Page 28 of Catch
“I had dinner with my father and his new girlfriend.”
“That sounds nice. What about your girlfriend? I didn’t see her at the game.”
I never wanted my personal life and professional life to collide, but that went out the door when we signed Grayson. “We broke up. She moved out last night when I was at dinner.”
He stopped and put his hand on my shoulder. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” I waved him off. “I don’t know why she moved here with me. We were on the rocks anyway. I’m fine with it. Really.” I was angry last night, but I woke up and felt such peace. This was a fresh start for me. I could focus my energy on football and making sure I was doing everything in my power to take this new team to the playoffs. We just needed to make sure Grayson was feeling better. I grabbed a salad, fruit, and a chicken breast and went back to my office. Crowbar probably needed to go out and I needed the world to go quiet.
Did Grayson make it?
I leaned against the open side door to enjoy the sun and answer Parker’s text.He did. Said you tried to poison him last night, but he survived anyway. I quickly followed up with a wink emoji because I didn’t know her humor anymore.
Ha ha. I’m glad he made it.
It was weird that she would ask and not know herself. I wondered if Grayson had a habit of saying he was going to work and going elsewhere instead. Or maybe this was her way of reaching out to me since she now had my number. I was too emotionally exhausted to try to figure it out.
Crowbar trotted past me and went straight to my office. I found him sitting and staring down the chicken breast I had on my plate. “Of course, you’re getting a bite.” He gave a low woof and gently took the piece from my hand.
I bit into an apple and pulled up my email. I had over two hundred emails congratulating me on the win. Terry’s assistant’s emails were flagged to be at the top. I had three from her. One was the congratulatory email on the win, the second was a coaches’ meeting I was expected to attend at the end of the month, and the third was a reminder about the Empowered Women in the NFL group I had signed up for when I signed my contract with the Cheetahs. Members gave talks to area schools to encourage students to pursue their dreams. I groaned because that meant extra work, but I knew I had a responsibility that went above coaching. Four schools would get me for an hour every Tuesday for the next month. The event would be recorded by the NFL for a documentary on diversity in the league.
I sent the organization my approval and added the visits to my calendar. The first one was tomorrow at a private elementary school, Wellington Academy. It was in a posh neighborhood about twenty minutes away from the office. I shot an email to Terry’s assistant to see if we had any giveaways for the kids and asked that anything be brought to my office by the end of the day.
The team spent the afternoon studying the Dolphins. Even though it was our first away game, I had a feeling we’d win. Miami looked sloppy. Our defense would easily be able to break through and pressure the quarterback. I took notes, pointed out weaknesses, and worked with coaches on tweaking plays.
It was a long afternoon and all I wanted to do was go home and sleep. Since we didn’t run plays on Mondays and the players were off on Tuesdays, the coaching staff decided to break early. Crowbarand I headed home at six. After eating leftovers, I crashed on the couch and woke up hours later with a kink in my neck and a dog partially on top of me.
“Come on, buddy. Let’s go to bed.” Since Lexi was gone, Crowbar was back in the bed with me. We were both fine with that decision.
* * *
“The important thing to remember is that if you work hard enough, you can achieve your dreams.”
Of all the schools in the entire city, of course Parker’s kids would attend this one, and of course, Parker was a room volunteer. I didn’t know if the universe was punishing me, but it sure felt like it. Hopefully I masked my reaction at seeing her in the gymnasium when I met with the principal and the cameramen who were filming the event.
“Does anybody have any questions?” I had a stack of coloring books for the kids about Champ, the Cheetahs mascot, but I couldn’t pass them out until after I was done because I would lose their attention. A little girl in the front raised her hand. I pointed to her. “What’s your question?” I asked.
“You don’t look very big for a football player. Do you play football?”
Nothing like a five-year-old to knock my confidence down a few notches. “That’s a great question.” I avoided Parker’s eyes because I didn’t want a simple glance to make me fall back in a hole that took years to crawl out of. “In high school, I was a quarterback. I was tall enough to be a football player and I could throw a football a long way.”
“Can you still throw a football a long way?” She was very inquisitive.
“I can.”
“Then why aren’t you still a quarterback?” She shrugged.
“I’m too short and probably too old to play now.”
“Rose’s dad is a quarterback. Maybe you can play with him.” A small girl with short brown hair and big blue eyes spoke. She immediately covered her mouth, realizing she should’ve raised her hand first. We’d already established Grayson was a quarterback because almost every child pointed it out when I first got there.
“Yes, Mr. Moats. I work with him. He’s taller and bigger than I am.”
“Is he a good quarterback?”
This line of questioning was starting to make my eye twitch. “Yes, he is. We won our first game because of him.”
“How come the quarterback isn’t the coach?”
