Running Home to You (The Running Series) (40 page)

Emmy and Derek are walking around our small group, passing out champagne glasses filled with Dom Pérignon with a fresh raspberry floating on top.  Evan and I are the last to get our glasses, and when we do, Adam stands up on one of the chairs, takes a fork to his glass, and signals for everyone to quiet.

“Can I have everyone’s attention, please?  I’d like to make a toast to the man of the hour.  Please raise your glass and join me.”  He raises his glass in the air, then turns to Evan and announces, “What can you say about a man who is admired, revered, and loved by everyone? I can start by telling you that he’s not here tonight, so let’s talk about Evan McGuire, instead.”  Raucous laughter breaks out and Adam waits for the room to quiet before he continues. 

Adam adds, “Evan has a very noble purpose in life – to serve as a warning to others.”  Evan hangs his head low and nods, admitting the sarcastic but dead-on observation.

“Why should I say nice things about him? I'd rather tell the truth.  He’s not the kind of man who takes work home with him. How can he? We do all the work for him.”  All the guys call out obscenities at Evan, confirming Adam’s statement.

“Evan is going to do a great job leading the team this season.  I can say that because he doesn't know the meaning of the word intimidation.  But then again, he doesn't know the meanings of most big words.”  When Adam makes that claim, Evan’s eyes grow wide.  Good thing he’s got a good sense of humor, because Adam is really testing Evan’s limits today.

Adam looks around the room, and says, “Okay, okay.  Evan, you're a great guy. You should go far. That's not a prediction, it's a request.”  Adam is still standing on a chair, but now Evan closes the gap between them, standing directly in front of him, shaking his head.

“Seriously.  We’re all here tonight to celebrate Evan’s success.”  Once again, Adam raises his glass in the air and proclaims loudly, “Evan, you serve as a true inspiration to the rest of us.  If you can make it, surely we can, too.  Congratulations, bro.  You deserve it.”  Everyone joins him and toasts to Evan’s success.

Evan pulls Adam down off the chair and slaps him on the back.  I can’t hear what they are saying, but by the looks on both their faces, everything is fine.  Better, even.  It’s good to know Evan can laugh at himself and remain a good sport.

Evan pulls me by the hand and brings me over to meet his closest teammates who are still sitting at the bar along with Marcus.  These men are physically intimidating by anyone’s standards.  They are all dressed tastefully in jeans and t-shirts, but it’s not hard to tell that they have money.  “Juliette, I’d like you to meet Anthony Romeo Santos.  He’s a tight end and a damn good one at that.”

Anthony takes my hand and gives a strong, confident shake.  He’s bigger than the other guys, outweighing them by nearly fifty pounds.  And he’s taller than Evan’s six foot two.  I definitely would not want to be on the wrong side of an argument with him.  But there’s also a kindness to his smile. “It’s very nice to meet you, Juliette.  You have a great place here.  Thanks for having us.”

“Yeah, he says he’s a tight end, but we all know he’s really a wide receiver!”  I turn to see who’s making the crude joke and I see a young man, around our age, nearly doubled over in laughter.  He’s smaller than the others, but still taller than average.  He’s got dirty blonde hair swept to the side in a messy carefree tangle.

“Juliette, this is Troy Duffy.  He’s our placekicker, but he thinks he’s a comedian.”  Troy grabs the brim of his Sentinel’s hat and tips it to me.  I immediately like him.  There’s something oddly familiar about him.  He looks a little bit like Auggie, with a quick wit like Derek.

“Hey, watch the wide receiver jokes, Duff, or I may have to rearrange that face of yours and when I’m done, you’ll look like a Picasso painting.”  Shooting daggers at Troy Duffy is the only other teammate I’ve previously met, Shaun Marise.  Shaun, Carlo, and Evan share the cost of a private suite at Liberty Stadium.  Shaun’s the only single man in the bunch.

“Don’t listen to them,” Troy tells me.  “They’re just jealous that I am responsible for scoring more points than anyone else on the team.”  Troy turns to Anthony, “You know it’s true.”

Quietly sitting at the bar, having said not a word to this point is the last guest Adam invited.  Evan notices, too, so he steps in and makes the final introduction.  “And this big guy here is Xander Parish.  He’s our Running Back.  Do you know what a short yard specialist is?” Evan asks.  I shake my head and shrug my shoulders.  I can assume he specializes in running short plays, but I’ll let Evan explain.  “When we only need a few yards for a touchdown or first down, we call in Xander.  If I can get the ball in his hands, I know he won’t fumble.  He can power through the line and get the job done every time.”

“Thanks, man,” Xander shakes Evan’s hand.  “You let me know if pretty boy here ever gives you a hard time and I’ll straighten his ass out,” he tells me.  Xander speaks slowly and deliberately which could be taken as menacing, but if he’s a friend of Adam and Evan, then I know he must be a good guy.

“Hey, Mac, you wanna come watch the MLB All Star Game at my place next week?” Xander asks Evan.  The three of them start discussing baseball stats, and I know right away that it’s best for me to leave the conversation.  I have enough trouble trying to keep up with football jargon.  I don’t need to add learning baseball lingo to my to-do list.

Marcus joins the conversation, and I see a glazed look in Camilla’s eyes.  She hasn’t left Marcus’ side yet, so I grab her by the elbow and lead her away.  “Thanks, Jette,” Camilla smiles.  “I can hold my own with the best of them when it comes to football.  But baseball?  They’re just going to sit around and see who can out match the other with stats and scores.  I never understood how men could memorize every player’s batting average, but can’t remember to take out the garbage once a week.” 

“I know what you mean,” I commiserate with Camilla.  “The day I moved in, Evan forgot how to do laundry.  When I met him, he had clean clothes, so he definitely knows how to operate a washing machine.”  It’s funny now that I think about it, how easily we both fell into typical male-female roles.  Although Evan loves to grill, he leaves most of the cooking and cleaning to me.  He prefers to do the repair and general maintenance jobs around the house.

I lead Camilla to the ladies’ table where we pull up chairs to join the small group.  After introductions are made, I try to get to know a little more about some of the women I’ll be spending time with.  The girls ask why I wasn’t at the ESPYs, and I explain to them about Auggie’s accident and recovery.  They tell me about all the behind-the-scenes things that I missed like celebrity sightings and the gift bags.

I listen raptly as they itemize the treats in this year’s goodie bags.  Gift cards for airline tickets, gym memberships, cameras, sunglasses and other expensive trinkets top the list.  I know Evan gave all those things to Callie and I cannot blame him.  He can afford to buy those things if he wants them and besides, we were broken up at the time, so there was no real reason for him to give them to me.  I probably wouldn’t have accepted them anyway.

“So Callie,” one of the girlfriends asks, “When are you using your Hawaii tickets?  Don’t go during the Fall, it’s the rainy season.”

One of the wives adds, “And definitely don’t go during the winter.  Everything costs more because people are leaving the cold and snow to find warm weather.  Spring’s the best.”

I had no idea Callie had plans for Hawaii.  “I didn’t know you were planning a trip.  That’s so great,” I tell her.

“The tickets were in the gift bag, Juliette.  I’m surprised Evan didn’t tell you.  I tried to give them back to him, but he wouldn’t take them,” she explains.

“No way.  They’re yours.  You two deserve to go away on a romantic vacation.  Don’t you have a big anniversary coming up?” I ask.

Callie nods, “This February will be our ten year anniversary.  Maybe we’ll go then.  Football season will be over, maybe you and Evan can come, too.”

“Yeah, maybe.”  I turn to Camilla, “Speaking of wedding anniversaries, where are you going on your honeymoon?”

Her entire face lights up when she talks about her upcoming wedding.  The big day is in two months and the countdown has officially begun.  Anthony and his fiancée Brianna are planning a wedding, too.  The girls exchange ideas and phone numbers.  While they discuss caterers and bands, I lean in closely for a private conversation with Carlo’s wife, Willow.

“So Willow, I wondering about something.  Does the trainer give Carlo any kind of special vitamins and minerals?”  Maybe I can do a little digging for information.

“Yeah, he does.  Carlo takes B-Vitamins, Antioxidants, Calcium, Zinc and Iron.  The trainer takes care of all of that.  He tried to get me to take some, too, but I don’t think it’s necessary,” she explains.

“Do all the guys take supplements?”  I hate to wheedle information from a friend, but I don’t know any other way to get the information I need.  I still want to know who is responsible for feeding Evan steroids.

“Oh, yeah.  It’s pretty common.  Carlo’s been taking them for as long as I’ve known him.”  Willow is very open with her answers.  I don’t think she suspects anything out of the ordinary.

“Can’t some B-Vitamins cause a false positive on drug screening?  Evan is so cautious about taking anything that could affect his drug tests.  He won’t even eat a bagel or a roll if it has poppy seeds.  He heard it can show up as an opiate, so now he avoids anything with poppy seeds in it at all.” 

“Gee, I don’t know.  Carlo never said anything about it.  He gets tested a lot, too.  As far as I know, he’s never had a false positive.  I’ll have to mention it to him.”

“Oh, I don’t think it’s necessary.  Why give him one more thing to worry about?  Evan does enough worrying for all of them.”  I lean in a little closer and whisper, “I think he’s a little obsessive about his health, especially after his injury.  Don’t say anything.  Okay?”

Willow tilts her head to the side and nods sympathetically, “Oh, Juliette, Evan’s doing so well, sometimes I forget how bad his injury was.  Don’t worry, I won’t say a thing.”

Well, that was a mixed bag.  Now I know that the trainer routinely gives vitamins to all the players, so there is ample opportunity for him to slip in something that shouldn’t be there.  But on the other hand, the players all seem to trust him.

Troy’s wife, Delaney, moves her chair closer to us and joins the conversation.  “Listen, girls.  I don’t want to ruin the night, but I’m pretty sure there’s a bunch of photographers out there waiting on the sidewalk.  Do you think we should tell the guys?” she asks, tilting her chin towards the large picture window in the front of the restaurant.

“No, just ignore them.  It happens a lot when Evan goes out in public.  I’m starting to get used to it,” I tell them.

“Well, you’re stronger than me,” Delaney admits.  “Evan’s in the news a lot. I’m not even sure if the press knows how to spell Troy’s name,” she snorts.  “If that’s not bad enough, Evan also has women all over him, following him around.  I don’t know how you deal with it.”

“I have my moments, but basically it comes down to trust.  We’ve been through a lot together and I learned to have faith in him.”

I scan the room, looking for Evan, and of the corner of my eye, I notice Derek setting up a row of shots along the bar for Evan and his buddies.  The bar was supposed to stay open for paying guests, but that plan has long gone out the window.  “If they keep that up, they’re going to get wasted.” Callie notices the same thing I do.

I turn to Jocelyn, Xander’s girlfriend and ask, “I hope you two aren’t driving home tonight.”  I don’t know where they live, but I know it’s nowhere nearby.

“Oh, no.  We’re staying just around the corner at the Berkeley.  Our cars are there.  Adam arranged for car service back and forth from the hotel to here.”

“Wow.  Adam really does think of everything, doesn’t he?”

“He does.  We’ve had player’s liaisons before, but none as good as Adam.  He’s helped us find drivers, make dinner reservations, and even hook us up with doctors who make house calls.”

“House calls?  Really.  I didn’t think they did that anymore.” 

“Me either.  A few weeks ago, Xander got really sick, but he didn’t want the coach to know.  He was coughing so hard, I thought he was going to cough up a lung.  But he kept going to practice every day.  I told him if he didn’t slow down, he was going to get pneumonia.  Adam found someone to come to the house and prescribe something that would clear up his lungs in about three days.  And it worked, too.  Xander’s never missed a practice, yet.”

“That’s great.  Do you know what he prescribed?” I ask.

“Yeah, it was something like Prednocone or Rednizone or something like that.”

“Was it Prednisone?”  Jocelyn nods her head.  “That’s a steroid, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, and Xander was worried about that.  Adam told him not to worry about the random blood testing.  Lucky for him, Adam was right, and he still hasn’t been tested.  But just to be safe, he keeps a copy of the prescription so he has documentation.  I don’t think I’m supposed to talk about it, so please don’t tell Evan.”

“Don’t worry, Jocelyn,” I tell her.  “Your secret is safe with me.”

I’m startled when a pair of strong arms wrap around my middle and a familiar voice whispers in my ear, “So, what kind of secrets are we discussing, may I ask.”

It’s Evan and he’s in a playful mood.  “Jocelyn and I were just talking about what a great job Adam’s doing.  I was just about to go check on the food.  It looks like you and your friends need something in your stomach besides alcohol.” 

Evan sweeps the hair off my neck and trails sweet kisses under my ear, giving me goose bumps.  “Don’t be long,” he hums in my ear, teasing my earlobe with a playful flick of his tongue.  I peel myself away from him and head straight for the kitchen, leaving Evan to entertain our female guests.

I take a deep breath before entering the kitchen.  Did Jocelyn just confess to me that Adam helped them acquire steroids and avoid drug testing or am I reading too much between the lines?  I do my best to brush the thoughts from my mind, at least for now.