Page 55 of Blade
“No. Nothing like that. Things are great between me and . . . my girl.” Robert felt his heart quicken. If he had said Amber’s name, would Lewinski have known she was Coach’s daughter?
Just when Robert’s pulse returned to a normal rhythm, Coach’s baritone sliced through the noise in the locker room, and Robert felt the blood rush from his head. “Oh, God,” he moaned.
Lewinski looked at him with concern. “Hey, Coach! Something’s wrong with Blade!”
“No!” Panicked, Robert jumped to his feet. “I’m fine. Don’t call Coach over here. There’s nothing wrong. See?” He stuffed his helmet on his head and started doing linear knee raises. “I’m ready to go!”
“What’s going on?” Coach bellowed, stomping over to Robert.
Robert quickened his movements. If he’d been actually running, at this pace, he’d be in Pennsylvania in no time. “Just doing a quick warmup, Coach.”
Coach watched with his hands on his hips. “Jesus, Blade. Take it easy before you pull a muscle. Save it for the field.”
“Gotcha. I’ll just trot over to the water cooler and take a break.” Robert darted away and downed two cups of water, one after the other.
Coach gave one of his famous pep talks which turned up the adrenaline in the room, but it calmed Robert down. It returned things to normal, and he needed that right now. He needed to get his head back in the game, because, above all, the Bucks had a game to win, and he had running backs to protect. And that’s exactly what he did.
The Bucks won—barely. In the last two minutes of the game, Cincinnati was ahead, and it looked as if defeat were inevitable, but Remington threw a pass to Martinez who ran the ball clear across the end line and secured the W.
The team carried Martinez back to the locker room on their shoulders where Coach shouted his victory speech, and everyone cheered along.
“I got one last thing to say before you can hit the showers.” Coach pointed in Robert’s direction. “Don’t you go anywhere.”
As Coach marched toward Robert with an undecipherable look on his face, Robert froze.Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!“I’m sorry!” Robert shouted.
“For what, Blade? Knocking down Carter when you took out Cincy’s DE?” Coach waved his hand flippantly. “It happens, and Carter is fine. Right, Carter?”
“Yeah, Coach!”
“See?” Coach slapped Robert on the back. “Don’t be so hard on yourself.” Then he turned to Martinez, who was standing right next to Robert, and held out his hand. “Great job today.”
All the breath left Robert’s lungs, and he beelined for the showers, even though he was still in full gear. He stripped down in the stall and then stepped under the water. He turned his face up to the spray and let the hot water run down his cheeks, wondering how the hell he was going to finish out the season because, at this rate, he was going to have a fucking nervous breakdown.
“You’re sadistic.” Amber dropped her handbag on the kitchen counter and glared at her mother, who sat at the table behind her laptop.
Her mom started laughing. Not just a short spurt of laughter either. An explosion of hysterics left her mother’s mouth, complete with rocking back and forth and slapping the table. Her mom popped up from the kitchen chair and tugged on Amber’s arm. “I wish you could have seen Robert’s face! I thought that poor boy was about to let go of his bowels!”
“Mom! It’s not funny. This whole thing could have blown up all over the locker room, in front of everyone and right before a game. What’s wrong with you?”
“Come on. You know it was a little bit funny,” her mom coaxed.
“No. It wasn’t. Why do you have to be such an instigator?”
“What did you expect me to do with that information, Amber? You basically gave me the keys to the castle and expected me not to go inside.” Her mom threw her arms up in the air. “I live for moments like these!”
Amber shook her head with disbelief.
“Don’t worry, honey.” Her mom ran her hand down Amber’s arm. “I wouldn’t have let the cat out of the bag. I was just having fun. You know me. I love to stick it to your father any chance I can, especially when he has no idea that I’m toying with him.” She bit her bottom lip and looked to the ceiling for a moment. “Actually, I was toying with your man, but it was harmless.”
“What am I going to do with you?” Amber sunk into the kitchen chair, convinced that her mom was missing a few receptors in her brain.
“How upset was he?” her mom asked, slipping into the seat across from Amber.
“Very upset. He thinks I deceived him and lied to him. And I did. Why don’t you or Dad ever think about my feelings and how things you do affect me?”Amber’s had this conversation with her parents a million times before, yet here they were again.
Her mom’s lips turned downward, and her brows dipped. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize. Are things OK with the two of you? I can talk to him if you want.”
“No. I don’t need you to talk to my boyfriend. I just need you to think sometimes before you pull some of these stupid stunts.” In a way, Amber should be thanking her mother. God knows she struggled with how to tell Robert that Coach was her father.
