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‘Do hi to watch you, Miss Reynolds’

‘No problem’ She made sure not to look at Alessandro ‘I…er…I actually wanted to talk to you aboutDominic have football lessons, Mrs Park…’

‘I’m afraid that’s quite out of the question, Miss Reynolds’

She hadn’t finished the sentence before Doh excitement

‘He htly, and the other woan found that it was hard to dislike her, because soed, business-like surface she sensed a nice person

‘I’ll leave you to think about it, anyway I’et cleaned up Have a brilliant Christmas!’

She still hadn’t looked in Alessandro’s direction, but she could feel his eyes on her Eventhan the fact that she couldn’t hate his fiancée was the fact that she was still ly aware of him Two hts as though it was yesterday

She fled towards the changing roo his jolly, settled, oh-I’ve-found-the-perfect-wory with herself because he still got to her and it wasn’t fair

She was flinging all her dirty kit into her bag when sohts lounging by the door to the changing roo her

‘What are you doing here? This is the wo room, in case you hadn’t noticed!’

‘The only wo to see you eht I’d come in Make sure you hadn’t collapsed’

‘Well, I haven’t, so you can leave now’ She had showered, washed her hair and blowdried it, and put it into two stubby plaits She had changed into jeans and a jumper and her thick waterproof anorak, which was a fashion disaster but could withstand anything the weather could throw at it

‘You played a good game out there Football Hmm…Wonder why I’m not surprised?’ Covered in patches of mud, she had looked like an urchin A very cute, very willful little urchin

‘What are you still doing here, Alessandro?’ She snatched up her kit bag and drew in a deep breath before walking to the door ‘I haven’t collapsed, and your fiancée will be waiting outside for you’