Breaking off to say hello to some of the England squad—who, dressed in kit, were leading a group of youngsters out onto the pitch—he couldn’t have agreed more. The moment he turned back to her, she said, ‘I won’t give up, you know.’
‘I think I guessed that much,’ he told her, drawing her after him.
‘Where are you taking me?’
‘Somewhere we can talk privately and your enthusiasm can be harnessed.’
‘Sounds lovely,’ she murmured as he helped her over a stile.
‘It will be.’ Vaulting over the same stile, he took her by the hand and led her waist-deep through a field of long grass.
‘Well, I think we can talk here,’ she agreed when he finally stopped in the middle of it.
‘You can talk if you want to.’
‘Ethan…’
Love, contentment and unimaginable happiness…as well as a nice, dewy meadow freshly watered by the rain. ‘Thank goodness, you’re underneath me,’ Savannah murmured groggily to Ethan some time later.
‘I didn’t want you getting grass stains on your nice, new track-suit,’ Ethan mocked softly as they recovered.
‘Why worry? The sun is shining now and I’ll soon dry out.’ As she outlined Ethan’s sensual mouth with her fingertip until he threatened to bite it off, Savannah wondered whether this was the right time to broach the subject at the forefront of her mind or not.
‘Well?’ Ethan pressed, knowing she had something on her mind.
‘Well, what?’ she said, pulling on her innocent face. ‘Why must you always be so suspicious of me?’
‘I might only have known you a short time, but I know there’s usually something brewing when you have that look.’
She hesitated and then said bluntly, ‘When you sprang over that stile…’
‘Yes?’ He wasn’t going to help her.
‘Well, I just thought, with your back and—’
‘Oh, I see.’ Moving his head, he dislodged her teasing finger. ‘You want to know how I can do something like that when I can’t play rugby. Or, more importantly—at least as far as your scheme is concerned—why I won’t help out with the coaching.’
‘Yes,’ Savannah admitted, wriggling away from him and sitting up. Truthfully, she had a lot more in mind for Ethan than the occasional coaching session. She wanted him to take a much fuller role in the scheme for which he had already proved to be an inspirational figurehead.
‘It’s only weights landing on my back I have to be careful about,’ he explained. ‘My legs are fine.’
‘Then…’ Hugging her knees, she rested her chin on them, staring up at him.
‘Then?’
‘Stop pretending you don’t know what I mean. And stop growling at me,’ she added when Ethan made a mock-threatening sound. She fixed a stare on him. ‘If there’s nothing wrong with your legs, there can’t be any reason why you can’t take part in the training programme—just part-time, of course,’ she added before Ethan could get a word in. ‘Plus, the occasional guest appearance would make all the difference.’
Having buckled his belt, Ethan sat up beside her and swung Savannah onto his knee. ‘Is that what all this has been leading up to?’
‘Not all of it,’ she admitted truthfully.
‘Well, at least you’ve got the decency to blush,’ he observed dryly, drawing her into his shoulder.
‘You still haven’t given me your answer, Ethan.’
‘Well, why don’t I do that now?’
It was some time later when Ethan drew Savannah to her feet. As he helped to brush grass and twigs from her clothes, she sensed something had changed.