Page 35 of Made Better Together

“Tomorrow?...Okay. Okay.”

He probably doesn’t feel like he has an option to say anything else. So much for hanging out soon.

“Perfect. I’ll call you in the morning to sort out the details. Normally, you could stay here and work with Grace, but of course she’s about to go on her honeymoon. Our team out there is much bigger, and it’ll be nice for you to meet them so early in your position.”

Milo takes his leave, and I start to regroup with Connor on our now-thwarted plans to see each other.

“I guess⁠—”

“CONNOR BATTLE, GET YOUR BUTT OVER TO THE CAKE.” We both swivel to the DJ booth about twenty feet away, where the voice is coming from, and Rawley is holding the mic, staring at his brother. “YES. YOU. TO THE CAKE.”

“Okay, okay!” Connor shouts in his direction as the cluster of people around us laugh.

He glances at me quickly before leaving to do his duty. “I’ll DM you.”

As his tall blond head walks across the ballroom, I return to our table, which is much closer. Dad is sitting with another coach, but it’s otherwise empty.

I take my original seat next to him. He and the coach seem to wrap up their conversation.

“How’s Bree?”

Oh shoot, I forgot that whole cover story. “She’s fine. Where are Tina and Nat?”

“Off to watch the cake cutting, and then grab a piece. Nat was very excited by both, as you can imagine.” He chuckles.

“I bet.”

“I didn’t realize you knew Connor that well?” Oh, he must have seen us talking together earlier.

“He’s come to Bree’s Fourth of July parties the last two years.” Those are all the details Dad’s getting, needless to say.

“That’s nice. He’s a good kid. A great kicker.”

Wait, really? Dad wouldn’t say that if it wasn’t true, and he would know.

“He is?”

He nods enthusiastically. “Oh yeah, he’s been automatic for Princeton the last two years. A natural physically, and he’s unflappable on the field. That’s why I kept working with him.”

I’m confused. “Why wouldn’t he be invited to an NFL training camp or tryout then?” I’m pretty sure Connor would’ve mentioned it if he had.

“Placekicking’s different from other positions. There aren’t a lot of invites for kickers. I lucked into starting early on, and made sure I didn’t lose my place. But there are so few spots overall, and enough guys are solid in the league already. It’s not easy to break in.”

“That makes sense.”

“It doesn’t help that he’s so tall. Teams always have an ‘ideal’ profile, and for a kicker, it’s definitely not that height.”

Not much Connor can do about that.

“I’d love to give him a shot if we have a need. We don’t right now, though. I was going to see if he wanted me to make some calls to other teams, though.”

Huh. Connor didn’t say anything about football at all?

“It sounds like his internship is going to take him to LA for a while. He was talking to his boss while I was standing with them.”

Dad nods. “Well, I guess that’s that, then. Maybe I’ll reach out when he’s back.”

I don’t respond, happy to let the topic drop.