Lang shoved Robert in the chest, but he stood his ground and didn’t move.
“How do you know her?” Robert demanded, once again. “Did you date her?”
“Yeah.” Lang successfully pulled out of Robert’s grasp and tugged his shirt into place. “And it was the stupidest thing I ever did. I wish I never met her. Take it from me. Get out before it’s too late. She’ll make your life miserable.”
“What the fuck are you talking about? She’s the best thing that ever happened to me.”
“You say that now but believe me. She can turn your life into a fucking nightmare.”
Robert didn’t say one word to anyone on the short bus ride from the restaurant back to the hotel. Every second that passed had his anger blazing like a wildfire fed by a high-velocity wind. By the time he got to his room, he was ready to explode. He’d been holding his phone so tightly that it left a mark on his hand, and he was surprised he didn’t crack the screen. His index finger shook as he tapped on Amber’s name for a FaceTime call.
“Hi!” Her smile disappeared instantly. “Are you OK?”
“No.” His heart pounded against his chest and echoed in his ears. “I’m not OK.”
“What’s wrong?” Worry came through in her voice. “What happened?”
“How the hell do you know Danny Lang?”
Her eyes slowly widened, and her cheeks went pale. “What?”
“Danny Lang. Retired kicker for the Dragons. I ran into him tonight, and he saw your photo on my screensaver. How do you know him? Did you two date?” Even though Lang already confirmed that they had, Robert wanted to hear it from her. The whole story. Not the few sentences that Lang gave him.
“What did he tell you?”
“It doesn’t matter what he said. I want to know what you have to say. How do you know Danny Lang?”
“We dated. But it was a long time ago.”
“I thought you never dated football players?”
She glanced down, and her throat moved. When she looked back at him, her eyes were hard, her lips were tight, and she spoke through clenched teeth. “He’s the reason why.”
Robert’s heart pounded significantly louder. He could hear it booming in his ears as if the sound were an entity occupying the room. Thoughts ran wild in his head as he wondered about Lang’s hostility and accusations and what might have happened between him and Amber. “There’s more. What is it?”
A deep crease formed between Amber’s brows, her mouth bowed downward, and she lowered her gaze as she spoke softly. “It ended badly. He blamed me for everything.” Then she looked up at him with a wild, frantic look in her eyes. “I didn’t do anything, Robert. I swear.”
He didn’t understand, and he knew she was purposely leaving out the details. Details that he wanted to know. “What happened?”
“It’s complicated.” She exhaled, dismissively. “It doesn’t matter, anymore. Like I said, it was a long time ago. It’s the past. Let’s just leave it there. It has nothing to do with me and you.”
He took a minute to digest everything she just told him. He didn’t like it, but if she didn’t want to fill him in on the specifics, it was her business. Not his. He still wanted to know more but didn’t ask any more questions. Her answers made sense, but Robert’s blood still rushed through his chest like a geyser. Sweat beaded on his brow, and his heart still thundered. Questions started bouncing around his head like a Ping-Pong ball, and his imagination sped out of control. “I feel like I don’t know you at all right now.”
Amber rubbed her forehead and frowned. “I’m sorry. I don’t want you to feel that way. I know I’ve been vague about some things, and I need to explain the issues I have with my father in more detail. I plan to. Just not right now. Not over the phone while you’re between games. It’s long and drawn out, and it’s ugly. It’s a lot to process. But I want to share it with you. Because I love you. And you deserve to know the baggage I carry with me. I promise. As soon as you’re home, we’ll sit down and have a cleansing-of-the-souls conversation.”
He stared at the screen, perplexed and a little afraid of what weighed so heavily on her mind. But he wanted to know all of it. He only hoped it didn’t change things between them because he loved this girl.
Robert didn’t sleep well and woke unrested. The last thing he needed was to have his thoughts on anything but the game today, so he pushed the conversation with Amber out of his mind and headed down to the waiting bus. He settled into a seat in the back by himself, put his earbuds in, and blasted Immortal Angel. By the time the team got to the stadium, the jumbled mess in his head cleared, and his only focus was on beating the Dragons.
The locker room was filled with the usual high level of adrenaline as the team prepared for the game. Coach stood on one of the benches and started his pre-game pep talk.
“I don’t want you to just take the win over Denver,” he began. “I want you to annihilate them!”
Cheers and grunts filled the locker room.
“We’re New Jersey strong!” Coach shouted. “New Jersey proud!”
The guys all shouted back in agreement.
