He nodded vehemently. “Definitely. We talked about it the night you flew me out here.”

“We think that’s great, but we want to present a united front,” Terry said. He pointed directly at both of us. “If this comes up again, we want everyone to think you are best friends. This team can’t handle any more scandals. We’re too new and we have a lot to prove this year.”

“No problem, Coach. Sutton and I are cool,” Grayson said.

I leaned forward. “Yeah, we’re fine. Really, Terry.”

“Fine isn’t good enough. I want the press to believe you’re buddies. Best buddies. Can you make that happen?” Terry asked.

I looked at Grayson and shrugged. “Of course.”

“No problem here,” he said.

Terry looked at Bill and back to us. “Okay. Let’s get back to work.”

Bill nodded and stood when Terry did. “Let’s see how the team did without us.” He rapped his knuckles on the table, dismissing us. I couldn’t get out of there fast enough. I took a few minutes to catch my breath in my office and then made a beeline for the practice field. Most of the players were over at the stands, signing autographs and taking selfies.

“How was it?” Jamal asked.

“Fine.” I didn’t want to get into it with him now. He’d find out soon enough. My nerves were shot, and I was jittery. “What’s going on?” I nodded in the direction of the fans, irritated that the team was fraternizing with them instead of pounding out plays on the field.

“It’s lunchtime and they’re feeling famous. Look at them.” He shook his head and waved them off.

“They have twenty minutes left of lunch to actually eat and get back to the film room.” I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “But it looks like they are having fun.” I was taking out my anger and anxiety on Jamal and it wasn’t fair.

“Want to go over there and be seen and heard?”

I waved him off and scoffed. “Hell, no. I’ve had enough of questions and time in front of cameras today.”

“Okay. Well, I’m going to head over there. I’ll see you in the meeting.”

I shaded my eyes and watched Jamal head over to Brandon and the team as they met the fans and signed memorabilia. I didn’t want to stand out on the field by myself and I didn’t want to go inside. I was still trying to cool off from the shit show that was my first press conference. My phone buzzed in my pocket. It was Lexi.

How’d it go?