20. Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty

Carissa

The next week is one of the worst weeks of my life. Moxie's MRI results are even worse than I expected—he tore his ACL, MCL, and his meniscus, the holy trifecta of knee injuries. He's scheduled for surgery next week but comes to practice on Monday, looking perfectly normal as he carefully walks to the locker room with a knee brace. But every once in a while, one of his steps is wobbly and pain crosses his face. Mel, who apparently told him to stay home and isn't at all happy to see him, tells him that she will personally tackle him and tie him down if he tries to join in on practice, so he spends the day on the sidelines, directing drills and shouting encouragement.

Coach Galvin glares at him every time Moxie opens his mouth.

Cole and Moxie have a long conversation on Tuesday morning, and Moxie seems fine with Cole being captain by proxy. They fall into a sort of rhythm, where Moxie says things to Cole, who in turn says it to the team. It appeases Coach, who becomes increasingly less involved in practice as the week goes on, but the rest of the guys grumble every time Cole passes on Moxie's direction. At least they seem to understand why it's happening, and Cole almost always follows Moxie's lead when they're working on drills.

As the days go on, though, I can tell Cole is starting to get frustrated. Starting Tuesday morning, he heads to the stadium early and stays late in the weight room, so he orders rides rather than joining me, and his smiles have been painfully absent all week while he's out on the field. I don't know if he hates that he's forced into the captain spot or if he wants to lead his own way rather than Moxie's, and I can't ask which it is because Cole avoids me like the plague.

Apparently he took our boundaries to the extreme.

For my part, Mel and I have done a deep dive into preventing another injury like Moxie's. She's been drilling taping techniques into me, and I've been implementing more warmups into the daily routine, to the point where it feels like half of practice is spent stretching. That, plus extra time in the weight room, and hopefully no one else will end up with a non-contact injury like Moxie's. The work is a nice distraction from the fact that Cole and I have reverted back to strangers.

It's probably for the best, keeping our distance, but I already miss the flirting and the heated looks. I miss the way Cole was relaxed and happy.

On Friday, while I'm sitting on the field with tape in case anyone needs it while the team runs practice plays at the end of the night, Moxie comes to sit next to me, grunting as he stretches his leg out in front of him. Coach isn't here today, but Moxie seems perfectly content to let Cole and the assistant coaches run things. Or maybe he's done putting on a brave face now that Mel left early for the day to pick up her kid. He and Mel have been giving each other unreadable looks all week, though I'm not sure either of them realizes it .

I badly want to ask if something happened between them over the weekend, but I'm not brave enough for that.

"How's your knee feeling?" I ask.

Moxie grunts, eyes on his team. We haven't spoken much this week—Mel has been good about checking on him—but I've seen plenty of his frustration in his eyes. This injury must be driving him crazy. "It feels better now than it will next week," he says after a while.

I wince in sympathy. "Yeah, recovery isn't going to be fun. But you know you can't play with an injury like this."

"I know. Do you…" He ducks his head. "Has…has Cole said anything to you about the captain thing?"

He hasn't said anything to me at all . But I keep that frustration to myself and instead ask, "Like what?"

Moxie shrugs. "Something is holding him back. I told him that I'm fine with him stepping into that role, but he keeps deferring to me. Why? Coach gave him the captaincy, and it's not like I can be all that helpful. I know he has it in him, but he's…" He shakes his head. "He'll never be a good captain if he doesn't trust himself."

Moxie handed off the role? From what I've watched this week, I thought for sure Moxie wanted to do as much as he could to lead the team, with or without the title of captain. Hugging one of my legs, I watch the team run a play before I say anything. How much would Cole want me to share? I would know if he would talk to me.

"I think…" I swallow, hoping I'm making the right choice. "I don't think Cole is worried about himself. I think he's worried about how the other guys will respond."

Moxie falls onto his back and shuts his eyes. "He hasn't even tried!"

"Maybe, but you know how the team treats him." And I've been a terrible friend because I've done nothing to help him make connections with the other players. Not only have I failed Cole, but I've failed Derek and Freya and all the others who are expecting me to help Cole settle into his new role. "I want to help him," I say, letting the words wash over me. I do want that. I just have to make it happen instead of wallowing in my failing friendship. "Is there some sort of fairy godmother for connecting a guy to his teammates?"

Moxie looks over at me, a thoughtful look in his eyes. " You could convince them to give Cole a chance."

"Maybe," I agree. "But I should have done something earlier in the week. With no game tomorrow, I won't be able to do anything until Monday, and the guys will have a whole weekend to solidify their opinions of him after this nightmare of a week."

I watch as Cole says something to Wyatt, who completely ignores him as he walks past. Cole scowls, and it's clear this isn't the first time that has happened in recent minutes. Even if Cole wasn't the team captain, he's still the lead over the backs. No one bats an eye when French Roast gives directions to the forwards.

"We can fix that," Moxie says, sitting up again. There's an eagerness in his expression that hasn't been there this week, and I'm glad to see some life in him again. "On bye weeks like this, the guys usually go out for drinks."

"I'm having a hard time picturing Cole out for drinks with the Thunder."

"That's because he never comes with us," Moxie says with a roll of his eyes. "But I'd bet you can convince him to change his tune tonight."

I don't know about that. Things have been strained between us all week, so there's no telling if he would actually listen to me. That's not to say I won't try. I am all for having an excuse to talk to him after going most of this week with barely a few words between us.

The team breaks up, heading toward us and the locker room behind us. None of the players look all that happy with the way practice has gone today, but none of them are as surly as Cole at the back .

"He's not in the best of moods today," Moxie says with some wariness. "But we can't keep going like this. The team's falling apart."

I told Derek that I can handle Cole. I guess it's time to find out if I was right. Hopping to my feet, I help Moxie stand as well and smile at the guys as they approach. "Hey," I say to Tink at the front. "I hear you guys are going out tonight. Can I come?"

Any of the single guys within hearing distance stop in their tracks, all of them with bright eyes and eager smiles. A few other guys stop as well, but most of the rest head for the locker rooms. Either they are planning to head home to their significant others, or they don't care whether I join in.

"You want to come with us?" Tink asks. He sounds completely shocked, and I have to do my best not to laugh.

"Is that okay?"

"Of course it's okay!" Wyatt says, scrambling to the front of the pack. We haven't interacted much since I turned him down, but the smile he gives me is warm. Either he still thinks he has a shot, or he's happy to just be my friend. I hope it's the latter because tonight I'm going to do my very best to convince him and Cole to get along. "You hear that, boys?" he says to the others, as if they aren't standing right there. "Rizzo's coming with us tonight!"

Cole, who was walking past the gathered men, stops dead. His eyes find mine for only a second before they zero in on the back of Wyatt's head.

Moxie chuckles at my side. "It might be easier to get him there than I thought," he mutters for only me to hear.

I agree, and I can't stop the smile that spreads across my face. "I've been wanting to hang out with you guys more, especially because I don't have many friends here."

Cole's eyes turn stormy as he looks at me again .

He can't blame me for saying something like that when he's spent the last week avoiding me, especially because I meant it. The few friends I've made have all been busy this week. Liam left for his tour, and Kasey went with him to San Francisco for the first concert and won't be back until tomorrow afternoon. Bonnie is doing reshoots while Hank settles into the house he's renting, and Derek is way too intimidating to hang out with one-on-one.

I look directly at Cole when I say, "I've been feeling pretty homesick this week, so hanging out with you guys will be nice."

"But maybe shower first," Moxie says, giving the boys a sharp look.

They all scramble for the locker room, leaving me alone with Moxie and Cole. Cole wastes no time stomping up to me and glaring as he asks, "What are you doing?"

I tilt my chin up in a challenge. "Exactly what I said. I need friends."

His jaw tightens. "You have friends."

"Not this week, I don't. They're all too busy for me."

A shadow passes over his features, and he folds his arms as he looks between Moxie and me. "You're planning something, aren't you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Moxie says calmly. "I told Carissa about drinks tonight, and she wanted to come."

Cole chews on his words for a moment. "Well, have fun with that." He takes a step toward the locker room but stops when I reply.

"I intend to. I don't know the team well enough, and it will be nice to get to know them away from work."

"I know what you're doing." He doesn't even look at me as he growls out the words. "But pretending to take an interest in the team won't get me to go out with them. You said yourself you don't want to give them the wrong impression, but this will—"

I scoff, shaking my head at him. "Geez, you really are the most stubborn man I've ever known."

He clenches his jaw, eyes locked on the turf beneath his feet .

"Cole, I'm allowed to have friends."

"They're not going to see you as a friend."

"You don't know that."

"I really do. Mox, tell her—"

"I'm not getting in the middle of whatever this is," Moxie says, holding his hands up. His eyebrows are high as he looks between us. "But I do think you should come out tonight or this week will look like a walk in the park compared to what's coming. I'm going to be down for the count after my surgery Monday, and I won't be flying out to Portland with you guys. You'll be on your own for the next game, Cole. You need to let them trust you."

When Cole turns his head to look at us, his irritation has made way for worry, and I desperately want to wrap him up in a hug. I hold myself back, knowing I need to make him come to me if I'm going to break him out of this funk.

"Stop fighting reality," Moxie begs. "It's not changing, no matter how much you want it to."

Without a word, Cole continues on his way to the locker room. He doesn't even look back.

An ache settles in my chest as I watch him go. "Do you think he'll come?"

"I don't know," Moxie admits. "But I'm going to guess there's more to you two than carpool buddies."

"There's not." If I sound miserable, it's because I am. Things were so easy on Sunday, but after Cole went inside to talk to Freya, something changed. He changed. I don't know what they talked about, but he was distant on the drive back from Derek's, and now…

Now I don't know what's going to happen between us.

Moxie puts a hand on my shoulder and offers a sympathetic smile. "Give him some time. And maybe flirt a bit with some of the guys tonight. Nothing crazy, just…" He shrugs. "You're right about Cole being stubborn, but he's a man of action when he wants to be. If you give him the right motivation, he'll realize that he has to change if he wants anything to get better." Is Moxie really telling me to make Cole jealous ? I must be making a face of disgust because he laughs. "Okay, wow. Sorry. No flirting. It probably won't take that much, anyway. Just be your friendly self tonight, and I'll be there to keep the guys in line."

He leaves after that, and as I gather my stuff to bring back to the training room, I think about what I can do to help Cole get over whatever it is that has him in such a bad mood.

Being myself is by far my preferred method, but I don't know if that will be enough. I think I need to show Cole that I mean business. He tried things his own way this week, and it didn't work. Now it's my turn.