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“Yeah,” his smug voice replied, making me want to punch him in the mouth. Just once, that’s all I wanted. One tap to his smug teeth. “Who’s this?”
“Oh, this is Gerardo Mendez. He’s a sports scientist who worked with LA Galaxy for five years but just moved to the Seahawks,” he introduced, and we all looked at each other in surprise.
“Where the hell did he get that shit from?” Jason chuckled. “I thought he was just going to call them his buddies?”
“And this is Elia Domenico who is the assistant coach for A.C. Milan in Italy. Gentlemen, this is Cam LaValle, a soccer player. I said I’d show them around.”
Fortunately for him, he’d used their correct names and Elia spoke fluent Italian seeing as how his family were originally from there, but LA Galaxy and A.C. Milan? If Cam knew anything about the teams, Will was screwed.
Spoiler alert: Cam knew nothing about the teams, and instead was blown away by the ‘brilliance’ in front of him.
“Holy shit, wow. Great to meet you both. I tried out for the Seattle Sounders, but decided it wasn’t the path I wanted to go down. Why go with a small team when I could join one of the better ones, right?” he lied, making Hayden growl.
Hell, even I was offended by the insult to the team and it wasn’t even mine. Who the hell did this ass think he was? He didn’t decide, he was rejected pure and simple.
“Such a fucking dick,” Stan sighed behind me, getting noises of agreement from all of us.
“Cam LaValle, I’ve heard of your skills,” Elia said, laying on the Italian accent but sounding impressed. “You are team free?”
“I am. I’m focusing on my training so that I can try out for some international teams, maybe even English ones.”
Someone murmuring something sounded from Will’s end of the line.
When Cam asked him to repeat what he’d said because he didn’t hear it properly, Gerardo said, “That would be unlikely.”
“Why do you say that?” Cam asked, sounding offended.
“I know some of the managers for the Premier League teams, and English footballers have been the center of a lot of drama. The players are the topic of a lot of kiss and tell stories in the magazines which causes a lot of embarrassment and stress for the players and their marriages. The teams become strained and the fans become more defensive at games which leads to a lot of fights and negative media attention. The story you were part of recently would be seen as a negative against you, regardless of the rare and truly phenomenal skills I’ve seen from you. I was at your try out for the Sounders and your play was unforgettable.”
There was a short silence, but then Cam excused himself quickly. We watched from our spot in the coffee shop across the road as he ran to his car, his phone pressed tightly to his ear.
“What do you think?” I asked Rajesh who was listening via Craig’s phone to what had been going on.
“I think you have a man running to fix the mess he’s made,” he chuckled.
Hoping that he was right, I glanced up as Will, Elia and Gerardo walked through the door, all three of them smiling smugly.
“Tell us we’re not awesome,” Will dared as he took the seat beside me and reached for the glass of iced tea that I’d been drinking.
Before he could touch it with his lips, I snatched it back and downed it in one.
“No,” I growled, setting the glass down heavily on the table.
“But you let Ashley do it the other day! I thought you were cured of that weird shit.”
Looking between the two of us, Jason frowned. “What weird shit? If there’s any weird shit involving my daughter, I’ll—”
“No, it’s nothing like that. Well, mainly,” Will stuttered through his laughter. “Kip has a phobia of eating or drinking something someone else has touched. You could take a bite of your sandwich and put it down next to his and he won’t eat it.”
Glancing up, I watched as Hayden’s lips twitched as he looked down at a cookie with a bite out of it that was on a plate next to another one—the bitten one being his and the untouched one mine.
Considering he didn’t look surprised, I had to assume he knew of my problem and had done it on purpose.
Leaning back in his chair, Jason grinned widely. “Well then, this is going to make family dinners interesting.”
“But he lets Ashley do it,” Will reminded them. “Why’s she different?”
“Because he knows where her mouth’s been,” Stan snickered, making both members of the Wilkes family sit up straight in their chairs and glare across the table at me.
“Nah, it’s because he loves her,” Will argued. “Isn’t that right, Sutherland?”
I didn’t see the point in hiding it, but at the same time I hadn’t told Ashley yet, so it didn’t feel right admitting it right now.
