Chapter 10 Lottie

Chapter 10

Lottie

After Nolan's near miss of being out for a few weeks due to a concussion, he buckled down on working with his new linemen. He was a man on a mission. Every morning after the win during the second week of the season he would show up for our daily run, go through the exercises and drills I threw at him without any arguments, and then work with his linemen all the way up until it was the scheduled practice time. He was spending almost every waking hour at the practice facility between working on getting himself better prepared, getting his teammates better prepared, and fulfilling his media obligations.

Going into the third game of the season, the attitude among the team was at an all-time high. I noticed fewer people were treading carefully around Nolan during the week. The offense was even starting to come together and work like a single unit. Which was all due to Nolan utilizing the respect he'd garnered from his career for the good of his team.

The team carried that progress into the third game and walked right by the Nashville Smokies in a shutout win. Nolan took a few sacks still during the game, but I watched him get back up without any hesitation before getting back in the huddle with his team and proving to them why he was their leader.

After I had finished all my treatment duties for both Nolan and Derek after the game, I excused myself to get ready for a date that I had agreed to earlier that day. I hadn't given up on the dating app that Maggie and Olivia had set me up on just yet, but all the dates I'd been on thus far had been more disappointing than anything.

I could hear the music kick on in the locker room as I finished applying my makeup, which meant the media were long gone and it was just the team.

My date was in downtown Chicago at an Italian restaurant I hadn't been to yet. My date—Henry, a tech engineer—had suggested it. I had told him that I may be a little late getting there depending on how quickly I could get out of the stadium after the game and the traffic that would allow me to get across town to the restaurant. Henry had gotten at least one point in my book for not asking any questions about how someone like me got a job in the NFL—I'd gotten five of them just this week in my dating app instant messages—and instead told me to take my time.

Maybe chivalry wasn't dead.

The hallway was almost empty with only a few players trickling toward the player parking lot after their postgame showers. The music that had been coming from the locker room turned off as soon as I stepped out into the hallway dressed and ready for what I hoped would be a romantic Italian dinner with Henry.

As I turned to walk to the parking lot where my car was parked, the door to the locker room burst open. Derek, Hawthorn, and Nolan were too busy laughing at whatever they had been talking about before to notice me standing there at first until Derek almost knocked me over.

"Lottie!" Derek exclaimed. "I didn't see you standing there. I'm so sorry."

Derek reached out to steady me before I ended up on the ground.

"You look nice, Lottie." Hawthorn gave me a small nod of approval at the outfit I had planned for tonight's date.

I had picked my favorite black dress and paired it with my knee-high black boots before topping the outfit off with my double-breasted brown wool coat. My hair was still up in the ponytail I had worn for the game, but I had slicked back any stray hairs that had pulled loose.

"Thanks, Hawthorn. Great game, guys," I told them before trying to excuse myself from the conversation to get to my date on time.

"You have plans tonight?"

I glanced back over my shoulder to see Nolan's eyes roaming over me from my hair to my boots.

"A date actually." I gave Nolan a smile that I hoped relayed that I was still working hard on my goals just like he had been. But instead of him giving me a smile back at the bucket list item I was trying to cross off, he gave me a frown. I could see Derek glancing between me and Nolan as we stared at each other in a familiar standoff.

"Where's your date?" Derek's overly excited question managed to break the tension building between me and Nolan.

"Formento's, over in West Loop. I heard they have one of the best meatballs in town."

"My wife, Sarah, loves that place. We've celebrated every pregnancy there," Hawthorn told me.

Who would have thought Hawthorn was a hopeless romantic?

"I need to get going though so I'm not later than I already am. Henry was nice enough to understand that I was coming from the game."

I heard Nolan scoff from behind me as I turned to walk away. "Henry?"

I didn't bother giving him a response. He knew that the only date I'd had so far had been a dud and this one could very well be more of the same, but who was he to judge? I had withheld my judgement when it came to his actions so far this season. I had stood by and proudly watched him try to change himself for the better.

Couldn't he do the same for me?

"Have fun!" Derek called after me, in a suspiciously happy tone.

Henry had already ordered one of the more expensive bottles of wine by the time that I arrived. But by the end of the salad appetizer, there was still no spark between the two of us.

He was the perfect picture of charming, with blonde hair and blue eyes, a button-down shirt that was tucked into a pair of khakis, and a blindingly white smile. But when the conversation mostly centered around the finance app that he was currently building for his new company, I realized that I would need more than one bottle of wine to get through this dinner.

Only during the main course did Henry finally decide he would ask me about my own life after he'd told me nearly every detail of his own.

"So, you work for the Chicago Bobcats?"

"I'm their in-house physical therapist," I told him.

"Do you think you'll always stay in sports? Or do you think you'll go into private practice in the future?" I watched Henry twirl his spaghetti around his fork using a spoon and knew the two of us had grown up in very different households. "I think you could get a lot more money in private practice and potentially have some well-connected clients. It's who you know in the business world."

"I think I'll stay in professional sports for as long as I can. It's where my heart is."

Henry's eyes were more focused on his spaghetti than on me. "Football is a dying sport, Charlotte. All the aftereffects that are starting to become known from head injuries are bound to run that sport into the ground."

I cringed at the use of my full name. Nobody used my full name other than my father, and that wasn't exactly the reminder I wanted during a date. I had even asked Henry to call me Lottie at the beginning of the date, but it seemed he insisted on using Charlotte instead.

Any response I had died on my lips as I stared at him with my mouth slightly agape. I'd never had a problem standing up for myself about how I'd earned the right to be in the profession I was, but that had always been with people who weren't a part of my life. They weren't supposed to champion me and my life the way a true partner or my family were supposed to. I had never had to defend myself with anyone that was supposed to care about me.

Suddenly I recognized the feeling churning in my stomach. It was the same way I had felt when my father had called me by my full name and laughed when I told him that I wanted to play football—only because I wanted to spend more time with him. If I showed interest in what he loved, maybe he'd love me too. My father had always looked down on any interest of mine that I tried to share with him, and the way Henry wrote off the profession I had worked so hard on my entire life had me feeling like I was a little kid again looking for recognition.

"Excuse me," the waiter interrupted, which I couldn't have been more grateful for in the moment, "but this bottle of whiskey was sent from the table over there in the back. They mentioned that you may enjoy your dinner with something a little stronger than wine."

I followed the waiter's hand motion to see three men that I thought I had left at Gateway Stadium. Derek had on a pair of sunglasses and a wide smile, while Hawthorn and Nolan both looked like children who had been caught red-handed. My eyes narrowed as Derek waved at me.

"Excuse me," I told Henry. I ignored his protests and questions of where I was going as I stalked across the dining room toward the table in the corner.

Hawthorn looked like he was trying to somehow pass through the wall he was sitting against while Nolan avoided making eye contact. Derek lowered his sunglasses once I was right on top of them.

"What the hell are you guys doing?"

"Did you like the whiskey?" Derek asked.

"Why are you guys here?" I asked again.

"I thought the whiskey was a nice thought," Hawthorn added casually, as if the three of them hadn't just been spying on my date. "That man looked like he wouldn't let you get a word in and in my experience, whiskey is a much better drink for situations like that."

I pinched the skin between my eyebrows and let my eyes drift closed as I took in a deep breath. When I opened them again, I met a pair of rich brown ones that looked at me with an emotion I hadn't seen from them before—concern.

But why would Nolan Hill be concerned about me? Why would he care?

"I am currently on a date with a man who is a tech engineer that I'm trying to figure out if I want to go on a second date with and you three "—I pointed at each in turn—"will not ruin this for me. Don't you have somewhere else you could be to celebrate your win?"

"I don't think there is anywhere else we'd rather be."

I wanted to rip the cheeky grin on Derek's face right off. "You are unbelievable!" A few dinner patrons gave us curious glances as my voice began to rise to what my mother would have told me was not an "inside voice."

"And you—" I turned to glare accusingly at Nolan. "You of all people know what doing this means to me, even if Henry isn't going to be the person I end up marrying."

Nolan's eyes bored into mine as the table fell silent. Finally, he cleared his throat—his eyes never leaving mine. "You deserve to be going out on dates with someone who's interested in you , Lottie. Someone who's interested in what you have to say and knows exactly who they're on a date with. Someone who would never take that for granted. That's who you deserve to go on a date with. Not someone like Henry."

I saw Hawthorn's eyebrows shoot up at Nolan's comments and Derek's lips twitched upwards, as if he was fighting to keep a smile off his face.

You deserve to be going out on dates with someone who's interested in you, Lottie.

I wasn't sure why my heart was racing at such a simple endearing sentence, but it took nearly an entire minute before I was able to trust myself to speak again.

"Thank you for the sentiment, but I'm going to go back to my date now and for my sake, please don't remind me that you're here if you stay."

Nolan's jaw clenched and that same muscle jumped in his jaw from whenever I did something that annoyed him. Everyone had to kiss a few frogs to find their prince. Who was Nolan to judge me for that?

When I returned to Henry with an apology ready, he waved me off and told me that my absence gave him time to order us dessert. The waiter set down a tiramisu that looked delicious, but I couldn't focus on the decadent flavors that exploded in my mouth while I ate it because all I could feel were a pair of eyes on my back for the rest of my date.