Chapter 5
MILES
I can’t believe the first game of the year is here. I moved into my new place at The Den, as they call it, and it’s been good. I see Damon and Cooper quite a bit, and it’s in a good neighborhood with lots to do.
Creed, who retired, left a lot of his furniture.
Since I’ve been told he was a bigger player than Damon, I have a new bed coming.
I should probably change out all the furniture, and in time, I probably will.
Black leather isn’t really my style. But I’ve stocked my fridge, unpacked my shit, and gotten settled.
Now I’m in the locker room, and the pep talk I gave myself earlier seems to be for naught, because my nerves are taking over.
The rest of the team seems so at ease. Damon isn’t even fully dressed, walking around, razzing every player, while Cooper quietly puts on his gear.
Eventually, the two of them start talking about the day they went to the rooftop of our building to watch the Colts baseball game.
I was moving into the building that day and missed most of it.
By the time I made it up there half the group was already gone.
Damon’s having a fine time busting Cooper’s balls .
Cooper’s best friend Ellery, is a woman, and Damon thinks there’s something more between them because Cooper doesn’t want any of his teammates to date her, which I get. I felt that protective of someone who wasn’t mine once upon a time.
“But I’d fix you up with B,” Cooper says. “She loves sports, football is her favorite, and she’s just a lot of fun to be around. Not much gets her in a bad mood.”
I shrug. “I guess we’ll see the next time you guys all hang out.”
I’m still hung up on the fact that Bryce Burns lives in Chicago now.
After my sister told me that my archnemesis moved here to write for Sportsverse Magazine , I was proud of Bryce because she wants to make a name for herself, but at the same time, I’d thought I’d escaped her.
That I’d be able to start over without worrying about running into her.
Maybe this Bea will help take Bryce off my mind.
“She and Elle are stopping in before the game. They used to do it in college, and I thought maybe it’d give us all good luck this season if they wished me luck before the game.” Cooper shrugs. “I’m willing to do just about anything to win the championship this year.”
Siska and I nod. We both want it too, like a burning need inside us. I want it to prove my worth, Siska because it pisses him off that Lee, our other college buddy, won it last year, and Cooper because I think he wants to prove he’s more than just easy on the eyes.
We continue to get ready, and once we’re all dressed, we sit around in a circle. Siska and Cooper are captains, so they lead the team with a talk that should get us hyped up to win. And they each do a great job.
I grab my helmet from the locker room as the door bursts open. Standing there in team gear is Elle with Cooper’s number on her cheek and a shorter woman who has the Grizzlies mascot head on as she dances into the room .
This must be Bea. Even with a mascot head, it’s easy to see that she has a sexy body. She’s wearing Cooper’s jersey, and her shorts show off her olive-toned legs with a pair of orange Converse. I’m already interested.
The team watches with laughter as they attack Cooper, giving him hugs.
“What the hell?” He lifts the mascot head, revealing a mass of dark hair.
When she laughs, my mouth hangs open and I realize that Bea isn’t Bea, it’s B, the first initial of the name Bryce. Her dark gaze lands on me, and there’s no surprise in her eyes like there must be in mine.
She knew. Of course she did. My trade to this team wasn’t a secret.
“Only you, B,” Cooper says and brings her over to me. “B, this is Miles. Miles, this is B.” Cooper’s hand moves back and forth between us.
This is a telling moment. Will she reveal she knows me, or do we act like strangers?
“Hello, Miles,” she says, lips pressed into a thin line and not hiding her displeasure.
Guess I have my answer.
I give her a curt nod. “Bryce.”
“Do you two know each other?” Cooper asks, his head volleying between us.
“Of course they do. She’s the one who wrote all that shit about Miles back in San Francisco,” Damon interjects and laughs. “This is classic. How do you miss this stuff, Rice?” He walks over to his locker, thank God, to finish getting ready.
“Really?” Cooper frowns.
“Have you not read me?” Bryce sounds offended.
“I don’t read anything about football. It’ll fuck with my head.”
Maybe I should be more like Cooper.
“Well, we just wanted to wish you luck.” Ellery grabs Bryce’s arm, tugging her out of the locker room. “You guys have this. Go Grizzlies!” She raises her arm, with Bryce not bothering to look back at us.
She knew I’d be in this locker room. She’s trying to fuck with me. Does she want me to do shitty out there tonight?
“Okay, time to fucking spill.” Cooper sits down next to me.
“Fuck. Why were there two women in my locker room?” Coach Iverson yells, entering from the hallway. “Siska, I swear to God, if it has anything to do with you…”
Damon is quick to raise his hands. “No, sir. I would never.”
The team snickers because we all wouldn’t put it past him.
“Whoever it was, never again.” He points at each of us, his face redder the madder he gets. “Now bring it in, because I have something to say.”
We circle around, all of us dressed with our helmets in our hands.
“Rumor is that, to some, we’re the team to beat. Rumor is that we’re one of the teams who can get to the Bowl. Are you happy about that?”
“Hell yeah,” one of the linemen says.
“Well get it out of your head! We’re not playing for a fucking championship.
We’re not playing to be the best. Tonight, we’re playing to beat one team.
The fucking Stars. That’s it. They’ve got fifty-two men, we’ve got fifty-two men.
It’s sixty minutes of hard work and sweat-producing effort.
I’ve told every team I’ve coached from my son’s peewee team to you now, you leave everything on that field.
If you do, you’ll get the results you want. So, Rice, count us down.”
We all put our hands in, even though the guys on the outside of the circle can’t really reach the middle.
“Three. Two. One. Grizzlies,” we all say in unison.
Then some of us scream, others jump up and down, chest bumping some of the guys as we file out of the locker room, down the hallway, and spring onto the field as our fans scream and go wild.
It isn’t until I’m on our side of the field that I look up and see signs for Cooper and Damon, one or two for me and the other guys, but I’m not blind.
I’m not their guy in Chicago. That title is being fought for between Cooper and Damon.
My gaze catches Bryce’s. She’s standing with Elle at the fifty-yard line, first row.
“I buy her season tickets every year,” Cooper says, coming up beside me.
“Wonderful.”
“So what happened between you and B? Whatever you’re keeping secret, you should know that she’s going to be at every home game as long as she lives here. You’ll have to get used to it.”
I look at him and he shrugs, walking away to toss the ball to his quarterback coach.
There goes the hope I had that I’d be starting over. My biggest critic will sit front and center at every home game and she works for the biggest sports magazine in the country. Perfect.
Every time we score, the Stars come back and score with us.
I think we might have underestimated them, and they feel like they have something to prove because the game wasn’t supposed to be tied in the fourth quarter with only three seconds left.
The Stars are on the fifty-yard line with possession of the ball.
I squat down, ready for their center to hike the ball. As soon as I see the ball release, their wide receivers and running backs scatter.
“Go to the right!” I yell to Henderson. “Corner pocket. I’ll cover the middle. ”
A wide receiver breezes by me toward the endzone, and I chase the fucker down. The crowd goes wild, but then all the noise disappears as I watch the ball spiral in the air. It wobbles right and then left. Fucking Chicago and their Windy City crap.
“You’ll never get it, Cavanaugh,” Evans, the Stars wide receiver, says to me.
But I stick to him, and both of our hands go up as soon as the ball falls from the sky.
My left arm stretches, and I jump right in front of Evans, knocking the ball down, but my right hand grabs it before it hits the ground.
I tuck the ball under my arm and run down the field.
The crowd yells, and cheers explode around me, but I try to push it all away and concentrate on my job—to get this ball in the other end zone.
“Fucking hell, Cavanaugh. GO. GO. GO!” Damon screams from the sidelines.
Every one of our defense players tackles, and I do a spin move before diving into our end zone with the ball in my hands to score the winning touchdown.
The Jumbotron shows fireworks bursting, and my picture is put up there with all my stats just in case someone missed that it was me who deflected, caught, and ran the ball all the way downfield.
It’s the play of a lifetime, one I might never repeat, and damn, does it feel good as all my teammates stampede onto the field, picking me up and carrying me to the sidelines.
I see the hype. I’ve been the guy in the middle for years, never the guy on top.
I run on pure adrenaline as I fall off their shoulders, and Coach Iverson screams in my face that I’m fucking awesome.
I’m still pinching myself as reporters come to me for interviews.
It’s not that I’ve never been interviewed, but usually I’m the third or fourth person asked and that’s if I had a great game.
Defense is sometimes a thankless position, but today, it’s what won us the game and I’m going to enjoy every second of the attention.
I’m so busy being chest bumped and clapped on the back that I don’t realize until it’s too late that Bryce is right in front of me.
“Congratulations, Miles. Great play.”
“What, no critique on my form or my footwork? Don’t want to complain about how I deflected and then caught the ball instead of just catching it right away?” I ask, like an asshole, and her lips straighten into a thin line.
“I was being polite. You know we’re stuck in the same friends’ circle here—again—so we need to be cordial.” She crosses her arms, and her tight Grizzlies T-shirt shows a line of cleavage that makes my mouth salivate.
I hate that my body wants her.
“We’re going out for drinks, and no one is saying no.” Damon jumps and points at each of us.
“Guess I’ll see you soon then,” I say to Bryce after Damon moves on to another group, celebrating the win as though it was the championship.
“Seems so.” She huffs, rolls her eyes, and turns around.
My gaze shouldn’t be on her ass, but it is because I’d do just about anything to have my hands on her ass and pull her up so she’s straddling me.
I shake my head. She made the decision a long time ago that she didn’t want anything to do with me. I need to remember that any chance of us becoming more than enemies was sealed and vaulted away, never to be opened again.