Page 28 of Sneak Attack

At least, I thought it did for the most part, but her threats from last night kept echoing in my head, making me lose focus more than once, now especially, when everyone in the team’s film room had turned their head in my direction.

“Dude.” Butler kicked my shin.

“Sorry Coach.”

I figured it was the right thing to say, based on the snickers in the room from my teammates, it wasn’t.

“Apology accepted, Buchanan, but what I’d asked you was if there was anything you should have done differently to score in that second possession.”

Of course there had been. There was always a way to be better. Do better. Faster. Stronger, a quick step out of the pocket, or a decision to stay in it. I weave to the right instead of left around a defender who was aiming to knock me out at the knees.

Since I hadn’t been paying attention, and my screen on the team issued iPad was black, my dumbass decided on, “Ummm. Probably.”

Bad. So bad. Like my rookie year when I first showed up and all eyes were on me and I was sweating in my athletic shorts so badly, terrified I’d be called on and say the wrong thing and lose my spot and get sent to practice squad or something even worse—let go completely.

Fortunately for me, Coach Paul Bowles was a good guy and a patient man off the field to all of us.

“Probably is right. How about you turn your brain on and start listening, hmm?”

“You got it, sir.” I tapped my screen and swiped the password key to unlock it as he went back over film.

Next to me, Butler leaned in. “You still going to tell me there’s nothing going on? You’ve never been distracted in a meeting.”

“Selma shit,” I answered back. “And I need a drink after this.”

I rarely drank during the week. A couple beers the night after a game maybe, and never on a Monday. This would be the third night I was craving alcohol since Eden’s arrival even if today’s need wasn’t because of her.

“I gotchu. We’ll head out after this.”

“Good. Just don’t expect me to talk.”

“No one wants to listen to you bitch and moan about the crazy chick anyway.” That came from Davis Hall, our star running back and team’s resident unbelievable playmaker and all-around smartass.

I’d usually defend her, but she sure as hell had shown her crazy last night.

I needed to fix it before her threats tumbled into an avalanche.

CHAPTER11

COLE

“Lawyer.”

“Definitely call your lawyer.”

Dawson and Davis spit the words out at almost the same time and then each chowed down on a fry at the burger joint we decided on for dinner.

They’d spent most of the dinner listening to me tell them about what went down last night with Selma. While neither were fans of her, never really had been, I hadn’t expected that to be their first reaction, both deadpanned like they were on the same wavelength, and I was the one with a screw loose.

“We’ve never needed to bring a lawyer into this.”

“Yeah.” Dawson shoved his fork in my direction before spearing it into his jalapeño corn salad. “But that’s because you weren’t yet a pro when you knocked her up and didn’t have millions. You were just a man with a dream, and she was getting her nursing degree. Don’t get me wrong, it’s cool she hasn’t come after you for child support yet and you’ve been able to parent Jasper together, but something’s tripped her trigger and a pissed off woman can do a lot of shit to mess with you. Trust me.”

I scoffed. “What the hell do you know about pissed off women? You haven’t had a woman longer than a week since you hit puberty.” It was an exaggeration, but not by much. We entered the league and were drafted in the same year together. Hell, we lived with each other during the team’s first training camp and there wasn’t anyone on the team I knew more about than Dawson—including his sex life, which he enjoyed boasting about.

Not in details—because he wasn’t that big of a dick.

“Exactly. And you know why? Because I saw the shit my mom pulled with my dad and their divorce washerfault to begin with. But she saw her moneymaker on the way out the door and that woman turned feral in her pursuits to suck as much money and life out of him as she could before he left.”

---