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“I'm not. The lights are out,” she whispers and this time I can hear the wince in her voice.
“Shit. You have a migraine, don’t you?” I lower my voice to a soft whisper.
Charlie’s gotten some nasty migraines over the years. She doesn’t get them often, but when she does, they take her out. I used to crawl into bed with her and hold her until they passed. I’d give almost anything to do that right now.
“Yeah. It’s a pretty bad one. I have vertigo and everything.”
“Do you want to hang up or call me back so it’s not a facetime?”
The black image disappears and I'm left staring at my home screen. Did she seriously just hang up on me without saying goodbye? But then my phone starts ringing and a picture of Charlie and me wrapped up in each other’s arms stares back at me. It’s one of the last photos we took together before my entire life imploded.
“I thought you weren’t going to call me back.” I'm careful to keep my voice quiet, I don’t want to make her head hurt anymore than it already does.
“I shouldn’t have.”
“Why?”
“Because what is this going to accomplish?” Her voice is a low murmur, one I have to strain to hear.
I blow out a long breath and try to keep my emotions in check. Getting angry isn't going to solve anything. It might even make her migraine worse and I don’t want that.
“If we’re going to be working together, we need to be civil, especially in front of the team and management. We can't be at each other’s throats.”
“I know how to be an adult, Wyatt,” she sighs.
“Yeah, well, I'm not sure I know how to. Stubbs was talking about you today while doing bench presses and I pushed the bar into his chest until he could barely breathe because he was talking about how hot you are and he’s never even met you. I don’t knowif I can handle watching the guys flirt with you and talk about you like that.” I growl, scrubbing a hand down my face. This is going to be a rough season.
“Owen totally saw this coming. He said you’d go all caveman on me.” There’s a slight smile to her voice.
“Just… don’t date any of my teammates. Please?”
“I have no interest in dating anyone in the major league. You all need to focus on your game, not me… I think it’s time to hang up. This is making my head hurt more and I need to have everything packed by the morning. I don’t even know how I'm going to get it done.”
“I could fly out and help you.”
“Goodbye, Wyatt. Good luck with your first day of training on Monday.”
She hangs up before I can respond and I'm left staring at my ceiling for the next hour trying to figure out where I should go from here.
Chapter 11
Charlie
I feel like a walking billboard for the Philadelphia Pit Bulls. Everything I'm wearing has a Pit Bull logo on it. I think the only article of clothing I'm wearing without a logo is my underwear. Even my sports bra has the logo on the back of it.
I didn’t have it in me to rifle through my things before work today so I picked clothes out of what Owen gave me. I’m just glad it all fits me nicely. Mom and Sophia both said I could wear some of their clothes, but they dress a little too nicely to be doing my job in them. I’ll just have to wait until the rest of my clothes arrive from LA. My things should be here in a week or so.
When I arrive outside of the locker room, I take a deep breath and blow it out slowly. Today is going to be my first official day and I'm going to meet the entire team. It’s going to be a long day and I know it.
Pushing through the door, I stop inside and my eyes widen. I’ve worked with a lot of teams over the years, but none of them weremajor league. The guys tended to be younger and kept clothes on the entire time. Almost every guy here is shirtless and walking around with low slung athletic shorts.
These aren’t boys playing in the minors or on a college team. These are men who have spent thousands of hours over the years lifting weights and perfecting their skills.
“There’s a little bit of drool, right there.” Cord swipes at my bottom lip with a devilish grin.
“Shut up.” I swat at his hand. “I wasn’t drooling.”
“Of course you weren’t. Just wait until after a game or practice. Half of these idiots will be walking around here naked, especially if they think you might walk through here.”
