Page 59 of Offside

"Not in the contract counter," Bishop said. "Park's access review is still open. We aren't inventing an answer before they have one."

"What am I authorized to send?" Marchetti asked. "Give me the new scope."

Bishop looked at me before he answered.

"Independent assessment and performance counter," he said. "My current role, usage, adapted play, comparables, and the medical opinion from somebody outside the club once it's done. Nothing about Declan."

"And the two-year term?" Marchetti asked. "Do I counter that too?"

"Counter it. The dollar too. On my performance and the independent assessment."

"Understood. I'll delete the second draft and revise the counter scope."

"Send the clean counter," Bishop said.

The call ended, leaving the phone dark between us.

The club still valued Bishop at one-point-seven. The shoulder still required an outside assessment. Denver still waited in my inbox, and Buffalo had still won tonight. He'd self-corrected before any of those facts changed.

"I should've asked yesterday," he said. "Before I authorized anything."

"Yes," I said. "You should have."

"I thought if I made them look at the whole sequence, they couldn't make you the problem."

"You don't have to make me smaller than your contract to understand why the choice was wrong."

"I know," Bishop said. "I see that now."

"Do you?" I asked. "What exactly do you understand?"

He looked at the dark buffet instead of at me. "I made your work into a problem because it gave Marchetti leverage. I made your disclosure mine because I was scared the club would use it first. Then I thought I was protecting you so I didn't have to admit I wanted control."

The answer wasn't elegant, but it was a fair assessment.

"Yes," I said. "That's what you did."

"I'm not asking you to forgive it because I fixed it before he sent anything."

"Good," I said drily. "I'm not offering absolution."

"I'm asking if you still want me to come back."

He was asking about us, my apartment, and the unfinished relationship we hadn't solved with a phone call.

"Come back to the medical room first," I said. "Zoe's been waiting nine minutes."

His mouth shifted. "That's not an answer. It's a delay."

At the door, I put my hand against the middle of his back, left of the spine and nowhere near the joint Zoe was about to evaluate. The touch lasted only long enough to tell him I was leaving the room with him, and he didn't turn it into more.

21

Bishop

The specialist's release form reached my phone on the bus to the airport Sunday morning.

Marchetti had found three independent sports-orthopedic practices. I'd chosen the one in Chicago because its first available appointment was the first full week of January and because the physician didn't consult for the Storm. The form listed the material she would receive, including existing imaging, physician examinations, active and passive measurements, strength and load response, participation restrictions, and the progression from preseason through Buffalo. It excluded the contract correspondence, the conflict record, and any information about Declan.