Naked Hero - The Journey Away

anything between himself and Scott Taylor. Lewis would never accept this sort of duplicity from a partner, and it was wrong to harbour it in himself. In the sort of relationship he envisaged there could be no doubts about who you wanted to be with. The commitment should be total and there could be no room for any others – old fashioned perhaps, but that’s what Lewis had always dreamed of finding one day.
    Scott’s relative innocence and honourable nature made him a perfect candidate for that trusting monogamy – so different from Lee and his thousand-plus conquests – a figure he was probably adding to right now, and would look to double before his shagging days were done.
    Lee! Lee! Lee! Why did he always bring it back to Lee? It was Scott he should be thinking about – a potential relationship with his sporting idol, or at least a roll in the sack with a hot horny Yank, or Southern Gentleman to be more precise. Porter was obviously a threat if he was still there in Lewis’s mind. So the answer was obvious: banish the man and wipe him from his life. And then maybe the guilt that had crept up again would finally go away.

Chapter 52
    “He’s very quiet this morning. You wouldn’t think that he’s just reached a Grand Slam final. But then at least he’s being level headed about it all,” said Jim Murdoch pushing away the last of the newspapers which he had spent the previous hour wading through.
    “He must have a lot on his mind,” replied Fiona who was sitting opposite browsing through the celebrity gossip as she enjoyed her third cup of tea of the morning.
    “There’s only one thing he should have on his mind, and that’s tomorrow’s match,” countered the coach.
    Fiona put down the magazine she’d been scanning – alerted by something in her husband’s tone. “Well, I’m sure that will be a big part of it. Have you spoken to Scott this morning? Did he mention anything about last night? Perhaps something was said that’s upset him again. I hope the two of you haven’t gone and done anything stupid.”
    “No, I haven’t spoken to him yet,” replied Jim, shuffling through the newspapers again in an attempt to avoid the more pertinent question. He knew it wouldn’t work. After twenty-seven years of marriage, Fiona could read him all too easily.
    “Jim!” she exclaimed. No more was needed.
    “Scott was going to talk to him about carrying on his involvement. Put his mind at rest about what might happen after the Open. That was all. I thought it would give him a lift,” admitted Jim.
    Fiona folded up the magazine and smacked it hard on the back of her husband’s hand. “Well, you’ve certainly managed to give him something other than the match tomorrow to think about, haven’t you?” she snapped in a muffled voice.
    “What the hell is there to think about?” answered Jim, nursing his violated flesh. “I would have thought he would have jumped at the chance.”
    “Perhaps there’s more to it than we know.”
    “Like what?”
    “Lee.”
    Using his aching hand, Jim stroked his now equally aching brow. Why could he never have an hour’s peace of a morning? Did his wife and that scoundrel of a lad he cared so much for, plot out new ways to torment him every day? They had certainly come up with a cracker of a wheeze in the form of Lee Porter if that was truly the case. Jim tried to calm himself before he responded. “He should have been gone by now. Lewis would be out of his mind to risk having Scott as a coach because of that chancer, if that’s what’s bothering him at the moment.”
    Fiona pursed her lips in annoyance. “Lewis wouldn’t appreciate any conditions being attached to the offer. You should know that. Nobody’s going to tell him how to live his life, put tennis first. He made that decision a long time ago, and it’s too late to go back on it now.”
    “But there’s nothing going on between them!” exclaimed Jim. He felt totally exasperated. None of this made sense. “You said Lewis made that clear, and that’s what I told Scott.”
    “Well, perhaps it’s something else then. I wish the pair of you had just left this till after the final. You should have known better, Jim, than to have jumped the gun.”
    “I thought he would have been over the moon. Settled his mind about what was going to happen.”
    “Aye, I know what you mean,” said Fiona, at last cutting Jim a bit of slack, “but it seems like the opposite has happened. He doesn’t look at