Page 51 of Second Down Scrooge

“Thanks.” I cut the call and cross my fingers as I hope for the best.

It's an hour before I hear back from Jack’s office.

“Hi, Lily,” I answer when I see it's her calling.

“Mr. Graham, Mr. Dalton would like to see you in his office immediately.”

Everything's alwaysimmediatewith this guy, but when you're as busy as Jack Dalton is, I guess my only option is to get my ass over to the Complex and meet with my team owner.

I show up and am immediately sent into Jack's office.

He’s sitting at his desk, steepling his fingers in front of his lips as he watches me walk in and sit across from him.

“You’ve had some tough breaks,” he says as I sit across from him.

I raise my brows and nod in agreement. “Feels like I've been fighting my whole life.”

“Well, you're getting good at it. I was on the phone with the lab when your call came through earlier. I have good news and better news for you. The good news is your second test results came back, and they’re clean. The better news is that your first results were skewed due to human error. The tech who collected your sample mixed yours up with another player’s.”

My breath hitches at that. I am in the clear, but that means one of my teammates is not. It also means that whatever teammate got called in the same day as me knows what he did and still managed to test negative.

I’m tempted to ask who it is, but I also don't want to know. Whoever it is has to have known that someone else took the fall for him when his results came back negative, and since I’m not out on the practice field today, he has to know it was me.

“I can tell you want to ask, so go ahead and ask,” Jack says.

“Who?”

“Morgan.”

I clench my jaw.

Jack shrugs. “I think he saw his opportunity to start and wasn't about to let it go by.”

I sigh roughly, my eyes flashing with fury.

“I don't blame you for being angry,” Jack says, “but think about what you would've done in his shoes before you got the starting position. Think about the things youdiddo. I think you'll agree you wouldn't have been innocent.”

I know he’s right, but my instinct is to protest. “But I never would have taken PEDs in the first place, and I never would've been stupid enough to get caught if I did.”

He chuckles. “Just remember the position you’re in now along with the reputation you’re working to build when you think about how you want to handle this. Neither Lincoln nor I want to see you in here the way we did not so long ago after you and Grayson got into it.”

I blow out a breath. I can't just let it go, but I also don't need this to cause irreparable damage in the locker room. He's right. I'm finally at a place that I can be proud of, and I'm not going to ruin it by fighting with a teammate—even if what he did was really shitty. I've done some shitty things myself. “Understood.”

“Good. Now get your ass down to practice, and send Morgan up. I’ll let you decide how you want to handle whether he gets a warning from you about what’s coming up here.”

I nod and turn to leave, and before I cross the threshold of the doorway, Jack says, “Graham?”

I turn back around and meet his gaze.

“Make me proud out there.”

His words are heavy on my conscience as I head down toward the locker room. People rarely say those words to me. I never had parents to make proud. I was only a disappointment to my mother. I’ve tried to make coaches proud, and fans, and teammates, but to be second best my entire career told me I wasn’t good enough.

But now, for once in my life, I have people Iwantto make proud, and I need to handle this in a way that will make them proud of me too.

I head down to the locker room and get my practice gear on, and then I head out to the field and touch base with Coach Bruce, who was expecting me.

“Welcome back, Graham.”

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