“And you certainly didn’t make it easy on me, Parker! I could have sworn you hated me from the moment I arrived.”
“We,” I began, “had a rough start but made it work.”
“Yeah. That we did, that we did.”
“And you had Lily on your side, that must have helped.”
Drake looked forward and couldn’t keep the smile off his face. “She’s the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me, Lance, and I include football and playing for the Patriots.” He looked down and over at me, a little bit sheepish. “But, uh, don’t let anyone else hear that.”
“You’ll have to buy my silence.”
Drake chuckled. “Find the right girl, Lance, find the right girl. It makes all the difference in the world.” He leaned in. “What am I saying, I don’t need to tell you that, you already found the right girl, yeah?”
I met Drake’s intense stare. “Yeah, Drake, I think I have.”
He clapped me on the back again. “My man, I knew it. Lily’s gonna be thrilled to hear it too, she’s been talking non-stop about you two for weeks now.” He got quiet again. “Whatever you do, do not let that woman write a romance novel about you two. She wrote one about us and made me read it.” He closed his eyes and looked like he was in pain. “I could not get through it! She wrote me like the biggest asshole on Earth, man! It wasn’t fair!”
I laughed out loud. I had missed this kind of stuff. “OK, I’ll make sure Lily doesn’t write a book about us. That’s good advice.”
“The best I’ve got.” He saw Charlotte and Lily talking over on the other sideline. “You two are really good together, I’m happy for you.”
“I know, it’s been a rough season for her, I haven’t been the best lately.”
“I think she understands, man, she could have been reassigned if she didn’t. She wanted to say and work with you, she wanted to stay and be close to you. That’s not nothing, you know?”
Drake was right, of course. Charlotte had stuck around the entire time through all the ups and downs and here I was still wondering whether she was even interested in me.
“I gotta roll, dude, got a receivers meeting to get to before dinner. You gonna be alright?”
“Yeah, Drake, thanks, I’ll be fine. Great to hang out again.”
Drake stood up, tossing his empty cup. “Give it a little time, Parker, you’ll be throwing me touchdowns again soon enough.”
“I know it.”
Drake waved and walked away, leaving me alone on the bench. The sun was still out and it felt great to sit there and bask in its rays after weeks of being cooped up inside.
I watched Charlotte and Lily talk on the other side of the field. They hugged and separated, and Charlotte waved at me, and I thought for a brief second that she would come over and hang out with me a bit outside, but she hesitated, looked toward the door, and waved at me again before going back into the facility.
Everything was fine, right?
I didn’t want to think about this stuff. All I wanted to do was focus on football and making sure I was in the best possible position to start again, but Charlotte had basically taken over my mind in just a few short weeks. I couldn’t stop thinking about her, how much I wanted her, how much I loved her company, how much it thrilled me to see her come into my room every few hours.
Something was up, though, and I needed to know what it was.
CHAPTER 18 - CHARLOTTE
A couple days after Lance found out from Coach Armstrong that he’d be riding the bench for Oliver Lee, at least in the short term, Lance moved out of the medical wing and back to his regular room in the facility. The entire staff was sorry to see him go, me especially, but I was really glad that he was well enough to be able to live on his own and take care of his knee by himself.
It still stung that he wouldn’t be starting - I could see it in Lance’s eyes that being the Patriots’ backup haunted him, and that he was willing to do whatever it took to change that situation. At the same time, though, there wasn’t much he could do - just attend meetings, go to practice, get stronger, and wait for Coach Armstrong to decide to give Lance a try again.
It was a waiting game - different than waiting to recover from an injury, but almost more frustrating because now I could tell that Lance felt 100%, and he was raring to go, but was unable to move because Oliver Lee was in his way.
After Lance moved out, I went into the room he’d stayed in for the last few weeks and stood just beyond the doorway for a few minutes, after closing the door behind me. The room felt so empty now that Lance was gone. All that we had shared in this room, mostly fighting but a lot of fun and many stolen kisses too, all felt different, as if suddenly none of it was real because Lance wasn’t living here anymore.