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“Here we go,” I murmured, flicking my eyes toward Charlie, who looked like a deer in headlights. Either that or she was ready to throw up—hopefully it wasn’t the latter.
“Charlie, will you please stand?”
Creaks from the chairs and the bustle of the guys pivoting in their seats turned to various forms of shock.
“We got a chick on the team?” someone said louder than necessary.
Charlie’s eyes widened, and already I wanted to throttle someone.
“She’s hot,” another teammate said.
“Hey there, sweetheart.” That came from DiNardo, who happened to be in front of us. Lucky for him I didn’t grab him by his shirt collar, pull him out of his seat, and take a swing at him. But just knowing he’d be the one Charlie would replace made my restraint worth it.
Charlie stood, rolled her shoulders back, ignored the chatter, and smiled. If we were anywhere but there, these guys would be tripping over themselves to talk to her.
“Team, I’d like you to meet your new kicker, Charlie Nicholson.” My teammates were silenced by Reese, whom they knew not to mess around with. “I’m proud to announce that Charlie has signed a one-year deal to join our kicking team. Welcome to the Thunder, Charlie.”
That was news to me. I had no idea a deal had been struck. One year. That was it? I wish she would have talked to me about it.
“Thank you,” Charlie said to Reese. “Hi, everyone. I’m very happy to be here.”
“Can I show you the showers?” Hank, one of our linebackers, shouted from the back corner of the room.
“There will be none of that. Also, sexual harassment videos have been sent to everyone. As usual, you must complete the assessment before training camp begins. You know the drill. Sexual harassment in any form will not be tolerated,” Reese instructed with a bit more authority in her voice.
“I was just kidding,” Hank said with his hand in the air. “My apologies, Nicholson. Welcome to the team.”
Charlie nodded. A round of welcomes filled the air before she sat down and let out a breath. Reese and the coaches went on to talk about a few more things, and after the meeting, I pulled her aside.
“You good?”
“Yeah. Are you? Because you look a bit ornery.”
Before I could say anything to refute that observation, her phone dinged. She pulled it out of her purse and laughed.
“What’s so funny?”
“A picture Sophie sent.” She flipped it around, and it was of Cami posing. “That’s from when we were shopping. They’re so much fun. They want to go out Friday night. I guess it’s ladies’ night at McNulty’s, and a band that Cami likes is playing.”
“They want to take you to McNulty’s?”
She shrugged. “I guess.”
“No,” I blurted before thinking better of it.
Her brows furrowed. “Why not?”
Yeah, why not?A little voice inside my head asked. “Because it’s a meat market.”
Charlie rolled her eyes. “There’s music, which most likely means dancing, which I love. I’m also making friends, which you should be happy about. This way you don’t need to feel responsible for my entertainment.”
“I don’t.”
“Really? Because from what Sally has told me, you’re usually the man about town, and since I’ve been here, the only part of town you’ve seen is our jogging route and the diner. Doesn’t sound very man-about-townish.”
“I feel responsible for you.” I truly needed to think before I spoke. Because her eyes narrowed before she redirected them to her phone. With great speed, her thumbs bounced off the screen; then a whoosh sounded with the telltale sign of the message being sent. Not shortly after, her phone dinged again.
“Sophie told me to tell you to calm down.” Charlie flicked her eyes toward me; then her lips did this pucker-twisting thing. Sally would make that same face when I told her she couldn’t do something. As I predicted, she touted, “I’ll tell her I’m in.”
