Page 90 of Trapped and Tackled

“I’ll see you at the airport tomorrow.”

He shakes his head. “Nah, come by the house once you’re out.”

“I will. I’ll be there.”

Coach continues to stare at me.

“What?” I ask, growing uncomfortable.

“You earned your spot on the field, Miller. You’re one hell of a kicker and an asset to the team. My issue with you and Leni is just that—mine. I didn’t like that I didn’t see your relationship coming, but that’s on me. You earned your place by Leni’s side. You stood up for her when she needed you. You’re one hell of a man, Talon. You’re good enough for my daughter. But you don’t need me to tell you that. You need to believe it and know, deep down, that what you two share is special. It’s enough.”

He turns to leave, and I reach out. “Wait.”

Coach stops and lifts an eyebrow. “Thank you,” I say, meaning it. “If I hadn’t met you, if you hadn’t helped me, I don’t think Leni ever would have looked at me twice.”

Coach holds my gaze, and I see the moment he gets it, truly understands that his daughter chose me, in part, because of him. He snorts softly and shakes his head. “The world works in mysterious ways, Miller. See you tonight.” He glances at his watch. “Hopefully before midnight.”

“See you, Coach.”

“Make sure your head’s screwed on right for Sunday’s game,” he adds as he walks away. He turns around again before he exits the space. “Don’t worry about that son of a bitch from New York either. There won’t be another problem.”

“Got it,” I say, knowing Craig’s been handled. Will I ever know the full extent of what that means? Probably not. But I’m cut from a similar cloth as Coach Strauss, so I trust that when he says I don’t need to worry, I don’t need to give it a second thought.

I plop back down in the cell and wait to be released. I’m sprung within the hour, with community service hours like Coach said. My agent, Callie, is already on the line to discuss a PR recovery strategy.

“Callie, can I call you tomorrow?” I ask as I duck into the car waiting out front to take me to the Strauss residence.

“Sure,” Callie says. “But call me first thing, Talon. We need to get ahead of the narrative on this. I need to know, as soon as possible, how you want to spin it.”

“I’ll get back to you,” I say, knowing a lot of that will depend on what Leni is comfortable sharing. I’m not going to push her to share her story or paint Craig a certain way. If she never wants to spill a detail of her past with him, then I’ll publicly take the heat and move on.

“You got lucky today, Talon,” Callie says quietly.

As the houses outside the window blur together and the car I’m in approaches Coach’s house, I spot Leni sitting on the front porch, waiting for me.

I grin as soon as I see her. “Don’t I know it,” I mutter, ending the call.

When the car pulls into the driveway, Leni is bounding down the stairs to meet me. As soon as I step out, she lunges into my waiting arms.

I catch her easily, one arm supporting her legs, the other cradling the back of her neck. I kiss her hard and she hugs me tightly.

“Thank God you’re okay,” I breathe, resting my forehead against hers.

“I’m so glad you’re out,” she replies, peppering my cheeks, my nose, my eyelids with kisses. “Thank you for today, Talon. I’m so sorry I?—”

“You have nothing to apologize for.”

“I do.” She pulls back, disappointment lining her expression. “I should have done a lot of things differently. I wish I had spoken up weeks ago about Craig. Now it’s a ‘he said, she said’ situation and…” She trails off. “You got stuck in the middle.”

I place her on her feet, shaking my head. “Baby, don’t you get it? As long as you’re safe and happy, I don’t care.”

“Well, I do.” She takes my hand and pulls me toward the house.

The car that dropped me off backs out of the driveway.

“I begged Dad to connect me to your agent,” Leni continues.

“Callie? We just hung up.” I look at Leni expectantly.

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