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“What?” I asked her, as I clicked through the test.
“You need to work with your linemen. That’s two weeks in a row you’ve taken bad hits because of missed blocks.” A small smile spread across my lips as I saw the furrow of her brow, thedownward skew of her mouth, and the way she stewed in her seat.
“Are you worried about me, Lottie?” I teased her. The small smile broke into a full-blown grin when she scowled even more at my question.
“It’s my job to be worried about my athletes,” she grumbled back to me.
“You know, it’s nice to have someone worry about me,” I continued. “It’s been a while.”
“If you’re comparing me to Roger, I’m offended,” she told me. “It doesn’t sound like he was very good at his job.”
“He definitely was not you, Lottie.” She blushed again. “But I wasn’t comparing you to Roger, I was thinking about the last time someone cared about me protecting myself on the field, which was my ex.”
Lottie’s eyebrows shot up. “If you’re saying your ex cared about you in a clinical way for the success of the team, then she wasn’t a very good girlfriend.”
“She was my fiancée,” I corrected her. “And she’s an ex for a reason.”
Lottie’s mouth snapped shut at my confession out of what I was sure was shock. I hadn’t given up much of my personal life to her this past week despite her subtle attempts at trying to learn more about me.
“Let’s get you back out there. You passed. You’re all clear.” Lottie stood up, ending the conversation.
The cheers of the Bobcat fans grew louder when the two of us exited the tunnel back onto the field. There were two minutes left in the game and Caleb was still on the field leading the team in a drive down the field. He had eaten up a lot of the clock and all he needed to do was take a knee and the game would be ours,but it appeared our coach was giving him a chance at scoring his first NFL touchdown.
When coach noticed me standing back on the sidelines, he pushed the microphone attached to his headset away from his mouth.
“He’s all clear,” Lottie told him.
“Do you want to finish the game?” The question left me at a crossroads. I wanted to play in every minute of this season that I possibly could because with every minute that passed, I was approaching the end. But I knew it would be selfish to take this moment away from Caleb just because I could.
Lottie’s words from earlier rang through my head. If you took the time to help Caleb prepare for next season, you’d be helping the team.
“No, let Caleb finish this drive out.” Coach’s eyebrows shot up. Last year I wouldn’t have even let a thought like that cross my mind. I could also feel Lottie’s eyes on me, and I stole a glance in her direction to see what she was thinking.
Her eyes shined bright as a small smile pulled the corners of her mouth upwards. My chest grew warm at the sight and as I turned my attention back to the rookie who was in the middle of passing to an open receiver in the end zone, I knew I had made the right decision. The joy that surged through me as my teammates went wild for the rookie was the first time I felt proud of someone else’s accomplishments. I joined in with Derek and Hawthorn as they tried to lift Caleb up onto their shoulders.
Lottie was right, working with Caleb wouldn’t take away from my goals and successes this year. It wouldn’t take away from the legacy I was trying to leave behind—it would only add to it.
I fought my way through the crowd of my teammates to finally make it to where Caleb had been placed back on his feet. Therookie had taken off his helmet and I could see the way he was eagerly trying to take everything in around him as if he wanted to imprint this moment on his brain forever. I remembered that very feeling after the first game I got to play in the league over a decade ago now. I knew, like many had already said, that Caleb had a long career in front of him and this was only the first of many more moments to come for him.
Once I was close enough, I reached out to pull on his shoulder pad to grab his attention. Caleb’s smile changed into a look of concern when he saw me.
“Are you alright, man?”
You are definitely an asshole for ever viewing this kid as some form of competition or reminder of your career ending.
“I’m all good,” I told him. “Doc cleared me. I came out just in time to watch you on that last drive. You looked confident as hell.”
Caleb’s smile returned to his face, now magnified from my compliment. It made me remember how badly I wanted those little scraps of kudos from the people I looked up to when I was in his position, and I was surprised to find myself enjoying giving him a little bit of joy from simply reassuring him that he would be just fine in this league.
I glanced over toward the sideline to see if I could spot Lottie hanging around the corners of the stadium. I caught a glimpse of her blonde ponytail and the navy and red jacket she was wearing today. Her eyes were locked on to me and I knew she must have watched me fight my way through the crowd to get to Caleb.
When she noticed that I was looking at her, she gave me a small nod before disappearing down the tunnel toward the locker room. Charlotte Thompson was helping me with more than just the recovery from a knee injury. She was transforming me intosomeone who could look back on how he left his career with a smile, no matter the outcome.
Chapter 10
Lottie
After Nolan’s near miss of being out for a few weeks due to a concussion, he buckled down on working with his new linemen. He was a man on a mission. Every morning after the win during the second week of the season he would show up for our daily run, go through the exercises and drills I threw at him without any arguments, and then work with his linemen all the way up until it was the scheduled practice time. He was spending almost every waking hour at the practice facility between working on getting himself better prepared, getting his teammates better prepared, and fulfilling his media obligations.
