Page 39 of Home of the Brave

She crossed her arms. “Don’t make me sound like a creep. I was trying to do something nice."

“Well, you did.” I was still in shock over how thoughtful it was.

And how wrong I was about her.

“Thank you.”

Her shoulders relaxed. “You’re welcome.”

I nodded and took a step back. “I’ve got to get ready for practice.”

“Right, of course.” She nodded. “Have a good one.”

“Thanks.” I watched her turn and walk down the hall before pushing the door open and stepping back into the locker room.

“What’s that?” Schultz asked as I sat the snacks down.

“An apology.”

“Looks like groceries,” Hartman wandered over. “Did you order this?”

“No, it’s from Victoria.” I put the dry goods in one of the drawers of my locker and gathered the rest in a bag and moved to one of the fridges in the corner.

“She brought you snacks?” Schultz investigated the bags of crackers. “Why?”

“As an apology,” I repeated, but they were both watching me; in fact, several of the guys were. They were sort of involved in this since they joined in the media freeze, so I stopped and explained. “The article she wrote about me my rookie year wasn’t actually written by her.”

A few of them started to speak up, but I stopped them.

“She showed me proof. Her boss back then wanted something more provocative, so he rewrote it without her approval. A few of the other players called her out back then, and she explained and apologized. She hoped the rest of us just didn’t read the series.”

“You forgive her?” Tyson asked.

“Yeah.” It might take a little time for me to completely let go of all the mixed feelings I have, but I was ready to move on.

“Then so do we,” he glanced around the room. “Resume interviews.”

There were a few groans and some laughs, but soon everyone went back to doing their own thing.

“She knows you,” Hartman held up a cinnamon apple squeeze pack.

“She did her research,” I corrected. “Apparently a lot of it because I don’t remember when I last mentioned trying to reduce sodium or preferring honey mustard pretzels. Those were my go-to in college,” I smirked. “Unless she did a deep dive.”

“She’s a journalist. That’s literally her whole job.” Schultz opened a peanut butter chocolate protein bar.

“True, she’s got to be good at gathering information.” Hartman peeked into the box again and pulled out a banana.

“Those are mine,” I pointed out.

“And we supported you.” Schultz grinned with his mouth full. “So you can share.”

“Fine,” I grabbed a bag of crackers and opened them.

“Are you more surprised she apologized, or that she didn’t write that piece in the first place?” Schultz asked as we pulled on our gear.

“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised it wasn’t her. The interview went great, I thought. We were the same age and bonded over our careers just starting.” I should have second-guessed the whole thing more than I did. I should have reached out to her back then and asked for an explanation rather than just holding onto it.

“Well, I’m glad it’s all sorted. Now you can focus on having fun,” Schultz grinned.