16. Theo

16

THEO

My stomach lets out an angry grumble. I had a light breakfast and it's close to lunch time.

"Good practice," I say to Tom as I sling my laptop bag over my shoulder.

He nods. "You headed to lunch?"

"Just to the café for some mac and cheese. Maybe a sandwich."

"You wanna join us? We're headed to The Penalty Box for a burger."

"Nah, I have some emails to answer. Plus I need to read those documents coach sent out."

Tom laughs. "You haven't read those yet?"

I shrug. "I'll read while I eat my mac and cheese."

I give Tom a fist bump and make my way down the hallway to the staff café.

Not only am I in the mood to have some of the outstanding mac and cheese, but I also hope to get a glimpse of my girl. She usually makes her way through the line about this time.

I grab a tray and load up on food— mac and cheese, some fruit, green beans, and a turkey and cheese sandwich. Can't forget the milk.

I arrive at the cash register and swipe my card. Thankfully the café isn't crowded yet and I find a table.

As I eat lunch, a few players come through the line as well as a lot of staff. I grin to myself when I spot Francesca at the register. She carries her tray and looks around the room for an empty table. She spots me and I give her a wink. She blushes as she passes my table.

"Hey Moose," she greets.

"Doctor Francesca." I grin like the lovesick fool I am.

Francesca finds a table with her coworkers at the other end of the room.

Too bad we can't eat together.

There's a large table next to me full of staff. A woman, I think her name is Carol, at the table seems to find everything funny and her cackle gets under my skin.

Carol the Cackler.

I finish my lunch and open my laptop. Time to get to work.

"So, what'd you find out?"

"Keep your voice down," someone hisses.

I roll my eyes.

Oh great. Of all the tables in the place, I had to get next to the gossip brigade.

They're a group of women who love gossiping about the players, the staff— absolutely anything.

"She is from Miami— that part is true." I recognize the voice. Tonya from HR.

Miami piques my interest and I strain to listen to the conversation.

"Have you looked her up on the web?" Megan, a friend of Francesca says. "When you search her and include Miami, nothing comes up. Absolutely nothing. No social media, no business page."

"Well, my sister isn't on social media. I don't think that's anything to go by. Besides, maybe when you're a doctor you use an alias."

"She's not a doctor ," Megan interjects. "She's a physician's assistant. The way she acts, you'd think she owned the team. I liked her at first, but she's a first-class snob."

I freeze. My fingers hover over the keyboard.

"Yeah, we invited her to lunch, and she barely talked to us," Tonya adds.

"Well, what'd you find out?"

"Francesca Messina isn't her real name. At first, I thought it was a married name, but she's never been married. As far as I can tell, Messina may be a family name."

This woman has obviously done some digging.

My face burns.

Should I really be listening to this garbage?

"If you do a search for Fran Russo, you'll see everything."

"Fran Russo? Who's Fran Russo?"

"I'm telling you, it's her. Last night, Megan came over and we were on the web for like four hours reading everything."

"Yeah, it's crazy. She was actually?—"

"Ladies."

Robert Anderson, the team's general manager walks through with Gretchen from Human Resources, and Coach Sullivan.

"Time to get back to work," Tonya says. Like a group of hens, the brigade leaves their table and makes their way to the trash cans with their trays.

I'm dying to do a web search for Fran Russo, but I know this isn't the place.

I make myself comfortable on my couch and log into my computer. My heart pounds as I type Fran Russo into the search engine.

Why would Francesca lie about her identity?

I gasp as the images of Francesca fill my screen. There's so much to read, I don't even know what article to click on first.

Fran and Jessie… Love in the Dugout.

Fran Russo and Jesse Lawrence Announce Engagement.

She was engaged to Lefty Lawrence? What the hell?

I scroll through the list of articles and photos and get lost in reading everything.