Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
~MAC~
Another travel day, and this time I have to sit beside Danny the whole way to Washington DC.
It’s not a long plane ride, but it’s enough that he can ask me some questions.
We’re wearing our travel suits for this again, so we look nice.
Not that anyone in the airport is really paying any attention to us.
“I haven’t seen you in a while and that is bothering me,” a low voice behind me says.
“I’ve been busy,” I tell him, looking over my shoulder to see Danny in a navy-blue Blaze sweatshirt and a pair of joggers. “Who spiffed you up?”
“August. Thought maybe if I was traveling with you guys, I should at least look the part,” he says with a shrug.
“It looks good on you. Navy is definitely your color. Although if I were August, I would have given you the bright yellow. Make sure you really stand out. You know, since you like that so much.”
“Funny. Yeah, I really like it when I stand out.” He bumps his shoulder with mine. “Have you really been that busy, or is it that people getting suspicious is starting to get to you?”
“Miss me, huh?”
“Something like that.” He rocks on his heels.
“Uh-huh. Are you being vague on purpose so that I don’t actually start to believe that you like hanging around me?”
He leans in so close that I can feel his breath on my ear. I look around and see no one is paying us any mind.
“I can think of a few things you like that I do,” he says.
I chuckle. “And vice versa.”
He nods. “And vice versa.”
“Hello, guys. Are you ready for your interview, Mackenzie?” August joins us and looks from Danny to me and back at Danny again. “If it’s okay with you, I made sure to put you two together for the flight there, but on the way home, you can sit with me up in first class, if that works for you.”
“Yeah, it does. Thanks, man. I’ll be just fine asking this one some questions. I’m hoping we can wrap this up and I can get this on your desk.”
August nods. “Well, it’s going on Dad’s desk, not mine. So, you’ve gotta make sure you impress him and not me. I’m easier to impress. Him, not so much.”
August winks at me when he mentions being easier to impress. I want to hurl. I just shoot him a questioning look, which he ignores. Instead, he pats Danny on the back and heads back to his friends.
“Did he just hit on me?” I ask Danny.
“Smells of booze, so that probably explains it.” Danny watches him walk away, waving at the guys August joined.
“Look at you making friends,” I tease him.
“Oh, good, you’re going to make asking you questions so easy.” He snickers and shakes his head. “Don’t worry, you’re almost done working with me.”
I turn to him, looking him square in the eye. “Then what happens?”
He just shrugs. “I don’t know, Mac. I haven’t really figured it out yet. Have you?”
“No.”
“Alright then,” Danny says, like it’s not just on him to figure out if we’re actually something or if he just likes to use my body every once in a while.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy using his just as much. But I wish I had more information on where I stood with him. Might make me a little less jittery every time he’s around.
Thankfully, it’s not much longer before we’re on the plane. Once we get situated, he turns to me and speaks again.
“Do you want anything to drink?”
“Nah, I’m good,” I tell him. “I filled up my water bottle in the terminal. That’ll be enough for me.”
He nods. “Okay, well, let me know when you’re ready to get started and we can get right down to it.”
There’s something about the way he says it that makes it sound dirty. I look over at him and smirk.
“You have a way of making everything you say sound a little porny. Do you mean to do that?”
He laughs and leans into me. “It must just be you. But we have to be careful. We’re in a metal box for a while and your teammates are all around. We wouldn’t want anyone to overhear you use the word porny around me.”
“Don’t you two look cozy.” A voice says.
I look up and see that Elysa is standing there.
She’s one of our defenders who never gets on the field.
Her attitude about that is getting worse and worse.
Apparently, she thinks just because she puts on the pinny that could sub her into the game, with nine other girls that means she’s getting on the field. But that’s not always the case.
“I can’t exactly talk about all the girls I like and don’t like too loudly on the plane.” I tell her. I’m sick of her shitty attitude and the drama she likes to start. Which is why I don’t care how snotty the comment sounded.
“I’m sure.” Is all she says and continues walking.
“She seems so friendly, and she brings out a lovely color on you. You know one that I thought only I would bring out on you.” He says with a laugh.
“Yeah well she’s a bitch.”
“Oh captain, my captain, I did not think you would say things like that.” He teases me.
“Whatever.” I say shake my head at him. “Ask me what you want to ask me.”
“Okay.” He pulls out his iPad and it comes to life. The screen saver is of him and some guys in front of a pool. They’re all wearing medals.
“Looks like a shot of you from the Olympics.”
“It is. Some of the best guys I ever swam with.”
“Cool,” I reply. I’m never sure what to say or how much to say about it. It’s like a wound that rips open without a moment’s notice for him. It puts him in a dark place, and I don’t want him like that when I’m stuck sitting beside him.
“How long have you been playing soccer?”
I guess we’re to the question part of the flight. “Four. I was four.”
He nods and types something. “What has your career been like? If you could sum it up in one word, what would that word be?”
I sit back and think about it for a minute, smiling at him.
“That’s a good question. I would have to say lucky.
I got to play on a great team in high school, which got me noticed by colleges.
I landed a D1 team, and that helped me get here to Tampa.
Sure, I work hard, but I believe I’ve been lucky to receive a lot of the opportunities that I have. ”
He nods. “Good answer. I would have thought you’d say something else or believe that everyone makes their own luck.”
I shake my head. “No, I gotta believe that some of what has happened to me has been luck. The luck of a higher power or something.”
“Okay.” He looks around the plane for a bit and then turns back to me. “I’m sorry for having to ask this next question, but Nick thought it would be good to know for the article.”
I swallow. “Okay.” It comes out like more of a question.
“What would you say about the team's record to the fans that don’t really know anything about soccer?”
“I hate this question, but I get why you guys think you need to ask it. I would say that we’re a new team.
We are still working on gelling. It’s no different than any other athletic team.
Although, we have a similar record right now to what the Bucs have in the NFL, and I bet no one is shaking their heads when they take the field.
And no one is saying they don’t belong in Tampa because they already have the Dolphins in Miami. ”
Danny gives me a mile-wide smile, one I haven’t seen since we were alone in his place. “There’s my girl. I love that answer, and I’m going to print it. We’ll have to make sure Cromwell approves, but you’re absolutely right.”
I shake my head. “And you said the same fucking thing when you did an interview with me in the pressroom. You were trying to make me feel like I don’t belong. And now you want to be proud of me. Interesting, Danny Taylor.”
“Yeah, it sure is,” he says, and then he looks back at this iPad, ready to ask me more questions. “But what about the playoffs? What do you think it will say to the city of Tampa if you’re not in the playoffs?”
“Mr. Taylor, it’s April. The end of April. The season will run into October, maybe—if we’re lucky. So, I think it’s a little early to ask us about the playoffs. We can still turn it around. We may be down, but we are certainly not out.”
“Okay. Noted.” He looks back at the iPad.
The questions continue like that, and the answers continue to be snide.
Danny keeps firing them at me, and I keep knocking them out of the park.
A few of the players are looking around their seats at us or looking at us from across the aisle.
Clearly, my answers are causing them to turn. They seem happy with my responses.
“What else do you want to tell me?” Danny asks me. “That I haven’t asked you yet.”
“I just want you to make sure you remember that we may be a new team, and we may be green in some people’s eyes, but we’re here to stay. This team is going to rise up, and we’re going to do great things. They just have to give us a chance.”
He winks at me. “Thank you for your time, Mackenzie Dixon. You are certainly a pleasure to interview.”
“Is that all you’d like to ask me?” I’m surprised the interview is over so quickly.
“Yeah, I think we’re good. I’m going to work on this a bit tonight and over the weekend. Get a few more quotes and things from your teammates, and I think we should be wrapped up.”
I nod. “Okay.”
He nods back and repeats, “Okay.”
Sitting here on this airplane getting ready to land in Washington DC, it feels like something has ended.
Which makes me wonder if the time at my place was the last time we would be together like that.
It makes me a little sad and nostalgic and makes me long for the moments we had alone together.
I hate that we’re stuck on an airplane with so many people listening, so it doesn’t feel like us.
It feels like we’re the people back in the pressroom.
Once we land and the cell signal is back on, he turns his phone on and mine vibrates.
Danny: I think it worked. I think we fooled them.
I think it might have worked too. But a little too well, because right now, I don’t even believe there was ever anything between us.
Not with the look in his sharp blue eyes or the tone he took with me.
It feels like we’ve come full circle, and we’re back to square one with the saucy words and the quips in headlines that hurt.