Free Under New Management by June Hopkins Page B

for his drink, keeping his face deliberately blank.
    Andy nods and as he turns to get a fresh glass he says sneakily, “Bad luck mate.”
    Kieran takes a controlled breath and other than clenching his fists, which the barman can’t see, he shows no emotion. He turns away from the bar and takes a look around the room. He spots Mollie on the crowded dance floor. Lou and Jack, who had obviously left him at the bar without so much as a backward glance, are now sitting at a table over in the corner with their heads together.
    Mollie is dancing erotically, to his mind, as if she doesn’t have a care in the world. No, she wouldn’t be asking for a job. Not now, anyway.
    He could kick himself. He wasn’t usually so sloppy, but there was something about her. He had become distracted.
    Picking up the fresh pint delivered rather too smugly by Andy, he takes a long swig and carries on people watching.
    His mother has arrived. The local Mayor, who Kieran had been introduced to earlier, appears to be stuck to her side and Marylyn is enjoying the attention.
    His sister, Megan, is also here with her professional footballer boyfriend Johnny Morgan. Johnny plays for a Premier Division club and he is causing quite a stir. Johnny broke his wrist on the pitch last weekend. A particularly vicious tackle had resulted in his injury and a red card and sending off for the other player.
    Johnny wasn’t happy but there is nothing to be done for a couple of weeks while the bone heels. He now has his arm in plaster and some unexpected time off. Soon he will be stuck in daily physio to get him back in the game but Megan is enjoying having him around for a little while.
    Johnny is quickly being surrounded by guests as the whispers of his presence spread around the room.
    Kieran smiles to himself. He is used to seeing it; Johnny surrounded by random people, giving out his autograph and having pictures taken.
    Johnny is a good looking lad, with his short brown hair and hazel green eyes. At twenty-three he is five years younger than Megan. He chased her relentlessly after meeting her at a charity event.
    Megan had proved difficult to capture. She hadn’t wanted to go out with a footballer and she certainly hadn’t been comfortable with having a toy boy on her arm, but Johnny hadn’t given up and in the end he’d worn Megan down until she had agreed to a date with him.
    They have now been together for eighteen months, are living together and perfectly happy.
    Megan isn’t your stereotypical WAG. She has very little to do with Johnny’s career; after all she has her own to worry about. She watches the odd match but she doesn’t get too involved with the other WAGs.
    At first they caused a great stir in the press, mostly to do with the age gap. Articles popped up everywhere on the rights and wrongs of women having relationships with younger men and vice versa. They both turned down numerous interview requests. Megan didn’t do media, she just about coped with having cameras randomly shoved in her face in the supermarket.
    She drew the line at sitting on the couch dissecting her life with Philip and Holly, or anyone else for that matter. Megan’s private life was just that, private.
    Unlike a lot of other footballers, Johnny totally agreed with her, which helped. They normally managed to keep themselves to themselves, and because they didn’t court publicity it helped them to stay under the radar most of the time.
    Of course Johnny’s injury hadn’t helped. The tackle was fairly controversial and the press were demonising the guilty player. They wanted pictures of ‘poor Johnny’ in his plaster cast to help the cause. This is one of the reasons why Johnny is here and not at home in London. The paps have been camped outside their house. It is quieter here for now and hopefully they won’t find him.
    Kieran’s eyes slide back to Mollie. She is now dancing with a tall broad man, who looks to be in his mid forties. Kieran feels a stab of jealousy,