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“What?”
I lifted my head. “What?”
Callie had her hands folded in front of her, her eyebrows up in concern. “You just made a sound I’ve never heard you make before. Like you’re disappointed or something. Is everything okay?”
“Yeah.”
Callie and I didn’t talk about personal stuff. She didn’t have family here, and I didn’t know her situation with friends, if she had a lot or none. All I knew was that she helped clean my place in exchange for using it to study. It worked because I was barely here, and if I was, I was at my end of the place. It was big enough for an entire family to be here and I’d barely hear them.
“What’d the text say?”
“Huh?”
She’d drifted closer, standing on her tiptoes with her head angled as if she could read my phone from where she stood. She couldn’t. She was too far away.
I slid it into my pocket anyway. “It’s nothing. Just heard someone I need to talk to is at Jack’s BBQ tonight.”
“Jack’s BBQ?” There was surprise and something else in her tone.
I raised an eyebrow. “You know the place?”
She closed her mouth and nodded. “I know someone who works there.”
This right here? This was the most personal conversation we’d ever had.
“A friend?”
Her cheeks colored, and she scratched her head, glancing to the side. “Someone I might… Someone I like.”
I didn’t know if I liked where this was going.
Her eyes darted back to me. “We could go? You could find your friend—”
“Not a friend.”
“—and I could see if my friend is there.”
Fuck. If he was on a date with Billie, then… What the hell would I do? Should I do?
Then again, if he was there with her, I could try to suss out the situation. I wouldn’t have to deal with him because I’d not been looking forward to that conversation. I doubted he’d give me the means to reach Billie the easy way, and he was a cop. I hadn’t figured out what hard way I was willing to go with him.
“Brett?”
I’d been staring at her while I thought.
It was the glint in her eyes. Hopeful. Excited. I’d never seen Callie like that. She worked. She was quiet. She was one of the team’s best physical therapists, and she was motivated for more. If she had problems, I never heard about them.
I didn’t know if I was doing this for her or for me, but I nodded. “I can’t stay long.”
Her eyes lit up, and her head bobbed up and down quickly. “Uh-huh. Sure. Not a problem.”
We took my truck, and we parked at the back end of the place. I’d never been here, which wasn’t unusual. I’d barely gone out since joining the team a year ago. But even before that, I didn’t do this. Not during the season.
The few nights with Ole were the exception.
The place was packed, and since football was a religion here, I pulled a ballcap low over my head.
Callie snorted, her little lip curling up. “If you don’t want to be recognized, you need to wear a fat suit. You’re going to be recognized. Prepare yourself.”
