Page 7 of Going for Two

“What a glorious day!” The taller one, who I realized was Derek Allen, sang out. “Don’t you think so, Zeke?” Derek asked as he poked his head into Zeke’s office. Zeke just blinked at him.

“Zeke.” The other man behind Derek gave the athletic trainer a wave.

“Hawthorn.” A smile spread across Zeke’s face.

Hawthorn Smith. Kicker.

“How come you don’t smile at me like that, Zeke?” Derek asked as he grabbed a heat pack for himself.

“Because you terrorize him every day of the season,” Hawthorn told him as he breezed toward the hot tub.

Derek turned around and noticed me and Nolan. “You’re the new physical therapist!”

“I’m Charlotte Thompson, but you can call me Lottie,” I told him as I took the pads off Nolan’s knee. I could feel his eyes on me as I addressed Derek.

“Well, Lottie, welcome to the Bobcats. The greatest team in the NFL—although I may be biased,” Derek whispered the last part from the table next to us.

“How many shots of caffeine did you have this morning?” Nolan asked, his eyes now closed as I massaged his knee. The previous gruffness he had addressed me with gone.

“Probably one too many,” Derek replied sheepishly.

“I’ve got five down that he’s going to puke today,” Hawthorn told Nolan from where he’d submerged himself in the hot tub.

“I’ll put down ten.” The previous tense set of his shoulders eased.

“Alright,” I cut in before their bets could escalate. “Grab a band and start doing these exercises.”

I tossed the list of exercises I had made down onto Nolan’s chest. He cracked an eye open. I cocked a single brow at him as a challenge.

Nolan and I held eye contact, each of us daring the other to blink first.

“Are you having a staring contest?” Derek asked. Nolan blinked; our standoff was broken. Nolan sighed before he walked over to the wall of bands to grab one, paper clutched in his hand.

I grabbed a sanitizing bottle from near the hot tubs to wipe off the table we had used when I caught Hawthorn’s gaze. He gave me a wink.

Nolan completed the exercises without complaint. I kept a close eye on him as I worked on Derek’s lower back, all while getting peppered with questions from the tight end.

“Where are you from?”A small town outside of Chicago.

“Are you a football fan?”My middle name is Madden after John Madden, if that says anything about the family I was brought up in.

“Do you have a favorite team?”Born and raised a Bobcats fan.

“Are you just saying that because you’re trying to get on my good side?”No.

I didn’t have a moment to take a breath until I was walking out to practice with Zeke. I didn’t mind though. I’d always enjoyed the way my body and mind went into cruise control when they were overloaded with tasks.

Luckily, once practice got into full swing, Zeke was too busy with tending to the players with his athletic trainers to talk to me. Which gave me the perfect opportunity to study Nolan as he moved through the different drills his coaches were throwing at him. Today’s practice was scaled down in intensity with the coaches wanting to ease the team into the week ahead. Even still, I watched Nolan move through a few snaps. His movements were smooth from years of practice. His eyes scanned his receivers with methodical analysis as he made his decision for his open target.

However, after about an hour of watching him, I noticed a pattern. Every time he was pressured by the defense on his right side, his movements grew sloppy. He didn’t move as confidently within the pocket. By the end of practice, I could confirm that Nolan Hill wasn’t fully recovered from his knee injury. Unfortunately, I was going to have to figure out some way to win him over and convince him to let me do my job so I could help him.

I may have walked into a taller order than I originally realized, but I never backed down from a fight.

Chapter 4

Lottie

“He sounds like a dick,” Olivia said as she shoveled another spoonful of ice cream into her mouth.

---