Page 64 of False Start

“On my computer. In Norwalk.”

“Can Derek grab your computer and send it in?” I shook my head, my conversation with him this morning rushing back. “Nope. He’s not getting discharged until tomorrow.”

She scanned her phone again. “The paper needs to be turned in my midnight. The only reason the professor even mentioned it is because I normally turn in my reports early.”

I reached across the car and rubbed her shoulder. “Well, it’s not a big deal, right? It sucks to get a bad grade, but it’s not like you won’t graduate.”

A tear fell down her face.

“The case study is the grade,” she ground out. “The presentation was a part of it, but I can’t graduate if it’s not submitted.”

“Can you ask the professor for an extension?” I asked.

“I’m not a fancy football player, Texas. Just a regular student, bound by the same rules as the plebes.” She groaned, tipping her head back. “Sorry. That’s not helpful. No. I can’t.”

“Okay.” Just like the guide book, I could fix this. “But the case study is on your laptop?”

“On my laptop in Virginia. Even if we turned around now, we’d barely make it home in time.”

I pulled the car over to the side of the road. Setting the parking brake, I turned to her. “Kitten, there isn’t a problem on earth that money can’t fix, and I have a lot. Give me five minutes.”

She opened her mouth, but I shot out of the car before she could argue.

The dusty stretch of country highway had nothing but fields in either direction. My phone had two bars of service, which was plenty to call the one guy I knew who’d have an answer to Kit’s dilemma.

“I’m not bailing you out!”

“Nice to talk to you, too, teammate!” I greeted Rob Grant with an overly animated reply. “And no worries, I’m not in jail. I just need a favor from a friend.”

“Make it quick,” he grumbled. “I have daddy-daughter gymnastics in ten.”

I paused on the image of the defensive lineman in a unitard doing flips with his six-year-old but shook the distraction out ofmy head. “No problem. I need an incredibly reliable person fast. You know anyone?”

“I’m going to gymnastics.”

“But after gymnastics…”

“Mila wants ice cream.”

“And maybe on the way, you both could stop so you can do a favor for her favorite Uncle Trent?”

“She does not call you ‘Uncle Trent.’” He sighed. “I have an assistant. He can probably fit it into his schedule, for the right price.”

“Perfect. What’s his number?”

Rob sent the contact information and after two more calls, I had a solution. As I finished my third call, Kit slinked out of the car. She wasn’t crying, but close enough to tears that it twisted my stomach.

“Great news!” I said with an exaggerated smile. “You’ve got an assistant. He comes highly recommended and well vetted. He’ll get the keys to your apartment from Derek, and you can walk him through sending the assignment.”

“How much?” she asked.

I opened my cash app and sent the money with a click. “Too late. Besides, you couldn’t afford it. My teammate made sure the assistant jacked up his normal rates. It’s atrocious, but he’s making you his top priority.”

Kit worried her bottom lip. “You didn’t have to do that.”

I pulled her into a hug before I thought that hug all the way through. One minute, she was standing next to me, eyes rimmed red and face sallow. The next, she was nestled into my arms, her hair brushing my chin, reluctantly wrapping her arms around my waist and collapsing her weight into my chest.

“I needed to do that,” I said, dipping my chin and inhaling cherries. “Because I need you to be focused on winning this race.And if you fail out of college, that’ll put a real damper on our win.”

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