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My stomach turns at the thought of her with Xander. I hadn’t considered it in all these years, that after I left, she might have gone after what she wanted all along.
“You all right there? You look like you saw a ghost.” Cooper raises a brow at me and glances down at my phone.
“Westfield’s sister, busting my balls.”
“The two of you paired off seems like a recipe for disaster. Especially the way you and East were on the field the other day.”
“Lot of bad blood between our families over the years.”
“I’m normally not one for drama, but I feel like if it’s gonna affect my team I need to know.” He sits back and lays one arm over the back of the booth behind him.
“Coach Undergrove and Coach Westfield were friends in college. Got drafted to rival teams. My uncle took him out in a hip-drop tackle. Fucked him up good and ended his career. Westfield hated him after that. When my uncle started coaching, they ended up on the same team for a while. He started a campaign against my uncle until he got him fired and ran him out of the place.”
“And that’s the reason for the bad blood between you and East?”
“East and I don’t have anything really. His brother and I do though. We were good friends for a long time until we weren’t.”
“You played on the same side of the ball and played together in college, right? Played you once if I remember right.”
“Yeah.”
“So if not football, then what? You two don’t strike me as the type to fight over a woman.”
I make a face, and his eyebrow rises in response. “It was a woman?”
“Sort of.”
“Not the sister. Tell me it’s not the sister.”
I shrug and take a sip of my beer.
“Oh fuck.” He shakes his head. “That’s even worse than I thought. East never gets riled up about anything. I wondered what could have him so on edge about you. But he doesn’t want you near his sister. Now it’s all making sense.”
“Keep it between us, yeah? It was a long fucking time ago, and I don’t want to dredge it up. Besides, I really do need her help setting shit straight around here.” I feel anxious that he knows, but then again, East might tell them all anyway. Let them all know they can’t trust their sisters around me.
“Your secret’s safe with me. To be fair, I get it. She’s gorgeous. Not my type exactly, but I get it. If the right woman came along, I might risk it all too.”
“Your daughter’s mom wasn’t the right one?”
“Nah. Not really. She’s a good person, but much happier with her current partner and their life. Thankful that right now we live in the same city, and I get to have my daughter every other week and be involved in her life.”
“Even during the season?”
“Yeah… I’ll have to figure something out then but right now it’s working all right.”
I nod and the waitress chooses that moment to bring out food, setting it out in front of us and asking if we want another round of drinks. She gives me a bit of a cold shoulder, keeping her eyes focused on Cooper the entire time and smiling like he’s the best thing ever. I’m beginning to think it’s going to be a trend here.
“So you think you’re going to be able to work with her?”
“Madison? Yeah. I have to. She’s apparently a miracle worker on the PR front, and I’m going to need it given the restaurant staff even seem to hate me.”
Cooper laughs. “Yeah, you’re not her favorite that’s for sure. But give them a chance to see you out on the field in the uniform. They might change their minds.”
“I guess we’ll see.”
9
Madison
