Page 2 of The Linebacker

And honestly, it sucked that she was, because Amil couldn’t get the damn woman out of his head. He wanted her back in his bed, even after two years of no contact.

But he had some morals, as it turned out. Once he found out she was dating Jalen, he didn’t bother reaching out to her again, regardless of how badly he may have wanted to.

Of course, his morals only extended so far, because every time he and Jalen had been on the turf together since, Amil had rubbed the affair in the guy’s face.

His chirping—and Jalen’s poor reaction to it—had damn near cost this team the Super Bowl last season.

Everyone in this room knew it.

Maybe a single linebacker did have some impressive clout after all.

“We need to get Jalen laid,” Pedro Torres, the team’s all-star tackle, said.

Dante Kelley, the quarterback, shook his head. “I’m starting to think you’re right.”

“Wait,” Amil said, watching Jalen through the window as he gestured wildly while Coach calmly leaned against his desk with his arms crossed. “He and Diana aren’t together anymore?”

He should not feel so damn excited about that. She’d cheated on Jalen. Did Amil really want to pursue a woman like that? Cheating was shitty.

Pedro snorted. “He and Diana were never together.”

Pedro walked away, presumably to head to the practice field. Amil strode after him. “What do you mean, never together? I thought?—”

Pedro cut him off with a withering look. “You thought what? What the hell do you know about Jalen’s love life?”

Amil threw up his hands, surrender style. He already had one enemy on his new team—he did not need to make another.

“Nothing, man, I swear. He’s the one who said…”

What had he said? Their only interactions had been shit-talking on the field, an attempt to get under the other guy’s skin so they’d screw up and lose yardage.

Which happened to Jalen pretty much every time he and Amil faced off.

“They really aren’t together?” Amil asked again.

And they hadn’t been when he and Diana hooked up almost two years ago?

Pedro abruptly swung around and grabbed the front of Amil’s T-shirt. Amil was twice the size of this guy. While he was certain Pedro could hold his own, he was just as certain that he could pummel the guy if need be.

He hoped it wouldn’t come to that. Amil was sick of fighting as the fallback to defending himself.

With his hand twisted in Amil’s shirt, Pedro glared at him. “Listen, man, I happen to agree with Royce’s assessment that you belong on our team. You may well be the key to winning our second Super Bowl. So I’m going to give you this one piece of advice. Stay the fuck away from Diana. No, she and Jalen are not dating. No, they have never dated. Which doesn’t even matter.”

Amil disagreed. That little tidbit mattered a great deal.

He wisely did not speak his thoughts out loud.

“What matters is that you and Jalen need to figure out how to play nice. You gotta work together or we aren’t going to make it to the Super Bowl. You’re part of this team now, so quit mooning over someone you can’t have and get your head in the game.”

He shoved Amil away and stormed down the hall without looking back. The rest of the team headed toward the outdoor practice field, veering around Amil like he was a boulder in the middle of a river.

Finally, Amil kicked himself into gear and followed.

And while he ran sprints and did push-ups and ran sprints and did sit-ups and ran sprints and did tackling drills and ran sprints, he dissected everything Pedro said.

First and foremost, Royce had recommended Amil join the team. Made sense that he’d be the one to make that assessment. As the center, he had a bird’s eye view of the other team’s defense. He saw every move Amil made. Probably got pissed off every time Amil tackled the runner on a running play, every time he blocked one of Dante’s passes. That glorious sack he’d made during that last playoff game.

Looked like Amil might have at least one friend on this team, even if the guy wanted him strictly for his talent. He could work with that.