Sydney was already shaking her head. Kendall’s desk phone rang and she picked it up.
“Kendall Tracy.”
“Hi Kendall, this is Miles from HR. I’m wondering if I could have a few minutes of your time this afternoon.”
“I’d prefer to meet with you tomorrow—”
“The team attorney just walked in here and quit. So did his administrative assistant. I’d like to talk with you about what happened in the meeting today.”
Sydney waved a little to catch Kendall’s eye and said, “We’ll take the meeting. Be here in ten minutes, please.”
“Great,” he said. “I’ll see you then.”
Kendall hung up her phone. “What was that?” she said to Sydney.
Sydney held up her tablet. “You don’t have to say a thing, Kendall.”
“We can’t use that. We didn’t ask permission before recording it.”
“Let them worry about that,” Sydney said. “The guys in that meeting earlier should be on their knees praying I haven’t called every sports media outlet on the planet by now.”
Kendall’s phone chirped with an incoming text.
Is there anything I can do to help?
A FEW DAYS later, Drew ran out onto the field in Dallas in front of a sold-out, cheering crowd. He was thankful for the distraction of a game. What he hoped would be a one-day non-story had ballooned into wall-to-wall discussions on Seattle talk radio and what appeared to be the destruction of Kendall’s future with the Miners.
When he offered to fly to San Francisco on Tuesday, she said, “You have a game. I’ll be fine. We’ll see each other Sunday night. I’ll be at your house as soon as I get back from Green Bay and get a flight out of SFO.” He heard the strain in her voice and kicked himself again for a stupid mistake. “As of this morning, I have three offers from other teams on the table.”
“Is that good or bad?”
“You tell me,” she said, and for the first time in days, he heard a smile in her voice. “Oakland, Arizona, or Miami. I’m sort of partial to Oakland right now, because the Miners’ owner just about stroked out when they called him to ask for permission to contact me.”
“He’s not happy with that idea?”
“Nope.” She pulled in a long breath. “How are you doing?”
“Things are fine. I miss you.”
“I miss you too. Will you introduce me to Nolan?”
“Absolutely.”
There was so much to say and never enough time to say it in. She’d be at his house on Sunday night, and they could spend most of Monday holding each other and talking. He was looking forward to it.
After giving him a lot of shit about his and Kendall’s romance, his teammates (to his surprise) closed ranks around him.
“I’ll give her a chance because of you, dawg,” Derrick told him. “If she says one word about how the Miners are a better team, though, it’s on.”
“I heard on the news she’s getting a lot of shit from their organization. She deserves better,” Seth chimed in.
“You guys are getting soft,” Zach joked, but slapped Drew on the back. “We’ll get through this.”
They would. His teammates lined up on the field for the kickoff. Drew was listed as a starter, but fully expected his backup to take his place when the defense took the field. To his surprise, Coach Stewart turned to him, pointed at the field, and said, “Get your ass out there.”
He ran out to join the huddle before Coach changed his mind.
The first few plays went perfectly. He missed batting down the Dallas QB’s pass on the first play, but he helped the defensive line drop Dallas’s QB for a loss twice. The Sharks fans in the crowd went crazy. He waved to acknowledge the cheering. The defense huddled up to talk about how they wanted to stop the Dallas offense on third and fifteen, and Derrick gave Drew a nod.
“Here’s your big chance, guy. Sack his ass,” Derrick said. “I can’t wait to watch him cry like a little girl.” He pantomimed rubbing his eyes with two grimy fists. “Waaa, waaaa.”
“What about you? They want to see that sexy sack dance on national TV,” Drew responded.
“I’ve got the play. Shut it so I can tell you shitheads what we’re doing,” Seth said. The middle linebacker was considered the quarterback of the defense. His helmet had a two-way speaker in it so he could talk with the coaching staff while the team was on the field.
“Oooh. It gets me really hot when you take charge,” Clay, the rookie, said to Seth. The other nine guys started laughing.
“The DL coach says he’s had enough of your BS, guys. Here’s what we’re doing.” Seth gave the play, told them how to line up, and the defensive line jogged back to get in their stance. The linebackers shifted as they watched the QB’s eyes. The guy had signed a hundred million dollar contract extension on the offseason, but he was still too dumb to stop signaling who he was about to pass to with his eyes every time he lined up behind center.