She held her hands up. “I have no idea, we’ll have to run some tests.”
“Will you tell anyone what I did?”
“Since you two were somehow crafty enough not to get caught by anyone else, perhaps not.”
“Perhaps not?”
“I could be persuaded not to spill the beans, is all I’m saying.”
I sighed. “What’s this gonna cost me?”
“Oh not too much,” Charlotte said sweetly, batting her eyes at me in a super fake way.
“Let it out, Charlotte, I’m ready for it.”
“Services to be named later.”
“What the hell’s that mean?”
“Just what it says on the box, Lance Parker. I’ll decide just what it is at a later date.”
“You’re gonna hold this over me forever, aren’t you?”
Charlotte came in close, leaning over the bed. I could smell her; it wasn’t perfume - as a medical professional, as a rule she didn’t wear any while working, but it was her strong and sexy scent. “Wouldn’t you just love that?”
I couldn’t help it. Rule be damned, I just needed to touch her. I reached my hand up and into her hair, coiling some of it around my fingers at the roots and gently pulled her head down. Charlotte must have wanted me to do just that, because she leaned forward easily, perfectly balanced.
Her wide-eyed face was right in front of mine. It was simple enough to lean forward and kiss her right there. She pushed into our kiss and we stuck there for a long moment, tasting each other for the first time in what felt like forever.
I must have come to my senses about what we were doing all at once, because I finally pulled back. “I’m sorry I did that, Charlotte.”
Charlotte didn’t move her head even an inch. “Don’t be, Lance. I needed that. You needed that too.”
“It was nice, but we can’t do that again.”
“I know, I know, because of your rules.” She stood up and checked herself out in a mirror, making sure all was proper. “Your rules suck, you know that?”
“I know, but they’ve gotten me this far, so I gotta stick with them.”
“Humph. That’s all I have to say to that. Humph.”
“Well put.”
“Don’t forget, Lance Parker, I still know what you did thirty minutes ago.”
“You’re the worst kind of blackmailer, did you know that?”
“Oh? How so? What kind of blackmailer am I?”
“The irresistible kind.”
“That’s the right answer, Parker.” She only used my last name when she wanted to tease me.
With that, she left the room, leaving me to stew in my own thoughts.
I knew two things. The first was that I needed to get back on the field, but I needed to find the right way to do so, without hurting myself.
The second was that following the rule was the hardest thing I’d ever done before.
CHAPTER 10 - CHARLOTTE
Even though I didn’t tell anyone just what Lance and Hud had done, a couple days later it was time to deliver the news on Lance’s recovery to the rest of the team’s coaching staff. He was going to be out at least another 4-5 weeks after a setback in his recovery.
Coach Armstrong took it well, considering what it meant. He just stoically turned and started talking to his position coaches, formulating plans to move forward with Oliver Lee starting at quarterback indefinitely.
After Morris and I finished our meeting with the coaches, I headed back to the medical wing and to Lance’s room. He was in there, of course. After the stunt he and Hud had pulled I briefly considered getting security to issue him an ankle bracelet, but at the last second I decided to see one last time if he could act like an adult.
Lance wasn’t really in the mood to talk, so I left him be and hung out outside in the waiting room at the nurse’s station. It just so happened that I was the only one on duty at the time, so I had the room all to myself for once.
I sat down in one of the couches and pulled my legs up onto the cushion, relaxing and trying to figure out what I was going to do next.
I knew Lance was in the next room. It was almost like I could feel him there on the other side of the wall. He was probably in there watching the coverage on him. While he wasn’t the most famous player in professional football, the big national cable sports channels did include stories on him in their pro football shows.
And then there were the local sports shows, both TV and on the radio. They had nothing better to do than talk about the Patriots all day, and Lance Parker and his injury and potential return was always a popular subject.
I knew that most players tried to avoid reading the coverage about themselves, but Lance hadn’t learned that yet - he devoured local radio shows and news articles about the Patriots, trying to get a sense of what the locals thought about him.