She put her hand on my arm, something she always did to soothe me. “Thank you. I appreciate your help and discretion.”

“Bye, Parker.” I was more enthusiastic when I said good-bye to Buttercup. I rubbed her ears playfully. “And you’ll have to swing by and play with Crowbar. He’s getting all the attention at work, but I have a feeling you would steal their hearts away.”

I slid into my car and waited for the garage door to fully open. I looked everywhere but at Parker who was standing in the doorway looking at me. When I put the car in reverse, I finally looked at her. She was leaning on the doorframe waiting for me to back out of the garage. Her shoulders were slumped, but there was an iciness in her blue eyes that I hadn’t seen before. I didn’t envy Grayson when he sobered up.

* * *

“Did you find out anything?” Jamal asked me before we started our afternoon coaches’ meeting.

“No, but I told his wife that there would be repercussions. I told her we had therapists available for all the players.” Mental health in sports was finally getting recognition. Too many players struggled with the stresses of the game. There was a lot of pressure to stay on top because there was always a willing player to take your spot if you failed. It was time for Grayson to take advantage of that. “And I told her to have him call you when he sobered up. What did Bill say?”

Jamal shrugged. “He said we have to sit down and talk to him about it and that he might have to miss the next game.”

“Fuck,” I said. I wanted to believe it was an isolated event, but I didn’t know anything about Grayson. I didn’t think Parker would lie to me, but she might lie to protect her husband.

“I know. This sucks. At least no one got hurt and we kept it under wraps. Maybe he does community service and attends AA meetings. We can only hope this is an isolated incident,” Jamal said.

“In the meantime, let’s get back to football,” I said. I didn’t want to talk about the Moatses. “We had a shitty away game. Let’s go over plays that will work against Chicago’s defense.” I could barely concentrate on anything. My mind kept wandering to Parker and what was going on in her marriage. We spent two hours reviewing the Bears’ four games this season. They also had a 3-1 record, but they were favored to win thanks to our recent colossal loss.

Halfway through the meeting, Jamal held up his phone. “It’s Grayson.” He jumped up and stepped out into the hall.