Blitzed(48)

I kiss him back, stroking his cheek. "I know this might hurt, but can you wait a bit before we tell Laurie who you are? I want you to get to know her first, and her to know you. I don't want to just drop this bomb into her life. She's already going to have enough to deal with since Lorenzo’s going back to Italy."

Troy nods and smiles. "Of course. I love you. And I bet if you give me a few hours, I'm going to love Laurie, too."

I nestle into his chest again and hum contentedly. "You know that it’s going to be kind of difficult, but I can live with it."

"What's that?"

"Away games. Not having you in my arms every night like I've dreamed of for years. Now that I have you back, I'm going to be greedy about that."

Troy laughs and kisses my head. "First, I have something else to worry about."

"What's that?"

"Your mother's going to kill me when she finds out we messed around in her house."

"She'll deal with it. Especially when she understands why. I don't ever want to be apart from you again."

"I'm not going anywhere."





Chapter 18





Troy





"You're what?"

I'm sitting in General Manager Larry Kardarelli's office, a place that I don't really like as it looks too corporate, and not enough like something connected with a football team. I'm a football player, not an executive, and I've done pretty well in playing so far, leaving the details of money and that to other people. I'm focused on the field and on making sure that if I play right, the money will come.

"Troy, here are the facts. The third pre-season game was a nightmare for us. We lost a wide receiver and our starting right tackle to season ending injuries. I'll be honest. I don't know if Mark's ever going to come back, and if he does, we might need to look at moving him. After that knee injury of his, a lot of guys lose a step."

"I’ve got that. I fully understand. But why are you looking at trading me? I've been kicking ass in the pre-season. Or did you forget the game Saturday night? Three sacks against a starting offense is the sort of stuff that gets guys selected to the Pro Bowl if they repeat it often enough."

"You’re having a great pre-season, but you also know that our linebacker corps is already the strongest in the league," Kardi says. "You add something, but right now, we need a right tackle and a wideout more than we need a fifth good linebacker."

"And if one of the guys goes down? What do you do then? Whistle for hope from the Lone Ranger?"

The man shrugs. "You're good, no doubt about it, but we can adapt. Besides, I thought you'd be happy about this. You stay here, and the best you can look forward to is splitting reps with the starters for at least another year. You go somewhere else, and you get a starting slot pretty much straightaway. No team is going to give us what we want without having a need for a damn good young linebacker. And if I can, I will get you to a team with a 3-4. I know you've played that since high school, and you're more cut out for it anyway. But we'll get you to a team with a need."

"Yeah, the guys sitting in the cellar come December always need linebackers," I reply, and yeah, I'm a little pissed off. "The Hawks have been one of the premier teams in the conference for a while now. And it's not just because we've got some stars. We've got a good team."

"Who do you think put that team together?" Kardi asks, sitting forward. "Let me clue you in. That man was me, and it's been that way for the past decade. I'm the one who makes the final personnel decisions about this team, and yes, I do take the coaches' opinions into consideration, but if I need to, I'll cut, trade or sign a contract for anyone that I think can help this team. Now, if you think I'm a bastard about this, you should count yourself lucky that you're not playing for someone else. A lot of times, you wouldn’t know until you actually got traded. Some teams have a f*cking real estate agent on retainer whose whole job is to help guys clear out their houses and sell whatever they need to get sold."

"So why are you being so generous, then? I mean, you don't even have a destination in mind, you said. You just said you're shopping me around. What gives?"

The officious prick shrugged. "I figure it differently. I figure, if you know you're on the trade block, you're going to play pissed off. You're going to want to look good, because you know if you don't, we'll just cut you come next pre-season, and you can take your chances on the last year of a rookie contract and a reputation as a crybaby. You play your heart out until you get traded, though, and you go to a new team with a good rep, a starting slot, and go into the last year of your rookie contract in a strong position to negotiate a fat new contract, or at least get franchise tagged for a year and make good money. Now, what's it going to be?"

I nod and get up. "You know your answer already. You want to give me a reason to play hard? I already had that. Now you're just giving me more emotional content."

Kardi nods, then scribbles something on a sheet of paper next to him.

I shake my head. “Thanks for the heads up. Does the team mind if I still take tomorrow off to go to that wedding I asked about a month ago?"