Page 46 of On His Team

She waves at all of us. “Good luck tomorrow, wolves.”

“Nice meeting you,” I say.

She smiles. “You too, sweetheart.” Then she turns to Rowan and pats him on the head. I watch for a moment, and then I walk with the rest of the guys to the elevators.

Halfway up, I remember the thing I’ve been avoiding since we left Michigan.

“Benson?”

He looks over.

“Can I have Rowan’s number?”

There is a pause in the elevator for a moment. Mostly from Benson.

Stanley makes a noise.

I point at him. “Don’t.”

Stanley puts his hands up. “I didn’t say anything.”

I scowl. “You were about to.”

Benson still looks at me.

I explain, “It’s for my project.”

That apparently satisfies him enough that when the elevator opens, he takes out his phone. A second later, Rowan’s contact lands in mine via text.

“Thanks.”

I head to my room.

My roommate for the trip is one of the assistant athletic trainers, and she has already taken the bed by the window. I shower, eat two granola bars because neither one of us knows where food is happening tonight, and get into bed with my laptop.

The pitch is still waiting.

I FaceTime Lucy while I work. Mara is at our apartment to keep her company, apparently, but we all know that Mara hates being alone.

“How is it going?” Lucy asks.

I tell them about the loading dock, the cases, Minnesota’s equipment room, and how many times we checked the stick tubes before Donovan was satisfied.

Mara’s expression changes while I talk. “That sounds horrible.”

“No, it was so good.”

She stares at me. “Gianna.”

I laugh. “Whatever, Mara.”

Lucy is smiling.

I hang up on both of them before they can psychoanalyze me. Then I go back to my pitch. Ives wants the approval chain on the summary page, and I’ve been circling the same sentence for ten minutes because I don’t know whether compliance sits inside Athletics for something like this or whether I need to list it separately.

I pick up my phone.

Rowan’s number is sitting there now.