“Oh God. Oh, no.”
“You’re ‘unidentified’ so far, but the hunt is on to figure out who the woman is.”
“That ought to make the afternoon meeting fun and interesting, don’t you think?”
Sydney let out a snort.
DREW STROLLED INTO the practice facility after making his way through surprisingly hellacious traffic. He was still on time to get checked out by the trainer and the team doctor, so he hurried to his locker to pull on some warm-ups and a team logo T-shirt. He could lift afterward.
If he didn’t know Kendall’s schedule was more insane than his (and there would be serious consequences if he blew off today’s health check) he would have followed her onto the plane this morning. He’d be fine lounging in her backyard with a book until she came home from the office. He wanted to spend more time with her. The memory of last night on his couch was enough to make him turn his back and face his locker until his dick settled down a bit. Getting laid was a great thing, but he wanted to spend more time talking about almost anything with her first.
He hung up his street clothes and grabbed some cross trainers out of the drawer beneath the bench. He heard Derrick’s voice before he saw him.
“Well, look who’s here, Taylor.” Derrick let out a belly laugh and sang out, “Drew and Kendall Tracy sittin’ in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G.” He swiveled his hips and made a thrusting motion to accompany his words, which caused Seth to hoot with laughter. “I told you I’d find out who you were staring at, dawg. No wonder you didn’t want to go to Element with us last night. You’re all over Twitter now.” He waved his smart phone in Drew’s direction and nudged Seth with an elbow. “Does Coach know you’re sleeping with the enemy?”
Drew’s stomach dropped out. He knew there was a pretty damn good chance that somebody else was going to put two and two together when he’d kissed Kendall in the drop-off area at a busy international airport, but he was hoping against hope the people at the airport this morning were too fixated on getting where they needed to go to care. He couldn’t regret kissing her, but he regretted the fact she was probably going to pay for it with her colleagues. His teammates would give him shit until someone else started dating someone even higher profile. Luckily, this happened on the regular.
“You’re kidding me. Kendall of the Miners? The MINERS? You couldn’t find yourself a nice Sharks fan to spend some time with, McCoy?” Seth plunked himself down in the locker next to Drew’s. “How long has this been going on?”
Zach Anderson strode into the area. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Our boy Drew was in a lip lock this morning at Sea-Tac with the lovely Kendall, interim GM of the Miners.”
Zach rolled his eyes a little. “That’s all you’ve got, Collins? From the way you were carrying on, I thought he did the horizontal mambo with your ex.”
“Don’t mention her,” Derrick warned. “Just stop now.”
“Too soon?” Zach shot back. Drew had to laugh, and Zach gave him a hard stare. “Oh, laugh it up, buddy, but your ass is in a sling. Is this true?”
“No comment,” Drew said.
Derrick tapped the screen on his phone a couple of times. “Such a lovely picture, and so classy. Wait until your mama sees your hand on her breast in front of God and everybody.”
“You think you have problems now?” Seth said to Drew. “Forget about the coaching staff. Wait until the fans find out. All those women who’ve tried to pick you up . . .”
This was greeted with uproarious laughter and more shit from his teammates, who were drifting in to start their day.
“Works for me,” Clay, the rookie, shouted from across the room. “I’ll take his leftovers. I’m not proud.”
“Some woman told me McCoy turned her down because he’s ‘sensitive.’ ”
“It’s too bad he couldn’t find someone who isn’t with a piece of shit team . . .”
“You’d want her too,” Terrell, the safety, chimed in. “Who gives a fuck who she works for?”
One of the assistant coaches waded into the scrum. “Go see the trainers. McCoy, you come with me.”
Chapter Fourteen
* * *
THE SHARKS’ DEFENSIVE coordinator, LeRoy Bradley, pulled Drew into a corridor outside of the team’s locker room. Drew had always had a good rapport with the guy. He was conscientious, thorough, prepared the defense each week for what they might face from their opponents, and didn’t get involved in the squabbles that happened between highly competitive teammates. Right now, LeRoy folded his arms and narrowed his eyes.