Page 33 of Hart Breaker

“What do you mean, you didn’t know who the girl you laid down?—”

“Didn’t lay her down. Picked her up.” And smashed her against a bathroom wall in a bar.

“Hudson Hart,” Mom scolds me like I’m five.

Before she can continue, I hit the on switch to the mixer, let that shit stir up, hit off, turn the handle on the bowl, take it out of the stand, shove the spatula in it, and walk my ass out of the kitchen, heading toward the stairs. “Goodnight, fam. Love you.”

“If you don’t tell her, she’s going to marry the guy, and that’s on you,” Jillian calls to me.

Inside my room, I lock the door, take a giant scoop of cookie dough—Gram’s recipe—and shove it in my mouth as I look around my room.

When I see a bright light coming from under my door, I swallow down the dough and point the spatula at the door. “That’s bullshit.” I turn away from the hallucination and head to my bed. “Go away and let me enjoy my chocolate chip cookie dough.”

A fat boy needs to eat.

I flop on my bed and commence shoveling as I stare at the fucking ceiling, wondering what the fuck I was thinking.

As expected, I feel like shit today. It’s deserving. I drank a hell of a lot more than my typical two-drink limit, and then consumed a double batch of raw cookie dough. And because I’ve made enough bad choices in the past twenty-four hours to last ten lifetimes, I decided hitting the gym while feeling like shit was a good start to punishing myself for my insanity.

Now I’m sitting in my comfy chair in the film room, sunglasses on, half asleep.

Boone flops down beside me. “You look like shit, man.”

“Feel like it, too.” I turn my head in his direction and see he looks … giddy. “Lily still in town?”

“No, but by Christmas, they’ll both be here.” He beams.

“Lindsey—”

“She broke up with S-twat McDipshit. I’m going to find them a place, and she and I are going to go to counseling, figure out if there’s a way to start over, you know.”

“Can you afford two places and, I assume, continue taking care of your mom and brothers?”

“I’m gonna figure it out. Gotta find something nice, you know, for the girls.”

“You’re at my place all the time; move in with me until you figure it out.”

“I don’t wanna cramp your style, man.”

“Trust me; you won’t.” But you may keep me from further self-destructive behaviors.

“I feel like you’re trying to tell me something, but?—”

“Gonna need to sit with it for a while, but I’m sure it’ll come out.”

Tucker Cohen, our head coach; Jose Cox, offensive line coach; Mitchell Moore, our defensive line coach; and Logan Links, who doesn’t take the coach title since he, too, is an owner, walk in.

Logan nods his head up and down a few times and laughs. “I had a speech all planned out, but really, what could I say that you don’t already know?” He cups his mouth and yells, “Number one in the NFC, baby!”

Headache be damned, me and the rest of the team cheer right along with him.

Then Cohen steps forward and raises his hand for us to all settle down, and today, he’s wearing his three rings. “You played your best game yesterday, and we’re all fucking proud of you, but facts are the facts, and we’re tied for number one. The Eagles are playing the Panthers this weekend and will no doubt grab another W. We’re headed to Vegas to take on players like Davante Adams and Maxx Crosby. Best case scenario is you’re still tied for number one after this week.”

Coach Moore steps in. “D line, Davante Adams is one of the best you’ll ever come up against. You wanna remain at number one, you stop him.”

“Offense, you play just like you did this week, and we’re going to stay tied at one. You blink at the wrong time, you’re fighting for a position you may not get again this season,” Coach Cox adds.

Coach Cohen holds up his hand. “I’ve never asked you to give more than I did when I played in the NFL, but right now, I’m going to tell you that fourth ring was stolen from me and my team. I can never give it back to them, but you can get it for me.” He nods to the others. “If not for me, Cox and Moore left teams that would have earned them jewelry, and the owners who decided to build this team, this legacy, this family, they deserve it, too.”

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