Page 168 of ClickBack

“Then finish.”

I grin at him. That is an answer I can work with.

Bellamy gets us talking about the first time we played against each other professionally. Von remembers the possession I blocked. I remember him spending the entire next timeout explaining to his coach why he wanted the ball again. He says the coach didn’t need an explanation. Cole calls from the audience that coaches rarely do, but that has never stopped either of us.

By the time the producer counts them out, I have forgotten which camera I was supposed to face. Von catches my arm as I stand.

“You heard me?”

“Every word.”

“Wasn’t for the show.”

I pull him in, one hand at the back of his neck. “I heard you.”

He grips my shoulder, then steps away before either of us makes the hug something we have to defend.

Giselle is talking to Mom when I reach them. She puts her hand on my forearm.

“That was worth coming for,” she says.

I cover her hand with mine. I want to tell her how much. Cam catches my eye from the office stairs, and I nod to let him know I’m coming.

Bellamy joins us with her bag. She and Giselle confirm their stops. I take my card from my wallet before they leave.

“Get yourself something,” I tell Giselle.

“Jarrett, I have money.”

“I didn’t ask if you had money.” I hold the card out. “I’m asking if you’ll let me buy you something.”

She looks at it, then at me. Bellamy takes a sudden interest in her phone.

“No instructions?” Giselle asks.

“I’d like to see what you pick.”

She takes it and slips it into her wallet. I kiss her before she can find another question to make me answer in front of Bellamy.

“Have fun.”

“We intend to,” Bellamy says.

I watch them leave, then go upstairs with Cam.

Nina’s office has a lock on the door and a shelf of invoices behind the desk. Cam has cleared four places at the small meeting table. Devin and Parker arrive after the audience is gone. Nobody brings up the recording until Parker sits across from me.

“Your brother knows how to make a case.”

“He’s had practice.”

Parker smiles, then opens his tablet. “Let’s talk about what you’d actually do here.”

He shows me two possessions from last season. On the first, I’m above the foul line, waiting for a cut that never comes. On the second, I roll into space already occupied by another player. He lets both run before asking what I saw.

I tell him. He asks what I would change if Cole were the other big. That gets us talking for the next twenty minutes.

I like that he disagrees with me on one of the clips. I like that he shows me why. He isn’t putting me in a room to hear that I’m good at basketball. He has work in mind, and some of it asks me to do things Philly didn’t ask often enough.