Page 36 of Forever Defiant
“Glad to see my analysis is amusing to you, Slater.”
“Coach.”
He turned to the assistant coach. “Pull up Slater’scomedyof errors. Let’s see if he’s still laughing in ten minutes.”
Fuck my life.
Film finished thirty minutes later, and as we spilled out of the auditorium, Noah shook his head. “Fuck, that was bad.” He glanced at me. “I felt for you, man.”
I looked over my shoulder, saw the coast was clear, and groaned. “Who the fuck was editing? Andwhywere they editing a ‘Slater fucks up’ montage? They send that to the teams interested in me, I’ll be Mr. Irrelevant, if I’mlucky.” ‘Mr. Irrelevant’ was the nickname given to the very last player selected in the NFL Draft each year. The name wasn’t meant to insult the player, but to poke fun at the idea that value equaled Draft position.
But myvalueto the NFL was not as the last pick in the seventh round of the Draft. Those players were typically released before the regular season even began, with a few noticeable exceptions, of course. But I was better than that. Smarter.
“Sav’s meeting us when we leave. You’re both clear, right?” Dante asked us. “I think you are, yeah?”
“Yeah,” I told him, my mind still on the mindfuckery that just happened in the film room. “You know my schedule as well as I do.” Which was true, he did.
“I didn’t know you knew mine,” Noah said with a quizzical look at Dante. “How do you?”
“I pay attention,” he answered with a grin. “I’m insulted you look surprised.”
The spring air greeted us, and I took a deep breath. I watched Hadley walk out of the facility, her notebook pressed to her chest, still talking to Whittaker about his “baseline movement patterns” as if she were his personal analyst rather than someone who was ‘learning’ the sport.
I shouldn’t have cared, but I caught myself watching her step into the sunlight, her hair tied back in a ponytail, still managing to bounce lightly as she walked. Her brows were furrowed in concentration, as if the entire world was one big puzzle she was determined to solve, and Whittaker was the one holding the answers.
I had a feeling she was going to be disappointed.
We needed to get her out of here. Not because she was annoyingly distracting, which she definitely was, but because she saw things. Things I had stopped noticing. Things that the program sure as hell wouldn’t want her to see.
She wasn’t just shadowing the freshman. She was shadowing us all, and I wasn’t sure it was on purpose, and that was the part that made her dangerous.
“You’re staring,” Dante murmured as we walked away.
“Do you hear how muchshepays attention?” I asked them both.
“I did.” Dante slung his backpack over his shoulder, wincing slightly. “Not as much as you, I don’t think, but once you mentioned it, I noticed.”
“Was I that obvious?” I resented her even more.
“Nah.” He nudged me playfully as he walked. “You’ve just got the hearing of a bat.”
I laughed, and it felt good. “True.”
“We’re going to Sav’s shed, or workshop, I should call it.” He gave us both a hard look. “She’s territorial about her stuff, do not fucking touch anything.”
“Are you allowed to touch her stuff?” I asked him. “Or are you only allowed to touchher stuff?”
Noah choked on a laugh as Spence dug his elbow into my side. “Shut your mouth, or it won’t be the coaches sending yourlowlights reel to the Draft scouts.”
Savannah’s workshop/shed was in an out-of-the-way place, and honestly, I was surprised Dante was okay with her working here at night. It was creepy as fuck.
She smiled at us as we entered, Noah and I taking in the space for the first time. Her art stood proud in the middle of the room. I didn’t know what it was; it looked like a giant wind chime, only upside down. With glass. And no movement — wait, what was that glass bit, did that move? I had no idea what I was looking at.
“Guess what?” Savvy said as she rushed across the floor to meet Dante, looking slightly breathless. “Professor Yates got fired.”
Dante’s face turned to a blank slate, his tell when he didn’t want people to read his emotions. “Good. I hope the fucker gets hit by a bus.”
Savvy gave him a look of such exasperation that Noah and I grinned at each other. “You’re better than wishing harm on the creep.” She nervously twisted her hands. “Dad was here earlier, along with the director of the art department.” She nodded excitedly at Dante’s reaction. “I get to do art as an elective, and they said that with this and maybe two other projects, which I have already completed, I could choose sculpture as an elective for my fourth year.”
