Page 78 of The Wedding Deal
“Big risks, big rewards,” Bryant said with a shrug.
“Funny enough, that’s why she encouraged me to hire you.”
“Yeah, a woman like that doesn’t come along every day.”
Why did everyone insist on telling him what he already knew? But they also kept forgetting to factor in that she wouldn’t so much as look at him. Wouldn’t allow him to say anything that didn’t fall in the “business only” category.
The flat screen television up front announced the draft had started right as their clock ticked down to zero. Around the world, millions of football fans from every team were watching, the Mustang fans in the mix hoping and pleading that this would be the season their team turned it around.
All their hopes and dreams for the team, along with the players’ and every single other person in this room.
No pressure.
The clock had been reset to count down the ten minutes they had to select their pick, and it was go time.
Lance nodded to Brett Williams, their brand-new GM, who picked up the phone and called in. They sent in the ticket for Darius Fox, the linebacker he and Charlotte had decided on the day she’d put up her wall of craziness. Luckily, the rest of the team was on board, and part of that was because Lance had asked Charlotte to stand up in their meeting the other day and help explain why they wanted him as their first pick.
A few of the guys raised questions, but she’d done her stats wizardry thing, drawing across the white board at the front of the war room like she’d done to the one in the hotel. She added the stats about rookie quarterbacks and pointed out the percentages of division champions and Super Bowl champions who’d won mostly because of their defense.
It’d been a long time since he’d seen a roomful of guys stunned silent.
Pride had radiated through Lance then, and he experienced a surge of it now. He glanced back at Charlotte again, wanting to celebrate together. Needing it, really.
Her gaze remained on her computer.
She hadn’t even gotten out of her seat to celebrate. The woman who’d spun around on the beach and squealed or high-fived after every phone call. She’d been willing to give up a quarterback most people were clamoring over each other for so that they’d land Fox.
And nothing.
Which was how he felt, too, come to think of it. They’d restructured this team together, and in spite of being well on his way to getting everything he wanted, instead of happiness, he felt…empty. Hollow.
That hole that’d been punched through his chest remained, and there was only one thing that’d fill it.
And she refused to even look at him.
Everything inside of him was unraveling, coming undone at a rapid pace, and it sent the phone call he’d been trying to keep out of his head rushing to the foreground again.
Yesterday afternoon Mitch had called and asked about Charlotte—funny enough, Lance had only answered because he figured he’d be the one member of his family whowouldn’task about her.
When he told Mitch they weren’t together anymore, his brother asked what the hell was wrong with him that he’d let a girl like that go.
“It was one week,” Lance had said. “One amazing week, but still.” He’d held back that it was the best week of his life. That he relived the amazing moments in his sleep and woke up to the harsh reality it’d ended and everything was different now.
“What does time have to do with anything?” Mitch had asked. “I knew Stacy was the girl for me on our first date.”
“You were together for two years before you got engaged, and it was another year before you got married.”
“Because planning a wedding in the limited off time both of us have wasn’t easy, not because we didn’t want to get married. Plus, I was trying not to scare her off by proposing too soon. But trust me, I wanted to put a ring on it within a week.”
Lance hadn’t known what to say to that, but it turned out Mitch hadn’t been finished anyway. “Have you ever asked Dad when he knew Mom was the one?”
“Can’t say I have.”
“Well, after I announced to the family that Stacy and I were engaged, Dad got all nostalgic. He told me that he was pretty sure Mom was the one when he asked her out and she told him she didn’t date football players. By their second date, Dad went from pretty sure to sure, and within a month, he’d asked her to marry him.”
Lance had heard the story about them only dating a month before getting engaged, but he’d always thought it was more the way it was back when his parents were dating, or that they’d simply been fortunate it’d worked out so well.
“Sometimes you just know,” Mitch said.
