“Spoiled brat.” Closing his eyes, he tried to remember the last time he’d smiled so much in such a small amount of time. Had he ever laughed like that with Mari? Probably not. In the beginning, she’d been all sweetness and charm, and he’d wanted nothing more than to be her man. Her protector. But Millie didn’t need any man stepping in to take care of her. Hell, she’d probably knee any guy who tried. And Ty liked that about her. Liked her independence.
She was right: he liked her. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t want her too.
* * *
“So, Ty, you spent five years in the NBA, not playing most of the time, but you still collected a check. Then you spent some time playing in the EuroLeague, trying to prove you had legs under you, but not much came of your time in the league.”
Ty wanted nothing more than to smack the smug smirk off Greg Chambers’s face, but his clenched fists weren’t the optic he was instructed to present. Swallowing his pride for the fifth time in as many minutes, he leaned forward and propped his elbows on the very legs that had let him down all those years ago. Genial smile plastered on his face, he waited for the question. As usual, Chambers was slow on the trigger, so Ty lobbed a pass. “Well, I did get to see a lot of Russia. Not many guys who grew up in Memphis can say the same.”
“Do you think the fact you couldn’t cut it has given you some kind of edge in grooming talent to play at a higher level?”
He had to laugh at the guy’s chutzpah. An English professor would need an hour to parse the question enough to determine whether he’d been complimented or insulted, but Ty didn’t need the time. He knew the source. Greg Chambers had been an above-average but not-quite-great player on a team with three consecutive Final Four finishes.
Ty’s Eastern Panthers had blocked Greg’s path to undefeated seasons more than once. There’d been more than one strategically thrown elbow whenever they’d matched up. But Ty wasn’t the only enemy the guy had made along the way. Hot-tempered and unable to break through to the next level, Greg Chambers was quickly overshadowed by more talented, less controversial players.
He came back for his senior year and could have been drafted in the end. But in the final weeks of the season, Chambers managed to have an on-court meltdown of such epic proportions, he’d become a verb. A part of the lexicon of the game. And virtually untouchable.
Chamber (Chambered, Chambering): To miss eighty-five percent of shots attempted, then proceed to have a very public breakdown. Involves blaming everyone from the referees and hoop manufacturers, to the pope for one’s lack of skill.
Ty did his best to keep his expression neutral as he gave the answer he and Millie had cobbled together for questions such as these. “I don’t think playing and coaching are as closely related as people think. A great player may not be a very good coach. I know plenty of coaches in a variety of sports who never distinguished themselves as players.”
“But you were able to use your success as a player as a springboard into coaching,” Chambers fired back, his body language making the statement an accusation.
Once again, Ty chuckled. “Well, I’m hardly the first to go the coaching route.” Before Greg could spur his high horse on, he continued. “And it’s not like I jumped over a line of guys angling for a head coaching job. I started as a second assistant.”
“At Eastern University, your alma mater.”
He nodded, acknowledging the connection. “Right. I’m grateful to Coach Washington and Athletic Director Wisnowski for the chance. I learned a lot working beside my former coach. I can tell you, watching the game from his end of the bench was…an enlightenment.”
“Grateful but not grateful enough to stop you from jumping ship when the Wolcott Warriors came knocking.” Greg stared straight into the camera’s lens and treated the viewing audience to his smiley sneer.
Ty watched with a sort of detached amusement, wondering if the man had the semiconstipated expression patented or something. “I didn’t have to do some kind of interpretive dance for them to know the Wolcott offer was the chance of a lifetime. Not only did both Coach and the AD give their blessing, but they practically packed the U-Haul.”
“Were they the ones who encouraged you to take a cheerleader with you as a parting gift?”
Despite everything happening between them, it irked Ty to hear Mari spoken of so dismissively. “Mari and I had been married for some time when the first rumblings of an offer from Wolcott came through.”
Unfortunately, he hadn’t spent as long planning his wedding as he had considering the offer from Wolcott. The trip to Vegas had been a spur-of-the-moment idea. They were married less than thirty hours after their plane had landed.
“And her cheerleading days were behind her. I may have been older, but Mari wasn’t a student when we married. She was twenty-three.”
“Now, a few years later, she’s left you for a young man who seems to be carrying the mantle you let slip.”
Greg’s expression was so solemn; Ty could only assume this was his version of a mocking face. For one wild and woolly moment, Ty fantasized about letting his snark off the leash.
He could smash Greg Chambers like a bug, expose him as a bitter wannabe. Ty was tempted. So tempted. Then he caught a flash of firecracker-red out of the corner of his eye and squashed the thought. He wouldn’t.
Doing so would only be a Band-Aid slapped on his wounded pride. It certainly wouldn’t help the university or
