We talked for a couple hours. Mostly it was me talking and Lee listening and asking questions here and there. I wasn’t quite sure he was taking everything I said to heart, but he at least pretended to listen.
As we wrapped up, Lee said, “thanks for all your help, man, all this stuff is a little nuts.” He had a wide-eyed, overwhelmed look on his face.
I chuckled. “Yeah, I know the feeling. It gets a little better.”
“Shit, I hope so, I could use a couple wins.”
“Don’t I know it. You better win some games, Lee, so when I get back we can still make the playoffs.”
Lee laughed. “Yeah, Parker, I’ll try and do that.” He got quiet. “How’s your recovery going?”
I tapped on my right thigh. “Better now, making progress every day. I’ll be back sooner than you think.” I said it with a smile on my face, but it was really more of a warning and I was pretty sure Oliver Lee recognized it.
He straightened up, and gave me a half salute. “I gotta get moving, got practice coming up. Thanks again for the help.”
Lee turned and was about to open the door when something must have caught his eye through the window. He looked back at me. “It can’t be all that bad, can it, Lance?” He had a smile on his face.
“What do you mean?” I didn’t turn to look at him, focusing again back on the TV. Now we were just making small talk, and I had no time for small talk with my backup quarterback. Even if I had all the time in the world.
“Being stuck here in this room all the time.”
“How do you figure? I’d rather be pretty much anywhere else. I’d rather be working out and practicing twice a day, anything to get out of here.”
“Yeah, but you got Calloway taking care of you, that’s gotta make up for a lot of it.”
I whipped my head around at Lee, narrowing my gaze. “What do you mean by that?”
“Just that she’s hot and all, nothing else.”
“You just focus on the game, Lee. You got more important things to deal with than how hot my physical trainer is.”
Lee chuckled to himself. “She’ll be your personal trainer as long as you’re still technically the starter, Lance.” He waved and left the room before I could say anything else, leaving me all alone.
Now that was a warning if I had ever heard one. Oliver Lee had made it clear that he intended to keep the starting job even if I came back. And he pretty much admitted he wanted Charlotte too.
There was no way I was gonna let either of those things happen. Not on my watch.
I lay back against my pillow and wondered if I had done the right thing, both for the team and for myself.
Fuck. This fucking sucked.
CHAPTER 12 - CHARLOTTE
Just as I was returning to my station after taking a quick break I noticed Oliver Lee coming out of Lance’s room. He definitely wasn’t scheduled and it was getting late, definitely after standard visiting hours.
“Hey Charlotte,” Lee said, flashing that fake-looking pretty-boy grin at me. Something about Oliver Lee had always rubbed me the wrong way. He looked too All-American to be real. That kind of look had never, ever, done it for me and I didn’t know what other girls saw in guys like that.
Give me tall, dark, and Lance Parker any day of the week.
“Hi Oliver. You just saw Lance?” I didn’t mean it to come out so standoffish, but for some reason where Lance was concerned I felt really protective, and Lee was someone who was out to take something from Lance, even if they were nominally teammates.
“Yeah, Coach Armstrong asked me to get some pointers from him so maybe I can get some wins under my belt and save the season.”
“Ahh, I see.” Yeah, Lance had mentioned that. “I hope Lance was able to set you straight.” Under the surface, of course, I hoped Lance hadn’t given him anything really useful. I did not want Oliver Lee taking the starting job from Lance Parker.
Nope, not on my watch.
“Yeah, he was really helpful.”
“That’s good to hear. So nice to see you again, Oliver.” I wanted this conversation to end as quickly as possible, but Oliver clearly had other ideas - he walked toward the desk I was sitting at and leaned against it, smiling at me.
“So, Charlotte,” he started. “How are you enjoying working for the Patriots?”
“It’s great, Oliver, a lot of work but I really enjoy being part of the team.” I broke our eye contact as quickly as I could and looked down at the papers on my desk, shuffling them around even though I didn’t have to, just to look busy and hopefully give Oliver the hint.
I had just realized that I was holding my breath when Oliver finally laughed and stood up straight, no longer resting on the counter. “That’s good, glad to hear it. I’ll let you get back to whatever you’re doing.”
“Thanks, Oliver. Have a great game this weekend, please take the Cowboys down.”