Page 24 of Nailing Heat
She laughs and gestures to the drawer beside the fridge. Without saying a word, I retrieve a sharp one and help her get her piece onto her plate.
“I have a pizza cutter,” she declares.
“Why didn’t you tell me where that was?”
“You asked for a knife.” Amelia winks at me, goes to the fridge, grabbing a diet Dr. Pepper before heading into the living room. “Come on, we can have a couch picnic.”
I shake my head laughing, grabbing my pizza and a beer, and join her in the living room. We set up on opposite sides of the couch, but our bodies are turned towards one another. A sitcom continues to play on a low volume but neither of us is playing attention to it.
“You must have been good at the married stuff,” Amelia says to me.
Her comment catches me by surprise. “Why would you say that?” My throat goes dry, and I immediately reach for my beer, taking a quick swig.
“The way you took care of me with my contacts. Made me think that it was something you probably had to do a lot with your wife,” she says, taking a bite of her pizza. She studies me as she eats, waiting for me to answer her.
“Well, umm, Elise didn’t wear lenses. But I figured that was what you needed,” I tell her. I want to say more but I’m unsure of how to tell her that I wasn’t the best husband and that Elise probably would have fallen out of her chair had she been here to witness that.
“I bet you were good at other things, though,” she says casually, continuing to eat her pizza.
“I guess so.” I take a bit of my own slice. It tastes so good. It’sbeen a while since I’ve had a good slice of pizza like this. Elise didn’t like carbs. I don’t bother to say that to Amelia. I still feel a bit protective of her; I don’t want her to hear the things that Elise didn’t do. Or what I wished she had, like taking a day to eat a slice of pizza with me.
“You don’t want to talk about this, do you?” Amelia finally asks me, as she sits her slice down and reaches for the diet soda.
“No, not really,” I admit with a shrug. “It’s still kind of fresh. Maybe someday, not tonight.”
She nods, accepting that answer, which I appreciate. “Okay, then what did you do at the Blaze office for almost twelve hours? Was there really that much to do in the training room?”
I beam at her. This I can talk about. I’ve never been so thankful for a topic change. “There was a lot of paperwork that needed to be filed. Cary must not have done it and I’m not even sure Lucas knew the system Cary had been using. So, I had to redo all of that. I read the charts as best I could for your players that are currently injured or who have been complaining of aliments. I got a swag pack from August. That was fun, actually.” Amelia is taking everything in and really listening to the day I’m telling her about. She’s leaned forward in her seat, watching me intently. Not eating or drinking while I talk so I continue. “I also had to have lunch with him and Maxwell, which was okay. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen Maxwell. And then it was organizing and inventorying the training room, making sure we have all the supplies we need.”
“And let me guess, lots to order,” she teases.
“Actually, yes, not having a full-time head trainer was not the best decision on August’s part. But I’m here now, so I’ll fix that,” I tell her.
She grins the kind of grin that lights up her big brown eyes and lets you know she’s really seeing you. “Well, Cary wasn’t around a whole lot. And Lucas, well, I’m pretty sure he did whatever Cary said so he wasn’t stepping on his toes.”
I chuckle. “Yeah, it’s going to be interesting when we’re both in the room working with you girls. I want him to make the decisions he should have been making all along. But I found a list on my desk a mile long of things that Cary was supposed to check for Lucas. I have to address that with him when I see him tomorrow.”
“Why does that not surprise me!” she exclaims.
“The training staff has kinda been a hot mess, huh?”
“It has. Thankfully,” she knocks on the wall beside her, before continuing, “there have been no serious injuries.”
“Well, that is good.” I look up from my dinner to catch her watching me. “What?”
“I’m wondering if you will actually enjoy being a trainer for a girls’ team. You know, after coming from the sidelines of the NFL.” She’s watching me carefully, biting her lip as she waits for me to answer.
“I think so. I gotta say, though, it was weird that your game could end in a tie like that. I was expecting a clear winner,” I admit with a shrug.
“That’s what happens in soccer sometimes.” She shrugs it off like it’s no big deal. And I guess, to her, it isn’t. She’s been around the game her entire life while I’m still learning.
“I can teach you about soccer if you would like me to,” Amelia offers.
I grin at her. “Won’t you be playing the game?” The last game that she played, she never came out. Lucas didn’t seem surprised when I mentioned it to him, but I was. Football is not like that; there are breaks for offense and defense while we work through the downs.
“Yes, but there are other games. So many NWSL teams other than us and the teams we play.” She giggles like she’s surprised that I didn’t figure that out.
“I would appreciate that. I don’t know, I’ve never been aroundsoccer. Only football,” I admit, studying the pale blue couch we’re sitting on.
