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Pulling into a space that was close to the entrance, I shut the engine off and turned sideways in my seat.
“Nope. This is where the date starts. This is Seattle Children’s Hospital and Meg works on the cancer care floor looking after teens. There was an issue about a year ago where our PR rep received a request for us to visit the kids and ignored it. Will found out, and five of us came down to meet the kids and hand out stuff. We met a great kid called Nicholas who was a footballer and totally into Meg,” I chuckled, feeling the sadness I always felt when I thought about the young man who’d died way too early. “Anyway, meeting the kids is important to us, so we schedule visits in our free time and alternate floors each time we come. We’re back on Meg’s floor today along with six other players.”
I watched as she pulled her trembling lower lip into her mouth and bit down on it slightly. “I lost a friend to cancer when I was sixteen. She got leukemia and her parents were always away doing things, so she hid how ill she was and wasn’t diagnosed until it was too late,” she swallowed audibly. “I love that you guys do this.”
A knock on the window behind me showed Will standing there with a huge grin on his face.
“You ready to help us out?” I asked her, hoping she’d say yes.
“You bet your big bad ass I am.” It wasn’t until I was lifting her out of the car, that her predicament occurred to her. “Uh, how am I going to get around the hospital?”
Her right foot had healed quite well, but she still needed to be careful putting weight onto it, and her left foot still had another four days before the stitches came out, so I’d arranged for a wheelchair for her.
Not saying a word, Will jogged to where he’d stashed it, shook it to open it up, and then wheeled it back. Before she could sit down in it, though, we put a Seahawks blanket over it.
“Hayden would spit nails if he saw this,” she giggled, wiggling to get comfortable.
“Well, he’ll love this even more,” Will drawled, pulling a jersey over her head before she could stop him. As soon as she had it on, I took a picture on my phone and sent it to him.
His reply came as we were entering the elevator.
Hayden: I was thinking of getting a puppy. Now I’ve got something to clean the shit up with, thanks!
Bursting out laughing, I showed them both what he’d said.
“You stole my idea. I was going to send him that photo,” Ashley said through her chuckles.
“I like you, Wilkes,” Will patted her shoulder. “I wasn’t sure I’d get along with someone who’s got Sounders blood in her veins, but I’m making an exception for you.”
“She’s also got Miami Dolphins blood,” I pointed out, referring to her dad.
Miming zipping up his lips and twisting a key in a lock at the side of his mouth, Will went back to watching the numbers light up in the elevator as we passed floors.
Crouching down beside Ashley, I laid the plan out. “Okay, we never bring PR or press with us to these visits. They’re between us and the kids only. If the kids, their families or the hospital decide to publish photos to their websites or social media that’s cool, but it’s not a press opportunity for us.”
“I love that,” she breathed.
Smiling at how genuine she sounded, I continued, “The other guys brought some merchandise with them. We’ve also got a standing order with a bakery near here that delivers special cupcakes when we visit, and we order sandwiches and chips so that we can sit down and really spend time with them all. Meg’s waiting for us and will direct us to different rooms for kids who can’t get up and spend time in the lounge. After we see them, we’ll head to the lounge and chillax with the rest of them. You okay with that?”
Her grin showed exactly how great with it she was, but her, “Totally,” sealed it.
Glancing up at Will, I saw his mouth twitch as he looked down at Ash, and then read the look clearly in his eyes when he looked back up at me.
Yeah, she was fucking awesome!Chapter 6AshleyI was having a blast! The Seahawks were some of the nicest guys I’d ever met in my life, and what they were doing for the kids today was amazing.
After we’d arrived and Will had kissed Meg senseless, she’d shown us to where the other members were waiting for us with a cart full of stuff to hand out.
Apparently, last week, Meg had sent them a majority of the kid’s sizes, and then they’d added an extra ten in each size for siblings and adult sizes for the parents. There were also notebooks, pens, teddy bears, miniature football helmets, footballs… it was awesome.
