Page 92 of The Waiting Game

How he could avoid making stupid, reckless decisions of his own.

“Do you understand what I’m saying?” Casey said.

“Yes, Coach!” everyone chorused as the bus cruised up to the hotel.

Felix grabbed his bag, then followed his teammates into the lobby. He took a seat in one of the chairs while Grady Reynolds, their team services guy, dealt with the front desk.

Jonah slid into the seat beside Felix.

“Think any of the rookies will be dumb enough to try to go out?” Jonah muttered.

Felix glanced around. “I hope not. But we’ll see.”

“We have a pretty good group this year. They seem to have their heads on right.”

“Yeah, I agree.”

They lapsed into silence, Jonah reading some article about plants while Felix played a game on his phone as they waited for Grady to call their names out.

Across the lobby, Kate Foster eyed them.

Following lunch at Dustin’s yesterday, they’d met with the team’s vice president of communications and public relations.

It hadn’t gone the way they’d planned.

“We’re engaged,” Felix said, staring across the table at Kate.

She was genuinely one of the most beautiful women he’d ever laid eyes on but she scared him shitless.

She arched a brow and folded her hands, her diamond wedding ring winking on her finger. She let out a slow, steady exhale. “Oooh-kay. I’ll admit, I didn’t see this coming.”

Jonah sat forward. “Well, it’s—”

She held up a hand. “So, it’s young love reborn, is it?”

“What?” They both blinked at her.

“Your college romance, time apart, and now you’ve fallen in love again. Got it.”

“Uhh …” Jonah scratched his head. “We were never—”

She leveled them with a look. “I can see exactly how this will play out in the media. People will be delighted to read about your second chance at love. At how you tried to move on with your lives but recent events”—she looked meaningfully at Felix—”have made you reevaluate things. Jonah has been your support since, those feelings blossomed into love again and this is a healthy, natural progression of what was already there before.”

Felix swallowed hard. “That does sound like something the public would like.”

“And this will not fuck up your recovery. Because if anything you do fucks up your recovery, Felix, we will have words.”

He straightened. “Understood. My sponsor is on board. He trusts that Jonah has been nothing but a positive influence in my life and will continue to be that in the future. And so do I.”

Kate’s expression softened. “Good. I’m glad to hear it. Now, unfortunately, this timing is less than ideal. I prefer to keep the personal life pieces during the regular season but we’ll make it work. This will mean more media for you both. You’ll need to do some interviews. Possibly a podcast. I will get back to you on that soon.”

“Sounds good,” Felix said, because what the hell else could he say?

“Does the team know?”

“Uh, the core does,” Jonah said. “We had lunch at Dustin’s yesterday and discussed it. We’ll let everyone else know tomorrow at morning practice.”

“Sounds good. Now, get out of my office. I have work to do.”

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