Breaking Tackles: A Taking Flight Novel (27 page)

Courtney nods and I sigh. “Okay, fine.”

“I’d like for the two of you to be together all weekend. Everywhere you go, you should be together, even if it’s just to the gas station. You two need to be a united front.”

“That’s not a problem,” I say.

“Great. So for tonight, you are meeting the Montgomerys for dinner.”

“Oh,” I say, surprised that Jax didn’t mention this yesterday in the locker room.

“The Montgomerys actually just got in touch with me about it earlier today,” Amanda says, catching the surprise in my voice. “They asked me to make the reservation and photography arrangements, and for the two of you to be invited.”

“Well, cool.”

“Very cool,” Amanda says. “Jax and Melissa are great at publicity, and being seen with them will definitely help you guys out.”

“Melissa is seriously the best,” Courtney says, smiling.

“What else is on our agenda?” I ask Amanda.

“That’s actually it,” she says. “Obviously, the game is tomorrow afternoon, so there aren’t really any other events for the two of you. Courtney, you’ll be joining us in the team’s suite. I’ve been in touch with my media contact at Fox, letting them know that you’ll be at the game supporting Adam. Is that okay? I know Adam mentioned that national television might be too much.”

“It’ll be fine,” Courtney says. “Hopefully I won’t be doing something horrifying when the cameras are on me, though.”

“Most likely it’ll be when Adam makes a big play. Though it could also happen during a time out or between plays. I’m sure you’ve seen when the camera will zoom in on one of the boxes to highlight someone.”

Courtney nods. “I’ll just have to make sure I’m not shoveling food into my mouth or texting or something.”

“Don’t worry about the food,” Amanda says. “People like girls who eat. I mean, look at Jennifer Lawrence. She constantly talks about how much she loves food.”

“True,” Courtney says, though I notice there’s an edge to her voice and her smile is tight.

“What I’m saying is that you just need to be yourself. Don’t worry about photographers or cameras or other people. Just be exactly who you are. You’re a young couple in love. That’s all the cameras need to see. For you two, it won’t be hard.”

I squeeze Courtney’s hand and she looks over at me. I can tell she’s a little uncomfortable with all of this, but I’ll find a way to calm her down.

“So,” Amanda says. “We’ll see how this weekend goes. Hopefully the media will pick up the photos of you two together and the story will be a happy one. I’m sure there will be a handful of articles about how this is some last-ditch attempt for the two of you to stay together, but just ignore it. It’s probably best that you disconnect from social media a bit. If you want to post things about being together this weekend, go for it, but probably best not to linger on the Internet too long. And I advise that you turn off all comment notifications.”

We both nod and Amanda says, “Okay, great. Any questions?”

“Should I be concerned about being photographed at school?” Courtney asks.

Amanda looks thoughtful and says, “I’d err on the side of yes. But really, the best advice I can give is to go about your life normally. Don’t overthink the photographers and don’t try to be ‘on’ all the time, if you know what I mean.”

Courtney nods and smiles, but she looks perplexed. I know that the photographers make her uncomfortable, but Amanda’s right—the best thing to do is to forget about them. At least, as much as possible. Hopefully this will all just blow over quickly so that we don’t have to worry about photographers documenting every move we make.

“Well, this is you,” Amanda says as we pull up to the security gate at my apartment.

I show them my entry card and the security guard lifts the gate to let the driver in. When we pull up to my building, the driver gets out to get our bags out of the trunk and I go for my wallet.

“Stop,” Amanda says. “The team is paying for this. And for dinner. Jax has a corporate card, so let him pay.”

“Oh. That’s very nice.”

She winks and then turns to Courtney. “It’s been such a pleasure to finally meet you. If you need anything at all, this weekend or ever, please feel free to reach out to me.”

She offers a business card, which Courtney takes after eyeing Amanda for a quick moment, and then says, “Thank you for everything. It was great to meet you, too.”

And with that, we’re out of the cab and finally heading into my apartment.

Courtney

Once we’re in Adam’s apartment, I feel like I can finally breathe.

The flight was completely horrible. The entire time I was concerned that the wind was going to force us to crash, and then when it started to calm down I remembered that I was still alive and soon to be photographed. Luckily, the diet I put myself on has helped me drop a couple pounds this week and I’m incredibly hydrated. So, as hoped, my skin looks great and nothing about me is bloated.

But I’m hungry. Really, really hungry.

I fish the pretzels from the flight out of my bag and look at them, earning some serious self-control points for not immediately ripping the bag open. The little snack is full of stuff I have denied myself for weeks. Carbs
and
salt. And God, I bet they’re delicious.

But I’ve been so good. I can’t stop now. I have to get through this weekend, and then I’ll start adding things back into my diet.

“You okay?” Adam asks, coming up behind me and resting his chin on my shoulder.

“Yeah,” I say. “Glad to be here.”

“I’m so glad you’re here,” he says, lifting his chin and kissing my temple. I turn around to look at him and the amount of guilt in his eyes is enough to break my heart. “I’m so incredibly sorry about all of this, Court. You can’t even know how much.”

“I know you are,” I say. “It’s not your fault any of this happened.”

“I just feel like I should have been more aware of what people would think if they saw me photographed those nights. It never even occurred to me.”

“Because you didn’t do anything wrong. You were nice to a woman and hanging out with your friends. You shouldn’t be crucified for that.”

“Yeah. But I still should have thought about how it looked.”

“Probably,” I say. Because even though I’m really
not
mad at him, I’m still annoyed. The first few hours after those photos surfaced were awful. I felt numb. I couldn’t wrap my head around how Adam would ever cheat on me—it never even occurred to me that he
could
. And when Sophie told me that she spoke with Adam and told me what had really happened, I finally felt as if I could feel again, the world coming to life as pins and needles on my skin. But he’s right. He should have thought about it.

“I know now to be careful with everyone. It’s just so crazy that people care about what we do and who we talk to, you know?”

I nod. “Willa’s Adam Kistler Google Alert was going insane this week.”

“She has a Google Alert for me?” he asks, bewildered.

“Yep.” I decide to keep it at that. It’s funnier when you don’t know why.

My stomach growls just then and I grimace at the hollow noise.

“Let me see if I have anything,” Adam says, heading toward the kitchen. “I should have gone to the store last night.”

“Eh,” I say, waving my hand. “We’re going to dinner soon.”

“In, like, five hours. And you’re hungry now.”

“I can hold out until then.”

Adam narrows his eyes at me and says, “Courtney, your stomach is growling. That means you’re hungry, which means you need to eat something.”

I know there’s no way I’m getting out of eating since my stomach made that heinous noise. “What do you have that I can eat?”

He looks around and says, “Banana?”

“That’ll work.”

He hands the banana to me. It’s a little more brown than yellow, but I peel it anyway and am grateful that it isn’t too bruised. I nearly inhale it and when I finish, Adam gives me a smug look.

“What?”

“You’re hungry, Courtney.” I can’t deny it. I’m actually even hungrier now that I’ve had something.

“Just give me a piece of gum.”

“Gum isn’t food!”

“But it’ll give me something to metabolize all the same.”

“Courtney,” Adam says, lowering his voice and leveling his gaze with mine. “You have to eat a meal. Dinner isn’t for hours and I’m not going to let you starve while you’re with me. So. What do you want for lunch?”

I sigh and move past him into the kitchen, going through his pantry to find something I can eat. I feel a bit too triumphant over the fact that there’s nothing here that fits into my diet, but then I spy a can of low sodium tomato soup. I consider acting like I didn’t see it, but know that Adam will either make something and force feed me, or say that we’re going out and then force feed me in public. I grab the soup and hold it up for Adam’s approval.

“Do you want a grilled cheese, too?”

I shake my head violently.

“Come on, Court.”

“No,” I say. “The soup will be enough.”

“Fine,” he says, obviously annoyed with me, turning to get a pot for the soup.

“So,” I say, desperately wanting to change the subject. “How are Deeks and Hilary doing?”

“I’m not sure,” Adam says. “I mean, Deeks is good. I don’t think he’s ever not good. But I haven’t seen or heard about Hilary in a while.”

“Hmm,” I say, opening the can and pouring it into the pot. “Did they break up?”

“I’m not sure that they were in breaking-up territory,” Adam says. “Apparently they were in a non-exclusive dating situation.”

“Like what my brother is trying to do with Kate.”

“What?” Adam asks, his eyes huge.

“Did I not tell you about that?”

He shakes his head.

“Oh. Well. Yeah. Ryan finally wants to date, but doesn’t want anything exclusive because, well, you know all about his commitment issues. He asked if I had any friends who might be a good fit. Hence Kate.”

“And they actually hit it off?”

“Surprisingly, yeah. They met at our engagement, but didn’t spend a lot of time talking. So, they used the tailgate you were in town for to chat and get to know each other a bit. Ryan gushed about how smart and funny she is. I hear more about it from Ryan than from Kate. Anyway, we’ll see what happens.”

“So, she and Ryan are a thing?”

“Could be,” I say.

“Crazy,” Adam says. “And how are Rob, Tony, and Kent?”

“All good,” I say, stirring the soup as it starts to sizzle so that it doesn’t burn. “Kent is close to proposing to Lizzie, I think.”

“That’s big.”

“Yeah. I think she finally laid down the law with him. He mentioned something about it to Mom, and she told me.

“Of course.”

“So, yeah. I think that’s happening. Probably around Christmastime.”

“Cool,” Adam says. “Anything romantic happening with Tony or Rob?”

“Nothing interesting with Rob. Tony is the same: no life outside of his job.”

Adam snorts and I turn off the burner now that the soup is sufficiently heated.

“Bowls?” I ask, and Adam turns to the cabinet behind him to get one.

“Thanks,” I say as he hands it to me and I start ladling the soup out, and then

move to the kitchen’s bar to sit.

I take my first spoonful of soup and it’s heaven. Who knew canned tomato soup was this good?

“So,” I say, forcing myself to take some time before each spoonful. “How are Mike and Jason?”

“Mike is good. He tweaked his hamstring in practice and has been nursing it, but other than that is okay.”

“Oh?” I ask. “Ashton didn’t mention that during our wedding planning call yesterday. And I don’t think I’ve seen him on any of the injured lists this week.”

“He’s still going to play,” Adam says. “I think he’s just been babying it. Hamstrings are tricky.”

“Really tricky,” I say. “He strained it in college, right?”

“Yeah. So he’s always concerned about it. He knows what to do, though.”

“Good,” I say, finally taking another mouthful of soup. “And Jason?”

“He’s an asshole.”

“Because he’s dating Nadia Attenborough?”

“No,” Adam says pointedly. “Because he never returns my calls. Which I assume is partly Nadia Attenborough’s fault.”

“I can’t believe he’s really dating a Victoria’s Secret model.”

“Tell me about it,” Adam says. “I should send her photos of him from junior high school. She’d change her mind then.”

“It’d probably just make her like him even more,” I say. “Besides, she’ll see all of that if she comes to Missouri for the holidays.”

“True,” Adam says. “God, that’ll be weird. My parents, you, me, Mike and a reality star, and Jason and a supermodel.”

“Thanks,” I say sarcastically, unable to believe that he just said that. How dare he.

“Court, you know I didn’t mean it like that.”

I squeeze my eyes shut and take a couple deep breaths. Why does this bother me so much? I know that he loves me. He thinks I’m good enough. So why don’t I think I’m good enough?

“Please, Courtney. You know what I meant.”

“I know,” I say quietly, though I still feel mad. I know I shouldn’t. I know he didn’t mean it as a slight. But how the hell am I supposed to measure up to beautiful, bubbly Ashton and physically perfect Nadia?

I look at the half-eaten bowl of soup and push it away. “Do you want the rest of that? I’m full.”

“There’s no way you’re full,” Adam says.

“I’m full,” I say, forcefully. “I also had a banana, remember?”

“Right. A banana and half the bowl of soup.”

I smile instead of growling at him. He’s going to make this hard.

“I’m really full. Honestly. My body has adjusted to smaller portions.”

“Whatever,” he says, his voice full of disbelief, as he takes the soup. He takes a bite and makes a face. “God, this needs salt. And pepper. And cheese.”

I inhale deeply through my nose so that I don’t snap at him and nearly scream with relief when I get a call from Sophie.

“Okay if I take this?” I ask Adam, pointing to my phone.

He nods and I answer, heading into his room to talk to her. And to get away from all his judgment.

“Hey,” I say.

“Hey,” she says back. “I just wanted to make sure everything was okay.”

“Yeah. The photographer setup is weird, but I’m okay.”

“How about you
and
Adam?” she asks.

“We’ll be fine.”

“You sure? Because if you’re not, it’s okay to say that you’re not.”

“Things are kind of weird right now. My stomach growled and he forced me to eat a banana and some tomato soup.”

“Good,” Sophie said. “Someone needs to force you to eat.”

“Not you, too.”

“You’ve been starving yourself this week and you know it,” she says. “I’m fine with you dieting and being healthy, but what you’ve done this week is beyond that, Courtney. It’s unhealthy. We’re all worried.”