Page 56 of Coast to Coast

“Your girlfriend? Or your nanny?” Jed asked, attempting to clarify my idiotic statement and clearly beginning to lose patience with our conversation.

“Here,” I said, handing him my phone and allowing him to watch the TikTok video she had just posted earlier that day. He watched that one silently and then scrolled through her profile, watching a couple more.

“When can she come in?” he asked, and I knew he was interested.

“She’ll be back in town next week. She splits time between here and Boston and works around my travel schedule.”

“Wait, are you one of the Blizzards?” he asked, recognizing me. It didn’t happen often, but it was more likely when we were at home versus traveling. I was mixed up with one of the Bears players in Boston a few times.

“Yeah, Tom Campbell.”

“Well, she’s good enough that I would give her the nod anyway, but if you and the team are her following, she can play here any night she wants. Let me get your information; I’ll have Miranda, the booking manager, reach out.”

I wrote down my cell number and provided him with an e-mail address for Miranda to send the information. I figured that I would check with Callie once I had the details. I hoped she was okay with me going out and finding her a gig since Crew and I kept her busy when she was with us.

I had talked to Kelsey earlier in the day, and had a video call with Crew. It was amazing to think about what life would be like without video calls—so much of the first year of his life had him staring at his loved ones through a phone screen. Even now, it was rare for us all to be together, and it probably wouldn’t happen again until Christmas Day.

I headed back home, planning to pull a meal out of the freezer. I had been reading the romance book Callie left behind, and I’d never admit it to the guys, but it was entertaining.

Callie: Hey, how was practice?

Her text came through on my CarPlay, surprising me. I had done my best to play things as cool as possible and had started and deleted about nine text messages to her throughout the day.

Me: Great. I’m just headed home now.

Callie: Just now?

Me: Can I call you instead of texting? It’s speech-to-text, and I don’t trust my virtual assistant to get what I’m saying right.

Instead of responding, my phone rang.

“Hey,” she said, sounding winded.

“Hey, sorry. The voice-to-text once told my mom to eat ass. I’m still scarred.”

Callie laughed, “Oops, I won’t try to one-up you there.”

“You sound breathless. What are you up to?” I asked, curious about her life in Boston. I knew Kelsey and Sam didn’t need her as much as I did; she had much more free time.

“I was on the treadmill when you called. Sam’s home gym is, well, I don’t like to compare, but if I don’t end up bikini-ready with access to that equipment, I’m just straight-up lazy.”

“Yeah, I used his gym all summer. Goals, right?”

“Uh-huh. Everything good, mountain standard time?”

“It is. But the reason I’m running late is because I stopped off at a bar I found out hosts an open mic night. The owner is going to have the booking manager reach out. I thought you might want to play when you had the chance,” I said, pulling my truck into the garage. I turned off the engine, and the garage door was half closed before I realized Callie hadn’t responded.

“Hello?” I asked, wondering if the call had dropped.

“Yeah, sorry,” she breathed out. “That was really unexpected.”

Unexpected? Shit, was that a good thing? “Did I overstep?” I asked.

“No, sorry. I hate that many of my reactions come down to Zander, but he hated it when I played in public. The night you saw me in Boston was the first time since before I started dating him.”

It was more than a little evident that Zander was a shithead, based solely on what he did at their job, but the more I heard about him, he seemed like a controlling prick.

“What’s wrong with you performing?” I asked.

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