Covering Kendall(75)

“I know you’re hurt because I wasn’t here when you woke up, but there’s something more to this.”

He folded his lips, gave up attempting to cross his arms, and folded his hands in his lap. “Are you staying with the Miners?”

“I wasn’t going to until late yesterday afternoon,” she said.

“What happened then?”

“I had a long talk with the owner. He officially offered me the GM job. He is happy with what I am doing with the organization and the team, and he’d like to have things settled in the next several days. His attorneys have notified him to expect an indictment.” She swallowed. “I’m not sure if he will give the team ownership outright to his wife before the paperwork arrives or what is going to happen, but the franchise will need to batten down the hatches to survive, so to speak.”

“Where does that leave us?”

She looked into his face. “I will have to live in California for the foreseeable future, if that answers your question.”

“If we want to stay together, I’ll be living alone in Seattle six months a year.”

“Drew, we haven’t been on a real date yet. Maybe we should try the meeting in the middle thing you talked about last week before we decide it’s not going to work,” she said.

“I’ll be in rehab for at least six months now, most likely a year. In Seattle.” He let out a sigh. “I’m not sure this is going to work, Kendall. You’ll be working sixty to seventy hours a week for the Miners. Our GM must be part giraffe; I don’t think that guy ever sleeps. You’ll be so exhausted on the nights we can see each other that dating will be out of the question—”

“I’ll make it happen,” she said. “I’ll do whatever I have to do.”

“What if I want to start a marriage and a life in the house I picked out for my future family? What then?”

He realized he was starting to sound like his dad, but he’d made a plan. He wanted to see his smiling wife in a luxurious house, watch his kids playing in the grass in the backyard, and holidays and birthdays and family celebrations there all year long. Was it a crime to wish for such a thing?

“Why does it have to be your house and your city? Is there any room for compromise at all?” She pushed the plate of eggs and turkey bacon away. “I know you lived in California in college. Would Portland be an alternative? I’d have to fly in for weekends, but we could make it work.”

“I can’t get on a plane six months a year to go to practice.”

The argument could go around and around and never get anywhere. He wouldn’t budge. Right now, she couldn’t. She’d given Mr. Curtis her word last night that she would stay with the Miners until his legal problems were over at the least. The coaching staff and players needed to know that their world wasn’t changing all that much.

She glanced up from staring down at the rolling table to see him flinch in pain.

“Do you need some painkillers?” she asked.

“I don’t know when the last dose was. Maybe I should call the nurse.”

He started to get up from the chair, and she said, “Let me do it.”



DREW OPENED HIS eyes from another pharmaceutically-induced haze to see Kendall asleep in the reclining chair next to his bed. The TV in his room had been replaced while he was out too. Whoever installed it left it on ESPN. The volume was muted and the closed captioning was enabled. He noticed there was a special report coming up about the Miners’ current situation, so he hit the button on his bed to sit up a bit and turned the volume low enough that he could hear it, but not so loud it would wake up the (obviously) exhausted Kendall.

The sportscasters started out by showing a clip of the security camera footage from the hotel where Rocky Hill used his girlfriend’s face as a punching bag. Even in black and white, the pictures were chilling. The next clip was Kendall answering a question from a reporter asking her if she was ashamed the incident happened while she was acting GM of the Miners.

Kendall looked stricken by his question. She took a sip of water while she gathered her thoughts. When she spoke, her voice was strong and she looked directly into the camera. He was stunned by her admission that yes, she was ashamed. He listened to the rest of her comments with his mouth hanging open. He resisted the impulse to applaud. No wonder the owner of the Miners moved toward her at the podium to shake her hand. She’d defused a disastrous PR situation with honesty and a commitment to the future. She handled a room full of media who wielded questions like pointy sticks and didn’t back down to them.

The strong, decisive leader on his television set, the woman who said she wouldn’t let anything like it happen again on her watch, stirred a little in her sleep. The sports anchors were now opining on what this all meant for the Miners. He didn’t care what they had to say about the whole thing, so he hit the “mute” button again.