Page 66 of Hard to Score

He laughs just to humor me. “Thank you for the advice, but I have plenty of advisors who do that.”

“As you should.” I round the conference room table, sit on its edge, and cross my arms over my chest. “Hobbs is good but still learning. The mistakes he makes are because he’s young, inexperienced, and unwilling to admit that. You can get away with shit like that in college but this is the NFL. You either step up and lead or teams move on. And let’s face it, you’ve lost the last two games because he’s not leading properly. From what I hear, the guys respect Bowman. He’s not flashy and he puts in the work. They respect that.”

Milton taps his pen against the table and scoots his chair back, a surefire sign that this conversation is over and that I’ve overstepped my bounds. “I hear you, but I’m more concerned where this conversation is coming from.”

“It’s coming from an agent who sees a talented player going to waste. Nothing more. Nothing less.”

“And you’ve taken it upon yourself to be the advocate for such a player.”

I chuckle, not wanting to be trapped in whatever narrative he’s trying to create here. “No. I see a team with so many working pieces, so much untapped talent, that it’ll be the management who holds them back from a championship, not the players.”

“I’m thinking I should be insulted by that.” He smiles, but I know I’ve pushed my luck enough.

“Not at all.” I stand and start collecting my laptop and put it in my bag. “As usual, I appreciate the time and your attention.”

“As I do your unsolicited advice in regards to clients you don’t represent.”

“We were just shooting the shit, Neil. Not everything is a negotiation.”

His laugh is rich and boisterous as he rises with a shake of his head.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

BREXTON

“YOU WERE AT THE RAPTORS’ offices today.” Drew’s voice comes loud and clear through the phone line. My body has a visceral reaction to the sound of it.

Unfortunately, my heart does too.

“I was. I had a meeting with Neil about some things.”

“You could have dropped me a text. We could have met up afterward.”

“I had another meeting I had to run to right after.”

“I see,” he murmurs and then silence eats the line. “You didn’t return my calls yesterday.”

“Again, busy with work.” I move to the door of my office and close it. It was so hard not to pick up yesterday when he called, so hard not to call him back after he’d asked if he could see me later, but I had to prove to myself that I could take a step back, for my own well-being. “Did everything end up being okay?”

“Okay? What do you mean?” he asks.

“We were supposed to meet up when you got home from your flight. You canceled. Said something came up.”

He sighs heavily and I try not to read into it. “Right. Yes. Sorry. That feels like forever ago already.”

But he says nothing more.

“But everything went well?” I ask, needing to know I wasn’t stood up for something trivial like the guys wanting to hit a bar for some beers. Not that I care if he did, but just not when he’d previously made plans with me.

“As well as things can be.”

“Meaning?”

He chuckles. “Meaning some things are just better left alone, Brexton.” And he silently drives a dagger into my heart.

I’m good enough for him to text yesterday to ask if he can come over, or call me and ask why we can’t meet up, but I’m not good enough for him to open up to.

“Got it.” I nod and hate that I’m hurt by it. But isn’t this what I expected after my epiphany the other night? I feel closer to Drew because of our past, the shared history. I feel like I know him when with anyone else at this stage of the game I would be keeping them more at arm’s length.