Page 20 of Forever Defiant
“Goodbye, Ms. Peterson.” He looked to the main door, and I knew he wasn’t leaving until I did.
The doors opened behind me, and I heard footsteps approaching, but I paid no attention to them as I stared at the head coach and frantically tried to think of a reason why he needed to let me do this assignment.
“Miss Peterson? What brings you here?”
I turned to look at Dean Cole, and I resigned myself to walking away, defeated.
The dean was in a light brown suit, a tan overcoat, and he was pulling off a pair of leather gloves. He looked the very definition of ‘academic.’
“What a pleasant morning,” he continued. “It looks like spring is trying to make an appearance.”
“Dean Cole.” I blew out a low sigh. Why didn’t I factor in the fact that the head coach could say no?
“Dean,” Coach Sutherland’s greeting to the dean was almost as sour as mine had been. “I already said no.”
Dean Cole looked between us. “You said no to what?” He put his gloves in his pockets. “What am I missing?”
“This.” I stepped forward and handed my form over to the dean, hoping he didn’t know about my bright idea. “It’s signed by my professor.” This time, I did point out the signature.
Dean Cole scanned the document, and I could see the slight frown on his face. “I see that, Hadley.” He looked up at Coach Sutherland. “I think we should take this out of the foyer and into your office, yes?”
I think the receptionist and I both held our breath because it looked like the head coach was about to say no to the dean, but he eventually jerked his head to the door he came through earlier, and Dean Cole and I followed him.
“And how have you been?” the dean asked me. It was clear he was just being polite, and I knew he wasn’t really interested in the answer.
“I’ve been okay, thank you.” I looked between him and Coach Sutherland’s broad back. “Keeping out of trouble.”
The dean’s eyebrows raised, but he said nothing. Great, now I just reminded them what I’d done. As if Sutherland would ever forget.
Why was I allowed out unsupervised? I was my own worst enemy.
We were led down a stark-white, sterile-looking wing that opened into a wide office space with long tables at the center, surrounded by individual offices. Coach Sutherland opened the door to his office and stepped back to let the dean and me go in first. I automatically took a seat, and the dean followed. The door closed behind us, and Coach Sutherland sat at his desk. It was cluttered with paper, notebooks, an iPad, and more pens and paperclips than one person needed.
On the walls hung framed pictures of the coach with former star players who went on to the Draft and probably never looked back. Trophies were in a cabinet, too many crammed in for any one of them to stand out.
“I said no, I meant no, and it’s still no.”
Wow.
I glanced at the dean to gauge his reaction to such brusqueness, but he simply smiled. “And I have noted your objection.” He turned to me. “Miss Peterson, you can understand why Coach Sutherland may have...reservationsabout your intent here.”
“Youdon’thave reservations?” Coach Sutherland asked incredulously. “Have you forgotten the lies and complete BS she wrote last time?” He looked between us both.
Don’t defend yourself, Hadley, don’t say a word.I lowered my head and clasped my hands tighter together in my lap.
Dean Cole sighed, as if he were already exhausted with the conversation.
“She didn’t writelies,” he said carefully. “She wrotespeculation.”
Coach Sutherland scoffed. “Shewrotethat the football program was funneling money into shell projects to hide illegal player benefits.”
I felt both of them looking at me.
“I merely stated that the numbers didn’t add up, with the information that I had been given at the time.” I could see that Coach Sutherland looked like he was about to burst. “There was a facility upgrade that never happened! A booster donation that went to ‘discretionary spending,’ and a training program billed twice in the same year.”
“Allegedly,” the dean cut in sharply.
“Yes, of course, allegedly.” I swallowed hard as I met Sutherland’s glare.
