Coach hasn’t steered us wrong yet. “We’ll call her after supper.”
Coach nods, satisfied.
Gretchen smiles. “She’s good. She’s helping me handle the mess in LA. There’s a potential civil suit against my client and she’s taking care of it. I doubt it’ll get further than the whisper being floated around. To be honest, she scares me a little with how ruthless she is. And she handles criminal, civil and contract law. She’s the perfect trifecta.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Collin says. “Can we eat now?”
“Don’t mind Mendoza.” Coach sighs heavily. “He’d be the only human left in a zombie apocalypse simply because he’s feral when it comes to food.”
Gretchen laughs. “I’m looking forward to getting to know you boys. But I want to go back to one thing before we eat.” She turns serious. “What happened to your girlfriend is awful, Jonathan, but it’s unfortunately something we see in professional sports a lot. Things are covered up. I am not someone who will ever coverthat up and if a client of mine is ever involved in something like that, they will no longer be my client. Should Ayers become a problem, I need as much ammunition as I can get. Do you think she’d talk to me about what happened?”
“I barely got her to tell me and Collin. I don’t know if she’ll talk to you or anyone about it. When he called last night, she started shaking and didn’t stop until she fell asleep.”
“That’s why I need to know everything, though. If you get caught up in this, it could be problematic for you and your position on the team.”
“And me.” Collin’s normal happy go lucky expression turns hard. “If asswipe comes after Red, he’ll deal with me too. She and I are besties.”
“We’ll talk to Cherese about this once you sign with her. She’ll be your lawyer and will need to be aware in case criminal charges come up. Trust me, if you throw a punch, you’ll get charged. He’ll make sure of it.”
“And if he throws a punch first?”
“Pray there’s CCTV footage to verify it. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen. Talk to Daisy. If she agrees to speak with me, I can get ahead of most anything.”
“I’ll talk to her.”
“Good.” Coach slaps me on the back. “Be at the training facility Monday morning. You’re going to continue to train with the team until the contracts are signed and you’re officially a Raptor. I cleared it with the Raptors and the Dean. They don’t want either of you missing practice or workouts.”
Collin and I groan. We were looking forward to a week off.
Mom comes in, cutting off the complaints rolling around on my tongue.
“The rolls are in the oven, but we have enough to start if you’re all done and ready to eat.”
“We’re good, Mom.”
“Then you’re signing with Miss Morris?”
“Please call me, Gretchen. The last person to call me Miss Morris outside of business was my second grade teacher. Still gives me nightmares. That woman was evil.”
“Then please call me Kathleen.” Mom smiles warmly. “I want to thank you for coming all the way from LA and for taking on my boys.”
“It’s my pleasure.” Gretchen stands. “Did I see a cobbler cooling over there?”
“It’s strawberry. Collin’s favorite. Hutch, you and Collin set the table while Gretchen and I start putting the food out.”
And just like that, everything goes back to normal.
We may have just found an agent and an attorney, but for right now, we’re all just normal people having dinner.
Life is weird.
CHAPTER 26
Daisy
Three daysand not a word from Joseph. Maybe Hutch did scare him off. God, I hope so. I hate feeling frightened and helpless all the time. Those feelings had started to fade when I arrived here in Minnesota, but they came roaring back with just a simple ring tone. I hate it.
“You good?” Christa stops wiping down tables and looks at me. I know I’m pale, but otherwise I’m physically fine. Emotionally? Not so much.
