“Good.” She beamed up at him. “Your dad will be home around five-thirty. I’ll have food on the table then.”
“Thanks, Mom. I’ll see you later.”
Silas gave her one last smile and headed to the gym. If he hadn’t been such an idiot two years ago, he would already have a house, and it would have been Miriam making him dinner.
But his mom’s chicken marinara wasn’t too bad, either.
He was only five minutes late to Big Results Gym, but apparently that was late enough that his teammates had started without him.
They were all in the back room, the one sometimes used for line dancing and yoga, working on agility drills. There were a couple of metal benches set up around the room, and everyone had already gathered around Finn as he started demonstrating the first drill. Silas tried to come in quietly and stood next to Grant.
“Okay, with this one, you want to make sure you have full control over your movements. Start with ten reps slow and steady, then try ten at a faster pace like this.”
Finn jumped up putting one foot on the bench, he crossed the other foot in front of it, and then landed on the other side. Once both feet were planted on the ground, he repeated the motion in the opposite direction. He was slow at first, counting to ten, then he picked up the pace. To an observer, it might have looked easy, but Silas still remembered how sore he’d been when he started doing this kind of training.
When Finn was done with his demonstration, the players closest to the benches started in on the new drill.
“Wasn’t sure if you would show today,” Grant said somewhat distracted as he watched the other guys hop over the benches.
Silas bristled. “Why wouldn’t I come?”
Grant shrugged. “I just heard Finn and Bastian talking in the locker room the other day. They said they weren’t sure why you were here.”
Silas took a deep, steadying breath. Grant was new to the team—and young. It wasn’t his fault that Silas had given everyone something to talk about. He could have gone into a long explanation of all the reasons there was tension between him and some of the other guys, but he decided to keep it simple. “I’m here to play. I’m here to win.”
It must have been enough for the rookie because he answered with an equally simple, ‘cool.’
They stood in an easy silence as they waited for a chance at the new drill.
Eventually, Grant spoke again. “Does that mean you’re going to The Sports Emporium tomorrow?”
The Sports Emporium?
There was only one reason Grant would be asking that, and that meant there was a meet and greet. Silas knew that with only a couple of weeks until the home opener that the team would be out making appearances. It just turned out that the community outreach manager had conveniently forgotten to invite Silas to those events.
He fought to keep his face neutral and his voice even as he said, “Yeah, of course.” He paused. “What time is it again?”
“Eleven to three.”
“That’s right.” Silas nodded. “I forgot, but when I went to text Miriam, I realized I lost her number.”
More like deleted it when he signed for the Wolves so he wouldn’t be tempted to call her and make things harder for the both of them. But Grant didn’t need to know any of that.
“I’ve got it. Just a sec.” Grant pulled his phone out of the pocket of his athletic shorts and rattled off the number.
“Thanks, man.”
“No problem.”
Silas opened his mouth to ask Grant if there were any other events coming up that Miriam had “forgotten” to tell him, but Vinny fell off the bench making a loud crashing noise. Everybody stopped what they were doing to see if he was okay.
Vinny stood up and soon was in Finn’s face cussing him out. His words came in a continuous stream of creative swears guaranteed to make the seasoned sailor blush. The entire team watched in silence to see what Finn was going to do.
The captain put his hands on Vinny’s chest and pushed him back. “I know these drills are new to you. Nobody expects you to get them right away.”
Vinny pressed his lips together and shook his head. “The drills are stupid. Jumping on a bench isn’t gonna make me kick better.”
Finn crossed his arms and refused to break eye contact with Vinny. “The drills are meant to help with agility, not to make you ‘kick better.’ They stay.”
Vinny looked away. His narrowed eyes scanned the players who were watching him intently.
“Look.” Finn took a step toward Vinny. “I’ve already got one jerk on the team that I’ve got to deal with. I need you to keep your cool. They’re just drills.”
Vinny ran a hand over his face and nodded. “Yeah, okay.”
“Go take a walk around the gym.” Finn’s eyes went to where Silas and Grant were still standing next to each other. “Grant, why don’t you come give this drill a shot?”
The rookie jogged over to Finn and started jumping on the bench as Finn had demonstrated.
Silas should have been more upset about being called out in front of the entire team, but it was difficult to keep the smile off his face. He had Miriam’s phone number in his phone again. It was such a small thing, but it felt like a step in the right direction. He walked over to the side of the room and started texting.
Silas: Hey, just wanted you to know that I’ll be at the meet and greet tomorrow.
A text bubble appeared right away.
Miriam: Great! We can always use extra players. Btw, I’m a little embarrassed that I haven’t saved you into my phone. Who is this?
A thick wave of disappointment settled on his shoulders. Apparently Silas wasn’t the only one deleting numbers. He quickly typed his name and hit send. This
