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Nolan remained quiet the entire walk to the field and I tried to stir some conversation to keep him in the good mood he was in.
“You’ve been used to playing a specific way your entire career. But your body has changed. That doesn’t mean you still can’t compete at the highest caliber or at your highest potential.” I walked the two of us over to the basket of footballs that was sitting on the sidelines. “However, if you dissect your stats, you play off your left side better than your right with or without an injury. There’re a couple solutions to help you while we work on strengthening your knee—you let your linemen know to protect your right side more than before and we work on evasive maneuvers when you get pressured from that direction. That way, when it does happen, you don’t lock up on the field.”
I didn’t catch Nolan off guard this time with the in-depth football analysis. Instead, I watched him slip into the legendary quarterback that he was known for being. For the next hour,we walked through different drills that would give Nolan ideas during the game.
We worked together like two like-minds as we bounced ideas off each other. Gone was the apprehension Nolan had for me and gone was my need to prove myself to him. We were on the same page for that hour, with both of our areas of expertise bringing a new perspective.
“How do you feel?” I asked him after his hundredth run through the drills.
Sweat glistened down Nolan’s face and he sucked a few deep breaths in to calm his heart rate. There was something new in his eyes that I hadn’t seen before—a sparkle.
“Fucking fantastic.” That same melodic laugh filled the space around us, and I couldn’t stop the smile that broke across my face at the sound. “Thanks to you.”
I was used to getting recognition from my athletes in their recovery process. Normally, all I felt was proud of another job well done. This time, I felt something new as Nolan looked at me with that unfiltered smile—a small fluttering in my chest.
He tossed the football back in the cart as he walked past me. He reached out and gave my upper arm a squeeze before he disappeared toward the locker room.
“Same time tomorrow?”
“I’ll be here,” I told him.
Right before Nolan crossed the threshold back into the practice facility, he paused and turned back around. “Hey, Lottie?”
“Yeah?”
“Your bucket list isn’t stupid. So don’t let anyone make you think that.”
I felt my cheeks heat at his words. For some odd reason, I was relieved that he didn’t think I was a loser for dedicating so much of my life to my work that now I felt the need to make up for it.
“Can I tell you something, too?” I asked him before he walked away.
He nodded.
“Your teammates deserve this version of you.”
Chapter 8
Nolan
Charlotte Thompson was infuriating.
I had promised myself that there would be no distractions this season. I would give every last piece of myself to this game before it was all over. How was I supposed to avoid what I was beginning to realize was the biggest distraction of all when her entire job was trying to help me win a Super Bowl?
She saw things about the way I was playing this season within a single drill that I had spent months trying to figure out through game film. She was smart, hardworking, and managed to know exactly how to push all my buttons while we worked together. She outsmarted me on every turn.
Worst of all was how I couldn’t stop thinking about how beautiful she was.
But somehow, I still woke up every morning excited to go to the practice facility to work with Lottie. After the run, she would put me through different exercises to strengthen the muscles around my knee. She actively tried to frame the treatment like a workout in an effort to switch my way of thinking about therapy.
By the end of the first week of working together I was beginning to realize that maybe Charlotte Thompson wasn’t all that bad, which made trying to dislike her all the more difficult.
The first day that Derek and Hawthorn walked into the training room to see me working with—and not avoiding—Lottie drew shocked looks. By the fourth day, I noticed them becominglooser around me. I was clearly a hard friend to have over the past two seasons.
By the time Friday rolled around, I had concluded that I needed to get my head out of my ass and start acting like the leader this team deserved. Lottie was right. This team deserved the version of myself that wasn’t weighed down by negative thoughts and heavy expectations.
Which was exactly why I was trying to balance a dozen boxes of donuts to bring into the practice facility for everyone. It would take more than a box of donuts to make up for some of my selfish behavior these past two seasons, but it was a start.
“Do you need help?” Lottie’s voice rang out from next to me. I risked a look in her direction and nearly lost all the boxes.
