Chapter 39
Chapter Thirty-Nine
~DANNY~
August guides me down to the field level.
Normally, we don’t go this far, but I think he can tell Mac might need me on the field and that I’d like to get to her too.
I want to pull her into my arms and hold onto her.
Take her worries and the disappointment of losing the game, getting the card, all of it, away.
We walk onto the field, and I take a minute to look at it.
It’s beautiful. The Blaze logo in the middle.
The seats with their alternating colors.
Even though it was a loss, you can feel the electricity in the air.
There’s always an energy when you’re stepping onto a playing field. I can feel it here too.
My eyes search for her, but I can’t seem to find her with all the Blaze players, staff, and Pride players on the field.
August has stepped off to the side now, giving me space to be with her.
He got me to the field, which was what I needed.
Now he’s letting me have some time alone with her.
I look back and nod my thanks. He just winks at me and heads back into the tunnel.
I can always tell when she’s near. Always could since that first night I laid eyes on her.
It’s like there’s a shift in the air when she appears.
I can feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
I turn around and Cassie steps to the side, showing her to me.
I stand there waiting for her. She’s with her team, and I don’t want to intrude, though my feet want nothing more than to walk over there and haul her into my arms.
Cassie points me out to her, and she comes rushing over. Flying into my arms, I grab hold of her and hug her tightly.
“Hey, baby, how are you?” I ask her before kissing her neck and the top of her head. I hold her tightly and feel her gripping me just as tight. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” she says in a small voice. “That game sucked.”
“You did good. You really did. Don’t even give it a second thought. It’s over. Let’s move on and worry about the next one.” That’s what my coach always said to me when I had a bad swim. I hope it helps her too.
She just nods and clings to me. My arm starts to feel wet, and I realize her shoulders are shaking. She’s crying. I pull her back so that I can see her eyes.
“What’s all this? What’s wrong?”
She sighs and wipes at her eyes. “I’m sorry.”
“Why are you sorry?” I ask her. For a second, I get a sinking feeling in my gut that she’s sorry because we’re over, but it can’t be it. Not the way she keeps on touching me. Her hands are anchored to my arms.
“I’m sorry for crying, I guess,” she says with a giggle.
“Please don’t apologize for crying, baby. It’s okay. I’m here now. I’m going to take care of you.”
She looks up at me and smiles wider than I’ve seen her smile. “I think I like that you’re allowed down here and that I can hug and touch you.”
“August helped me get to you.”
“Guess that means your bromance is still happening, huh?” She leans up and kisses my lips quickly. “This is the best way to end a shitty game.”
“I would have to agree with that.” I pull her in again, hugging her tightly. “So, is everything okay with you and the team? Has anyone said anything to you?”
She looks around like she’s seeing if anyone is watching or listening to us. “I don’t think so. No one has really said anything to me about it. I’m not really sure who, other than my girls, knows what.”
I nod. “And what have they said?”
“Pretty much ‘Go, Mac.’” She’s enjoying this far too much.
“So, they’re on board?”
“Well, yeah, they think you’re hot.”
“That’s good to know.”
She pretends to punch me in the shoulder but doesn’t connect. “There’s that ego I remember from when we first met.”
I laugh. “Yeah, I don’t think that ego really ever left. I think I just changed it to bossing you around in the bedroom, which you don’t seem to mind.”
“No, I think I like it when you do that.” She blushes and I lean down and kiss her lips.
“I think you know that you like it. You don’t think you like it,” I tell her teasingly.
“This is true,” she says, laughing at me.
I look around and see that a lot of her teammates have made their way through the tunnels to the locker room. “Do you need to leave me soon?”
“I think so. But I gotta know, what happened to you today?”
“We can talk about that later.” I don’t want to upset her further. She’s had a rough enough game and day. I don’t want to pile onto it.
“Danny, please just tell me what happened.”
I sigh. “Later.”
Her voice gets sterner. “Daniel.”
I hate the idea of telling her right now, but she’s standing in front of me in that blue Blaze uniform, her arms crossed sternly across her chest. She has this take-no-shit look in her eye.
They’re narrowed and a fiery blue color.
She almost looks sexy, but I don’t dare tell her that.
She looks like she would cut my dick off if I tried to change the subject right now.
“No one ever calls me Daniel, by the way. That’s not even my name. My given name is Danny. I’m pretty sure that Google search you did on my showed that much,” I tease her, hoping it lightens her mood. But it doesn’t look like it’s working.
“Just please tell me,” she pleads with me.
“Fine. They fired me,” I tell her.
Her blue eyes fill back up with tears. “You’re kidding me. How could they do that?”
“Martin said I compromised my integrity by sleeping with someone I was interviewing. And he didn’t think the paper could trust my words or my work anymore, so I was let go.”
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to cost you your job. What will this mean for your career?”
“Mac, calm down. It’s okay. It hasn’t cost me anything other than a job I really wasn’t fond of. And I’m not worried about my career. Writing for that paper didn’t really make me happy.”
“I’m so sorry,” she repeats.
I pull her into a hug. “Go be with your team and listen to your coach’s pep talk. We can talk about this later, okay?”
“But…” Mac starts to say, but her bottom lip quivers.
“It’s okay. Now get going, lady. Go find your team and your friends.” I try to get her to leave, but she’s rooted to the spot. “Come on. We’ll talk more about this later.”
“I feel so bad that this didn’t impact me the way it did you.”
“Let’s not worry about this now,” I tell her.
Hendrix comes over to get her, effectively stopping our conversation.
“Hey, Mac. Coach wants us to come into the tunnel now. we gotta pep talk.” She turns to me. “Are you proud of your girl? She kicked some serious ass out there tonight.”
“I am. Always am.” I pull Mac in for a side hug.
“You know, I kinda like this for you, Mac. He’s hot and you two look adorable together.”
“Thanks. I think,” I reply
Mac looks at Hendrix, then back at me. I don’t think she’s sure what to say about it. “So, Coach is ready for us to come back into the tunnel, huh? He didn’t ask you to come get me, did he?”
Hendrix shakes her head. “He didn’t, but Jase did.”
“You better go. No more insubordination, got it?” I laugh and kiss her on the head.
“Yeah, okay. Are you coming to the bar with us tonight?” she asks me.
“If that’s what you want, then yes, I am,” I tell her.
Mac nods and heads off into the tunnel with Hendrix. Hendrix has placed her arm around Mac, and I’m hoping that whatever she’s currently saying can help lift her spirits.
“Hey, how are you doing, man?”
I turn to see Jase standing there. “Eh, I’m doing alright.”
“I heard you got fired,” Jase tells me.
“How did you hear that?”
“August may have mentioned it to me.”
“Oh, I didn’t realize this was getting around already. I’m glad I got to tell Mac before it did.”
Jase nods. “He’s chatty like a girl. I just wanted to come over here and say I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Thanks, man.”
“You don’t seem that sad about losing your job. Is it because you get to keep the girl?”
I laugh. “Maybe. I don’t know. I always thought I loved my job, but then I got in that room all those weeks ago with the Cromwell’s and Martin.
I saw all of the back door meandering they were doing to make a story happen the way they wanted it to.
It just felt like the wrong kind of journalism.
I don’t want to be in that kind of world. ”
“That isn’t what you set out to do, huh?” Jase asks.
“No, not really. I mean, I fell into this because I was injured while swimming, and I wanted to remain around sports.” I shrug.
“This was a job I was able to get without my dad’s connections, though he may have helped without realizing it.
It worked for me for a while. Until it didn’t.
I think this whole thing with Mac helped me see it. ”
“I get it. It’s hard. This isn’t where I thought I was going to be either. But here I am coaching a women’s team. I like the team. They’re great. I’m just not sure if we’ll be able to survive the city’s expectations.”
“I was so supposed to help with that,” I say with a chuckle.
“I think you may have fucked that up.” He laughs along with me. “But oh well.”
“Yeah, oh well.”
“I guess I’ll see you at the bar later tonight, then?” Jase asks me.
“Yeah, it seems like that’s what she wants to do.”
Jase starts to walk away but then turns to me.
“Danny, just find something you love. Somewhere you feel like you belong. Don’t worry about your dad and all the expectations that come along with that.
” He pauses for a beat. “I don’t know what that’s like, but I can tell you that I know what it’s like to live your passion just in a different way.
So, find your passion and do what feels like a place you belong.
Not where anyone else thinks that you should. ”
“Thanks. I appreciate it.” And I do. I really do.
My journalism career may have stalled a bit.
Truth be told, I could probably pick it back up somewhere else.
Or in a few years when Martin can’t remind anywhere I apply to that I slept with my story.
But I’m not sure that I want to. Maybe I should listen to Jase and find what sets me on fire. Other than Mac.