Page 1 of Trapped and Tackled

Chapter 1

Leni

“I’m so happy you’re back home!” my best friend Marlowe squeals. As her tone reaches peak pitch, my cell phone skitters across the dashboard of Dad’s truck and drops to the floor beneath the passenger seat. “Leni?”

“Sorry!” I call out, reaching over to grope for the phone. “I dropped you,” I explain as I right myself and slam on the brakes. “Oh my God! I’m so sorry!” I shout, horrified, to the elderly man, cursing me for nearly colliding with him.

After two years of taking the New York City subway, I may have forgotten how to drive.

I ease around him slowly. He leans on his horn, and I wince, feeling my cheeks flame. Another mistake.

“Don’t you have Bluetooth?” Marlowe asks. “Your phone should automatically sync when?—”

“I’ve got Dad’s truck.”

“Ooh,” Marlowe breathes out. “You should definitely pay attention to the road.”

She’s right. The last thing I need is to wreck Dad’s truck and cause his and Mom’s concern for me to skyrocket higher than it already is. Sighing, I resume my drive to the football training facility where Dad’s conducting training camp. “He caught a ride with some players. He called it team bonding.”

“Which players?” Marlowe interjects, her tone teasing. She likes to flirt with other guys—especially if it will make her boyfriend Toby jealous. Don’t ask me why. Toby’s her high school sweetheart who never should have made it past high school.

“Probably Cohen and Avery,” I offer, mentioning two of Dad’s oldest players. The charismatic wide receiver and celebrated quarterback make up the foundation of the Knoxville Coyotes Football team.

“Meh. I was hoping you would say West Crawford,” my boy-crazy friend replies.

I roll my eyes. Last season, Knoxville’s rookie West helped win the Super Bowl, and it catapulted him to instant fame. But… “He’s having a baby!”

“I know,” Marlowe laments. “And his girlfriend has a closet to die for. I swear, they’re couple goals.”

West Crawford and Nova Martin are more than couple goals. They’re…life goals. Fact.

“How long is your car in the shop for?” Marlowe asks.

“Just a few days. Dad’s turned it on every now and then, but no one’s really driven it for the past two years. Dad wants to check everything before I’m allowed back on the road.”

“Good! So you’ll be all set for my birthday bash in a few weekends!” Marlowe cheers.

I try to smile, but it falls flat, and shame sweeps through me. I should be excited to celebrate my best friend’s birthday. But I’m not in the mood to raise a glass for anything. Or anyone.

Since Craig and I broke up five days ago and I made the tough decision to leave New York and move back home, I have felt like a failure—an epic failure. I’d rather hide than socialize.

I’ve been home in Knoxville for four days—having returned to my parents’ house the night after everything went sideways—and this is the first time I’ve left the house.

Part of me wonders if my car is fine, and Dad is making me pick him up just so I see blue sky and breathe some fresh air. It’s plausible.

“You are coming, aren’t you?” Marlowe asks, and I hear the hurt layered in her tone.

The pit in my stomach expands outward, making me feel nauseous. I clench the steering wheel and roll my shoulders back. “Of course, I’m coming.” Thank God my voice doesn’t shake. In fact, I sound convincing.

“Good!” Marlowe squeals. “You’ve missed the last two,” she reminds me, unintentionally piling on the guilt.

“I’ll be there,” I promise.

Marlowe hosts a weekend bash every year at Toby’s parents’ lakefront home, about an hour and a half from Knoxville. The sunny days are spent out on the lake, the evenings are spent barbecuing, and the nights are spent partying—lots of partying.

“Are you and Freddy grabbing dinner, or do you want to meet Toby and me for pizza?” she asks, switching topics. Except her calling my strict, protective, larger-than-life football coach dad, Friedrich Adler Strauss, her usual nickname Freddy doesn’t make me laugh. All I can focus on is that she’s inviting me to another outing in which I’ll be public-facing.

Forced to smile and talk and act normal.

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