Man of the Match: hot celebrity romance (FULL NOVEL)

18. Persistent suitor

[RECAP: Matt couldn't resist seeing Cara one more time. They briefly kiss, but they both know they can't be together.]

Fiona had urged her to "drown her sorrows" that night but Cara had barely drunk anything because she felt so numb and drawn out. When she woke in the morning she felt even worse, and was relieved that it was still the weekend. Fiona never seemed to get a hangover and was already flitting around the kitchen offering Cara a coffee, but Cara couldn't stomach anything.

She was hollow with misery. Last night had stirred everything up again. Knowing Matt hadn't lied to her or deliberately led her on just made it even worse somehow. She had nothing to blame him or hate him for.

"Want some toast?" Fiona asked, but even the thought of that turned Cara's stomach. "You've lost weight recently. Don't pine away to nothing."

Ann entered, back from her early church service. "Nice sermon?" Fiona asked.

Ann was never quite sure whether Fiona was mocking her about her church and her trainee vicar boyfriend, so she said "just the usual" and fetched herself a cup of tea. "By the way did your cousin manage to find you last night? Your cousin's friend, I mean," she asked Cara.

"Who?"

"The one who looks like that actor off Coronation Street, only I can't think which one," Ann said. "I said he could wait but he went to look for you in town."

Fiona and Cara exchanged a glance. That mystery was solved anyway.

"Yes, thank you, we saw him the club," Cara said.

"Who is it he looks like? I'm sure it will come to me. He was so familiar, really. I'm sure he must get annoyed with people mentioning it." Ann chattered on and Cara felt deeply uneasy. The last thing she wanted was Ann to actually recognise who Matt was. There would be absolutely no way to explain the situation. Not that she could think of right now, anyway.

The doorbell went and of course she immediately thought - hoped - it was Matt.

Fiona went to open it. Declan stood there, a huge bunch of roses in his hand. They were a very dark red colour that Cara had never cared for. It was probably a petty thing to notice, but she was reminded how little he had ever really listened to her or cared about her preferences and opinions.

Just as now. He still wouldn't give up despite her telling him again and again that it was over. Fiona had even offered to have one of her actor friends pose as Cara's new boyfriend but Cara had thought it wasn't necessary. Not yet, anyway.

She also didn't want to fan the flames. Hopefully Declan's persistence would eventually fizzle out, she didn't want him challenging some guy to a fight. Or a duel. She had a momentary image of Declan fighting Matt, with Matt shirtless and wielding a rapier like the cover of the lurid airport novel she still hadn't read, and smiled despite herself.

Unfortunately Declan interpreted her expression as an invitation. Nothing she could do could get rid of him from the doorstep, and in the end to her shock Fiona came out and tipped a jug of cold water on him. "Your flowers look a bit limp," she told him and slammed the door in his face.

He kept ringing the bell but they ignored it. On and on and on. They might have laughed over the water but the incessant ringing set everyone on edge.

"Honestly I really think you need to do something, it's getting beyond a joke," Fiona told her.

"Perhaps you should sit down and talk to him properly. Just one last time," Ann said.

Cara had already tried this. Multiple times.