It was weird that she would ask and not know herself. I wondered if Grayson had a habit of saying he was going to work and going elsewhere instead. Or maybe this was her way of reaching out to me since she now had my number. I was too emotionally exhausted to try to figure it out.

Crowbar trotted past me and went straight to my office. I found him sitting and staring down the chicken breast I had on my plate. “Of course, you’re getting a bite.” He gave a low woof and gently took the piece from my hand.

I bit into an apple and pulled up my email. I had over two hundred emails congratulating me on the win. Terry’s assistant’s emails were flagged to be at the top. I had three from her. One was the congratulatory email on the win, the second was a coaches’ meeting I was expected to attend at the end of the month, and the third was a reminder about the Empowered Women in the NFL group I had signed up for when I signed my contract with the Cheetahs. Members gave talks to area schools to encourage students to pursue their dreams. I groaned because that meant extra work, but I knew I had a responsibility that went above coaching. Four schools would get me for an hour every Tuesday for the next month. The event would be recorded by the NFL for a documentary on diversity in the league.

I sent the organization my approval and added the visits to my calendar. The first one was tomorrow at a private elementary school, Wellington Academy. It was in a posh neighborhood about twenty minutes away from the office. I shot an email to Terry’s assistant to see if we had any giveaways for the kids and asked that anything be brought to my office by the end of the day.

The team spent the afternoon studying the Dolphins. Even though it was our first away game, I had a feeling we’d win. Miami looked sloppy. Our defense would easily be able to break through and pressure the quarterback. I took notes, pointed out weaknesses, and worked with coaches on tweaking plays.

It was a long afternoon and all I wanted to do was go home and sleep. Since we didn’t run plays on Mondays and the players were off on Tuesdays, the coaching staff decided to break early. Crowbar and I headed home at six. After eating leftovers, I crashed on the couch and woke up hours later with a kink in my neck and a dog partially on top of me.

“Come on, buddy. Let’s go to bed.” Since Lexi was gone, Crowbar was back in the bed with me. We were both fine with that decision.

* * *

“The important thing to remember is that if you work hard enough, you can achieve your dreams.”