Page 49 of Tight Spot

I was still uncertain, as were many veterans on the team.

Cole, however, had met him already several times and felt better about him than I did.

“Marchand. Caldwell bowed out. Didn’t want to show up and take any attention off the purpose for tonight since he hasn’t met everyone yet.”

“He seems really nice,” Eden said.

“Nice doesn’t mean shit if it isn’t coupled with wins,” I returned with a shrug, my gaze still on Cole.

“He’ll be fine. Just wants to wait until it gets closer to OTAs.”

“What are OTAs?” Hailey asked.

“Organized team activities. The start at the end of the month. We have weeks of meetings and organized strength and conditioning programs to follow to get ready for the season and training camp. And yeah, we saw Marchand, but he hasn’t approached. My guess is right now he’s keeping watch, and I feel like I’m being fucking babysat.”

All this over one single bar fight. Big fucking deal. It happened and so what if it looked bad. It happened to other players, too. If Bowles hadn’t been leaving and I hadn’t had to be worried about some new coach swooping in, I probably would have told Marchand to shove his “settling down” plan up his ass.

Not that it wasn’t working out well for me…

“He’s at the bar right now, talking to someone.”

“You know where he went?” I asked Hailey.

“Been keeping an eye on him, just in case.”

Nice. I hadn’t even tagged where he’d gone, hadn’t wanted to know, but it was nice to know Hailey had my back. It was so simple, so damn small, but my chest swelled with pride, and it wasn’t the only thing that was swelling.

When was the last time anyone, outside my teammates on the field, had taken my back, looked out for me?

Not since I was twenty and my relationship with my dad frayed.

“We should go get seated for dinner,” I told Cole and Eden.

“Our table’s up front with my parents, but yours is next to it on the right.”

“Thanks, man.” I fist pumped Cole. Eden and Hailey said they’d see each other later. Thankfully, no one was at our table yet, so we found our name tags and slipped into the chairs.

Good thing, since it gave me the chance to lean over and settle my hand at Hailey’s thigh and lean in close to her. “Thanks for that, keeping an eye on Rick.”

“You’d do it for me,” she whispered back.

Yeah. Yeah, I would. And if I was willing to admit it, I’d probably do just about anything for her, too.

I was so freaking fucked.

CHAPTER14

HAILEY

Dinner was a gorgeous affair. The food, the music, the company. I was absolutely blown away when Bethany Carlson, a country singer who hadn’t toured in four years stepped out on the stage and played during our dinner, slow songs and some covers. I was so enamored with the fact I was sitting twenty feet from a country singer icon I would have forgotten to eat altogether if Maggie, Davis’s fiancée and very clearly pregnant, hadn’t leaned close to me at one point and teased me about my food going cold.

“I have a friend who knows a lot of people in the industry,” she said to me, “and I still get tongue-tied every single time I’m at one of her parties.”

“It’s crazy. I mean I’ve lived near this city my whole entire life and I never stop getting awestruck when I see someone famous.”

“And yet you didn’t seem impressed at all when you met me,” Dawson teased.

How wrong he was. I was impressed all right. With his body and his hair and his smile. There’d been a lot to be impressed about when it came to him, but considering we were in public, I couldn’t exactly tell him that.

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