Page 115 of Hail Marry
Today is a recovery day for the team, which means stretching, rehab, and light workouts.
“Why would they show up like that out of nowhere?” he asks.
“I don’t know. I thought we did pretty well in our interview.”
“You think maybe Bennett made a call or something?”
My brows pull together. “Doyouthink that?”
“I don’t know. You getting nailed for fraud definitely benefits him, and you said he’s been bringing up your marriage a lot, right? Insinuating stuff?”
“Yeah…” The thought makes me sick, but Zach might have a point. Bennett has wanted the starting spot from the beginning. He felt like it was his, and I stole it from him, and if he believes I’ve done it illegally, I could see him feeling justified in calling immigration. “Whether it was him or not, what’s done is done.”
Zach swears softly. “What do we do? You’ve been doing so well. The Admirals need you.”
“They’d be fine without me. This is bigger than just the League, though, Zach. This is my entire future. It’s my marriage.” This morning, Tori made the point that, if we get charged with immigration fraud, it’ll not only get me deported to Canada, it’ll prevent her from coming there to be with me.
Belize might legitimately be our best option.
“Right,” Zach says. “But there’s still a chance, right? You can pass this interview just like you passed the last one, and then everything will be fine.”
“Yeah, maybe.”
I’m not at all certain of that, though. They’ll be asking harder questions this time, and I won’t have Tori to save me when I stumble. If they ask anything we haven’t gone over together, we’re toast.
I pull into my parking space at the stadium and undo my seatbelt. “I gotta go, Zach. We’ll talk later.”
When I get into the facility, a bunch of the guys are working the machines. As people take note of me, there’s a wave of cheers, and a couple of the guys imitate my touchdown dance. Tori’s touchdown dance.
I spot Bennett in the far corner of the room where the free weights are. Could he really be the reason we got the unannounced visit?
I make my way to him. I have no idea if Zach’s suspicions are correct, but I don’t want to have the question hanging over me and affecting the dynamics among the wideouts. It might not change anything about the future, but I need to know.
“Can I talk to you?”
He meets my gaze through the mirror, his own curious but wary, then his eyes shift behind me.
I glance over my shoulder and find a few of the other guys watching us. “In private,” I clarify.
Bennett’s brow lifts, but he sets down the dumbbells and leads the way out of the weight room. “If you’re trying to ask me out, Callahan, I don’t date married men.”
The hallway is empty, and he turns to face me with his usual cocky smile. But there’s a wary light in his eyes. Is it because he knows why I’m here? Does he want this starting position so badly that he’d actually put my entire futureandTori’s in jeopardy?
I search his face, trying to keep control of myself. “Did you report me?”
His expression is impassive. “What?”
“You’ve been making comments about my marriage since we met, Bennett. If you called immigration, the least you can do is be honest about it.”
His brows snap together. “Or else what? You gonna put me in the hospital like you did that one guy?”
My gaze intensifies. Is this his way of admitting it was him who called immigration?
“Yeah,” he says, “I told you I read up on you, Callahan. You’ve got a criminal record for messing up some handyman. You trying to add to it by threatening me? Because I promise you, you’ll come out of that a lot worse than the last time.”
“So, you did sic immigration on my wife and me?”
“The wife you married for a green card?”
