Page 24 of Forecheck
Berkley giggled. “I know,” she said.
“You do?” I asked, my brows drawing together.
Berkley put her elbows on the table and leaned toward me, dropping her voice. “Let’s just say I’m a big fan.”
“How big?” I asked as I mirrored her pose, unable to stop myself.
“Big enough that I could rattle off ninety percent of your pro and college stats if asked.”
My eyes widened, but I leaned back in my chair, the picture of cool, calm, collected. “Let’s see how good you are then, Daniels.”
“Bring it on, Jean.”
I grinned. I liked this game. I liked thisgirl.
“2015,” I said.
“You’re going to have to be more specific,” she said. “Since that was the end of your senior season of college but the start of your rookie year in the pros.”
God, that was so sexy, my dick actually twitched.
“College.”
“In thirty-five games, you had nineteen goals, twelve assists, and finished second on the team in points. You also had, I think, sixteen penalty minutes.”
My jaw dropped, my mouth hanging open like a fish out of water as I searched for something to say.
“Oh, God,” Berkley said, smacking her palm against her forehead. “You probably think I’m a creepy stalker now.”
“Definitely not,” I said, then sat up and leaned forward, pulling her hand away from her face and clasping it in mine. “That was the hottest thing a girl has ever said to me.”
Now it was Berkley’s turn to gape. “You mean it?”
“Absolutely.” I gave her hand a squeeze then once again sat back in my chair, reaching for my wine glass lest I take her hand again. “You can do that for every year I’ve played?”
Her cheeks pinkened, her hair sliding over an eye as she dipped her head. “I mean, not anything before college, but…yeah.”
“Your mind is impressive,” I said honestly.
“It’s definitely something,” she said.
“I’m sure it’s helped a lot with school, right?”
“Oh, absolutely. I barely had to study in undergrad, and I’m the kind of person who can read something only a handful of times before I understand and remember it forever. Law schoolwas a bit of a punch to the gut when things didn’t come that easily. It’s also a lot more information to retain, so I’ve had to work harder than ever before, but I wouldn’t change it for anything.”
“Why’d you want to become a lawyer, anyway?”
“To help people,” she said, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. To her, I supposed it was. “I can’t ever remember a time when I didn’t want to become a lawyer. But the moment I realized I was on the right path was during my junior year of college. I’d been working in the athletic department, so I’d gotten to be good friends with a lot of the athletes. I saw the struggle they encountered in navigating contracts and agents and having a thousand people breathing down their necks. I felt like they didn’t really have anyone looking out for them that cared about their well-being but also really understood the ins and outs of contracts and negotiations. So that was the day everything changed for me. The more I studied contracts, and dove deeper into all of the pieces involved in all different kinds, the more I loved it. Eventually, I’d like to open my own agency and be the one going to bat for these people—especially women and rookies—instead of just the one creating the language that encapsulates their contract terms.”
I stared at her, stunned.
“You continued to surprise me, Berkley Daniels.”
“Is that a good thing?” she asked, almost shyly.
“The best thing,” I confirmed.
“It’s weird to nerd out over what is essentially words on a page, but…those words are someone’s livelihood, you know?”
