaging. But there’s liking and there’s liking, and I’m still not entirely sure which this is.
Our waiter comes back and starts spreading our mishmash of dishes across the table, describing each one in such painstaking detail that by the time he’s finished, the moment has passed. But that doesn’t stop a small part of me thinking that perhaps I want Ben to like me too. There’s just something about him that makes me want to spend more time with him.
With that in mind I ask him, as we walk to the car after the meal, if he’d like to join us for the rounders day on Saturday. It feels rude not to invite him when he’s now going to be seeing the team so frequently.
His face lights up all over again as he tells me he’d be delighted. And when we pull up in my street– not right outside the house in case Dad is still up and happens to see– my heart does a little dance when he fires me one last oversized grin and says, ‘I’ll see you on Saturday.’