“Well, you eat up, doll.”
“I intend to,” I responded just before biting off another piece of the olive oil drenched bread.
Our waiter arrived a minute later, taking our orders. I decided on the crab cakes with roasted vegetables and some sort of cream sauce. Brenda had the beef tenderloins and caramelized carrots. I opted for one of my favorite red wines while Brenda chose white.
“Back to what I was saying …” She leaned across the table and began once our waiter left. “Riggs isn’t giving you anymore problems is he?”
I shook my head. “Nothing that I can’t handle. He’s young and a showboat. His ass has been kissed his whole life because he’s really good at catching a football. Women have probably been throwing themselves at him since he was twelve. I don’t expect him to behave any differently toward me than he would any other woman.”
“He’ll come around. He’s a sweet kid.”
I rolled my eyes at that. Leonard Riggs was anything but sweet. Nor was he a kid at twenty-three years old.
“He did mention something interesting the other week that I wanted to ask you about.”
“What’s that?” Brenda questioned as she held her wine glass up to her lips preparing to take a sip.
“He said something about his agent introducing him to a financial advisor that had his investment doubling within a month’s time.”
Brenda lifted a perfectly arched, brunette eyebrow.
“Exactly.” Brenda, having worked in the world of finance for close to twenty-five years, knew how unlikely doubling an investment in such a short amount of time was. She’d been my mentor since her time as an adjunct professor of one of my finance classes in college. She’d encouraged me to go into a career in personal finance from the very beginning.We need more women with smarts, savvy, and integrity like you in this field,she’d said to me early on. It took me a number of years to take her up on the offer. Luckily, by the time I was ready to actually put my degree to use, she and Mike were living in Williamsport as he’d become head coach for the Cougars and Brenda had moved up the corporate ladder to manage her own division in one of the major investment banks in the city. She was one of the only women in her company at such a high level and she personally vouched for me when I applied for my position as financial planner with the company.
“That doesn’t sound right. Are you sure he said it doubled?”
“I heard what I heard, Bren. Now, he could’ve just been showboating, trying to one up me …”
She nodded. “I wouldn’t put it past him.”
“Right,” I agreed though it still nagged at me.Riggs was the type to say anything to get a rise out of someone or to prove he had one up on them. However, the way he’d mentioned his financial advisor was suspicious to me. He’d sounded so sure of himself.
“Trust me, I love many of Mike’s players like they’re my own, but I wouldn’t put much past any of them,” Brenda continued.
“Any of them?” I questioned.
She nodded.
“Does that include Tyler Townsend?” The question was out before I had a chance to stop myself. I had no idea where it even came from.
She let out a belly laugh just as our food was brought to the table. She waited until our waiter left to answer my question.
“Tyler’s a doll. Mike and his father have been friends for a long time now. Some people thought that was why Mike decided to recruit Ty four years ago which is stupid. Mike would never jeopardize the quality of his team just to appease an old friend. Ty had it rough those first couple of years.”
I snorted. “Yeah, real rough with all of the drama he got himself into.” I wouldn’t dare tell Brenda out loud but I’d read the articles of Tyler getting caught in a hotel lobby with a couple of strippers, the fight he’d supposedly started between his team and an opposing team during a night out, and a couple of other skirmishes.
“No, really. Don’t believe all of the stuff you read in those gossip articles about him. Ty was the best player on his college team, you wouldn’t find another player who gave their all the way Tyler does, but because he’s a Townsend he had to prove himself. Everyone from coaching staff to fans and even fellow teammates doubted his commitment to the game. Imagine being a player from some of the roughest neighborhoods in the country. You fought tooth and nail to get to the league and ‘make it out’.” She used air quotes around the last phrase. “Only to have this guy who was born with all of the money in the world at his disposal, had the best opportunities in life, try and be your leader on the field.”
I nodded. “I heard a few of the guys refer to him as silver spoon.”
“He hates that nickname.” She chuckled. “But he’s come a long way. His numbers and show on the field are more than enough to prove that he’s as committed to the game as anyone else.”
“That’s obvious,” I mumbled, taking a bite of my crab cake. Tyler’s stats didn’t lie. On the field he was a beast. I’d often wondered why it took him two full seasons to rise to the level of starting quarterback for the Cougars, but what Brenda had just stated explained it. Professional sports was cutthroat, and as a quarterback if your teammates didn’t believe in you, you might as well give it up. But Tyler had hung in there, winning them over with his love and passion for the game.
“Tyler giving you trouble?” Brenda asked, frowning across the table.
A flutter in my belly happened when I thought about the way he’d watched me in the lecture hall the day before. It’d been over a week since our encounter on the field, and since then he’d taken every opportunity to flirt and invade my personal space.
“No.” I shook my head. “No trouble at all. Just still trying to get a feel for the players.” A little bit of guilt rose in my chest at the lie but I wasn’t about to spill the fact that I was beginning to find Tyler more endearing than annoying.
