Did I look that dumb? I wasn’t about to let him steer me into looking like an idiot. When I was in college, they made athletes for every sport take a class in public speaking. Sure, I’d barely passed, but they had taught me one thing I hadn’t forgotten: how important it was for you to keep the interview under control.
“Yep. Ten years ago, he went in for a loose ball during a game against the Tigers and was hit in the leg by an opposing player.” The journalist’s eyes twitched. “He was out for six months.”
“The player got yellow-carded, didn’t he?”
And… there it was. Since when were sports bloggers sneaky little shits looking for drama when it was uncalled for?
I plastered a smile on my face, giving him a look that saidyeah,Iknowexactlywhatyou’redoing,dingleberry.“Yes, but he’s perfectly fine now. It wasn’t a big deal.” Well, that was a lie, but whatever. My smile grew even wider, and I took a step back. Being an asshole didn’t come naturally to me. I didn’t like it, but I wasn’t about to roll onto my back and show someone my belly. Coach Gardner had already made it painfully clear to me that I needed to keep attention on the team and not Kulti, especially not Eric and Kulti. “I need to get going. You have anything else you need to ask about training, though?”
The reporter’s eyes slid over in the direction Kulti and his followers had gone. “We’re all done. Thanks.”
“Anytime.” Not.
I took another step back, snatched my bag off the ground, and started walking in the direction of the field. I still had to collect the uniform they wanted us to wear for our profile shots and put it on. Someone with the organization had set up two tents on the outskirt of the field, one with long flaps to provide some modesty for changing, and the other more basic, without flaps, where the uniforms could be found.
“Sal! Come get your stuff!” someone yelled from beneath the smaller tent.
I made my way over there, looking around to see who had survived the gauntlet, aka the media, and waved at the players and staff members who made eye contact with me. There were only a few people under the uniform tent where we needed to go before our player photos—two management employees handing out uniforms, two players, and three staff members.
One of the staff members was Kulti.
Poop.
Okay, I was fine.
“Good morning,” I said as I came up to the group in the tent, rubbing my hands down the front of my pants.
Poop, poop, poop, poop, poop.
A chorus of “good morning” greetings came back to me, even from the ancient demoness known as our fitness coach who was yet again standing by the former German superstar.
It was the same German super athlete who was now only about five feet away.
I went to the Louvre once years ago, and I remembered looking at the Mona Lisa after standing outside of the famous museum for hours trying to get in and being disappointed. The painting was smaller than I’d thought it would be. Honestly, it was just a painting. There was nothing about it that made it so much better than any other painting ever, at least to my untrained eye. It was famous and it was old, and that was it.
Simply standing mere feet away from the man who had led histeams to championship after championship… seemed weird. It was like this was a dream, a very weird dream.
It was a dream with a man who looked better than any thirty-nine-year-old ever should.
“Casillas? It’s your turn, honey. I got your uniform right here,” one of the women working behind the tables called out to me with a smile.
I blinked and then smiled back at her, embarrassed that she caught me daydreaming. “Sorry.” Walking around the coaches, I took the plastic-wrapped bundle she handed me. “Need me to sign anything?”
She handed me a clipboard with a shake of her head. “What size shoe do you wear? I can’t read whether it’s an eight or a nine.”
“Eight,” I said, signing the area to the side of my name. “Give me a second to find your socks.” She turned her back to me and started rifling through an organized container behind her.
“Mr. Kulti, I have you down for a medium shirt and large bottoms, does that sound right?” the other employee who wasn’t busy asked, her voice sounding a little high, a little breathless. Her hands were folded and pressed to her chest, her eyes only just barely holding that glint of nervous excitement in them.
“Yes” was the simple answer that rumbled out deeply; his enunciation was sharp with just the slightest hint of an accent that had been watered down from living in so many different countries over the years.
I felt his tone right between my shoulder blades. I could remember hearing him talk about whatever game he’d just finished playing dozens of times.Poop,fart,hemorrhoids.Sal.Getittogether.
I swallowed hard, unable to get over how different he looked. Back when I’d been a fan, he’d gone through every hair style from dyed tips to a mohawk. Now standing there, his hair was shaved short, and his arms were loose at his sides, his spine rigid. A hint of his cross pattée tattoo—a cross with arms that narrowed toward the center—appeared beneath the hem of his T-shirt sleeve. It wasn’t huge from what I remembered, maybe five inches high and fiveacross, and he’d had it for a long time. When I was younger, I thought it was kind of neat. Now… meh. I liked tattoos on men, but I liked big pieces, not a collection of random little ones.
But whatever, it wasn’t like anyone was asking me for my opinion.
“Here you go, Sal, I got ’em,” the staff member said, handing me another sealed packet. “We’ll have the rest of your gear later.”
