Page 39 of Hard Hitter
“I am,” he insisted.
He thought he’d be dismissed, but Hugh stroked his chin thoughtfully. “The salary cap means this team won’t ever have another dedicated enforcer. Every player is here for his skills.”
“I know,” O’Doul insisted.
“If the fighting gets in the way of your skills, it’s bad for the team.”
“True.” He grit his teeth to keep from saying more.
Finally, Hugh stood. “Rest up tonight.”
“Thanks, I will.”
He walked home, considering all the different options for resting up. He could go to the bar on Hicks and have a cheeseburger. He should check up on Ari to be sure she was okay.
Or he could go home and watch five dozen of Falzgar’s fights on YouTube.
Two of those things were fun and one would make him into a dreadful wreck of a human. And he already knew which option he’d end up picking.
TWELVE
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16TH
14 Regular Season Games to Go
Kattenberger Model Predicts: 74 percent chance of a play-offs spot
After a two hour wait, Ari received an order of protection from a graying judge in a windowless courtroom. She spent some quality time on the phone with a lawyer Becca found for her. It was all quite boring and terrifying at the same time. Then she made a call to Uncle Alberto and confessed that his storage room had been broken into, and he made some anxious noises about his Brubeck on vinyl while she tried to reassure him.
Fun times.
She didn’t make it into work at all that day, and since Becca had told the trainer she’d taken a personal day, nobody said anything. But the team’s pain and injuries needed tending to, and she hated not being there to do it.
That evening Becca called, claiming that her live-in sister and baby nephew were driving her crazy, and asked if shecould come and spend the night at Ari’s place. “I’ll bring a movie and some takeout,” she promised.
Ari accepted this thin ruse because she was still a little freaked out about her last two visits from Vince. So, after hanging up the phone, she charged upstairs to change the sheets on her bed. Although Becca would stay the night on the twin bed in the guest room, she still felt the need to banish any evidence of last night’s lapse in judgment.
Like the condom wrapper under the bed.
Her face began to burn as she plucked it off the floor and threw it away. She and Patrick must have had alotof frustration to burn off last night, because it had been the best sex of her life. Her stomach shimmied just at the memory of the moment when he’d put his mouth...
Gah. She wasn’t going to tella soul.
The doorbell rang, and Ari had a moment’s hesitation. What if it was Vince at the door? She tiptoed down the stairs. It rang again.
“Ari?” Becca’s voice called through the wood. “I have Indian food and a DVD ofMagic Mike!”
She opened the door. “Well, step right this way.”I will not confess. I will not.
Becca walked in, handing Ari a bag of food. She kicked off her Dr. Martens and wrinkled her nose. “You look guilty. Why?”
“I do not!” Ari gasped.
“You so do. What happened?”
Damn it. “Patrick and I attacked each other like horny rabbits last night,” she blurted out. “But it’s never happening again.”
Becca’s eyebrows shot up, which was especially distracting because there was a barbell through one of them. “Wait. Patrick? As in... O’Doul? You call himPatrick?Nobody calls him by his first name.”
