Page 62 of Necessary Roughness

One of the other rookies leaned over and said, “You’d better shut up before the coaches hear you.”

“I was the first-round draft pick. Who do they think they’re dealing with here?” He gestured at Johnson, who was sitting several rows in front of him with headphones on. “He wasn’t even drafted.”

The coaching staff didn’t have to get involved. One of the vets shouted out, “Shut the fuck up, rook. You’ll talk when we tell you to talk.” The players’ area of the plane went silent. They landed safely in Atlanta an hour later.

It was two thirty AM. The first flight to Seattle was at six thirty AM. Tanner bought a ticket on his phone, grabbed his suitcase, and settled in to wait at the gate.

***

SADIE WOKE JORDAN up at five thirty AM that morning for her breakfast and to be let out. Naturally, Sadie wanted to go back to sleep less than half an hour later at the foot of Tanner’s bed. Jordan knew she should grab a shower and go for a run or something. It had been a long and frustrating week. She’d had some idea that running the physical therapy clinic was going to be more of a challenge than she had anticipated; she wasn’t a business major. Things were a little nuts as a result. Marco had a CPA doing the books, but he’d never hired an actual manager of the business, preferring to pay himself instead. She wanted to hire an office manager as quickly as she could figure out how much she needed to budget for it among other things. Until they had an office manager, she asked for five staff volunteers who would agree to rotate the job one week at a time. They did stuff like make sure the appointment schedules were up-to-date every day, notified her of broken or damaged equipment, and made sure that things like hand towels and the water dispensers in the business were stocked up each morning.

The physical therapists managed their own schedules and client load. There would have to be more conversation about how to distribute who got new patients fairly, but for the first two weeks on her own, it wasn’t bad. She hadn’t been this tired in a long time, but she’d live. It also kept her from staring off into space and wondering what Tanner was doing.

Jordan missed him so much she was wondering if she’d made a horrible mistake. Maybe she should sell the business to the long-term employees and move to Atlanta. He’d never asked her to move for him. Instead, he’d told her how proud he was of her for going after the goal she’d had since she became a physical therapist. She wanted to own her own clinic. She’d used the money she had saved for buying a teeny condo as her down payment without a second thought. It was great to achieve goals in life, but she didn’t want to spend her life wondering when Tanner was going to meet a woman there and send her a text that he wasn’t coming back.

She glanced over at the clock on Tanner’s bedside table. It wasn’t even seven AM yet. Sadie was already snoring at the foot of the bed. She’d moved in here after he left, which was probably not the smartest thing she could have done, either. She fell asleep every night breathing his scent and woke up to it every morning. Anyone else would say it was romantic. It made her miss him even more. They hadn’t seen each other for three weeks. He was so busy that FaceTiming when they were both awake was few and far between. They spent more time texting.

She knew he’d been at the team’s first preseason game last night and that Atlanta had won. She watched the highlights on ESPN to see if she could glimpse Tanner on the sidelines. Maybe she should buy a plane ticket on a weekend he wasn’t out of town for a game and go see him. She knew he worked pretty much all weekend these days, but seeing him for a couple of hours a day was better than what was happening right now.

She flipped back into the pillows and pulled the sheet up to her chin. Maybe she should get another couple of hours of sleep before she tried to figure out how she was going to fill another day without him.

***

TANNER GOT OUT of an Uber in front of his house a little before ten thirty AM that morning. He’d caught a nap while he waited for his flight and slept some more on the plane. He wasn’t daisy-fresh, but hopefully Jordan wouldn’t care. He could always take a shower. With her.

He had the electronic code to open the front door, but maybe he should call her first so she wouldn’t be startled when he walked in. He could already hear Sadie raising hell behind the front door. He loved his dog, but Labs had two modes: barking like an axe murderer was at the door, and asleep. Hopefully Jordan had her phone. He hit the contact and let it ring.

She sounded a little out of breath. “Tanner, how are you?”

“Great. I have a question. What are you doing for lunch today?”

“Making a sandwich or something. Why?”

“There’s something for you outside of the front door. It’s kind of big.”

“What? Sadie. Shh! Nothing’s wrong!” Sadie continued to bark as Tanner watched the front door of his house open.

Of course, Sadie ran out and tried to knock him over while Jordan stepped out onto the porch. She still had the phone in her hand. Her hair was tumbled around her shoulders. She still wore the oversize T-shirt and shorts he knew she slept in.

“Tanner?” she said.

“It’s me, babe. Want to have lunch?”

She ran up to him and stopped. “I want—I know I have to be careful,” she said. She nodded at his cane. He wasn’t made of glass, but he knew she worried. “Oh God, I have missed you so much.”

She threw her arms around his waist. Sadie played at their feet while he did his best to kiss DP for every time he wished she was with him over the past three weeks, every moment that he remembered the sweet sound of her laughter and the way her hair smelled.

“I’ve missed you so much too.” He held her close. “We can go inside. I know the owner. He won’t mind.”

He felt her shaking with laughter. “Are you sure? I’m housesitting. I don’t want to piss him off.”

“I’ll let him know things are cool. Sadie! Go inside!” His dog ran into the house as he grabbed his suitcase and tried to hold Jordan’s hand at the same time. He wasn’t sure how he’d made it through the last three weeks of his life without her. He took a deep breath of sun-warmed air with a slight breeze and manageable humidity. He was home for twenty-four hours. How could he force himself to leave her again?

Fifteen minutes later, Tanner had dropped his suitcase into the corner of his room. He and Jordan threw themselves into his bed, which was currently also populated by a wriggling ninety-five-pound dog licking Tanner’s face.

“Do you think she’ll leave us alone for a while?” Jordan said.

“Not unless we lock her out.”

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