‘And is this friend going to appear in the next video? Or are we just gonna see more of you half-naked huffing and puffing while flexing your muscles?’

And then it dawned on Ward that his mother was referring, not to the kittens pic, but to the training video Shelley had filmed of him. Soft porn?

His entire body cringed so badly he wanted to lie down and die.

‘Jesus, Mom, it was a workout video to show my fans how my progress is going.’

‘Well, Aunt Helen seemed to think that it was one of those sites where weirdos pay you to get naked, but what do I know?’

And if Helen thought that, who knew how many others would too? Ward winced with mortification.

He’d fucked this up already, hadn’t he? No wonder Hannah wasn’t answering. He’d blown her strategy with his very first foray into this stuff. Why didn’t he run it by her – the expert – instead of letting Shelley talk him into it? He didn’t think his trainer meant any harm and was only trying to help, but man, had that backfired.

Christ. Ward wasn’t sure if he could show his face in public again, let alone online. And to think he was worried about the locker room ribbing about the kittens’ pic … the guys would have a goddamn field day with this.

‘So is this … friend,’ his mother drawled. ‘Another one who’s gonna get her wits about her in due time and run off screaming to another city?’

Amid all her other insults, the low-blow comment about Melanie made Ward feel as if he had been physically slapped, and fresh anger rushed through him.

‘Always a pleasure hearing from you, Mom,’ he managed to reply before his temper got the better of him. ‘But if what I’m doing upsets you so much, maybe send back the cheques I keep mailing. And tell Aunt Helen to mind her own damn business.’

He ended the call and slammed the phone on the countertop, not caring if the stupid thing broke into a thousand pieces. If he had been on the ice this would have been the exact moment he bodychecked an opponent and upended a guy onto the boards.

But he couldn’t do that. Much as he wanted to, he couldn’t act out or worse, lash out. That wouldn’t do him any good, and it would put him on the wrong side of Hannah again too.

As it was, he’d done enough.

Ward pulled at his hair as if the action could rip out the conflicting thoughts and emotions his mother had provoked. Then picking up the phone, the latest source of his humiliation, he navigated to his socials and promptly deleted the stupid training video.

Don’t mess this up.