Page 5 of Kicked in the Heart
An hour later she was comfortable enough to start running plays with the whole special teams unit.
As soon as Coach blew the whistle to end practice, Rocky sighed in relief. She had a lot of practicing to do to be ready for Sunday’s game in Chicago. Luckily, both Trey and Nelson were nice and didn’t cause her any problems. Unlike some of the other players, especially Butch Sutton who had mistaken her for a cheerleader. Butch. He looked like a Butch. Older and probably set in his ways. She’d caught him frowning at her across the field multiple times. Sheesh, he needed to get over himself already. All she wanted to do was play football.
They’d been running some practice plays with the special teams unit when Coach called Butch over to replace one of the blockers. He’d refused and she winced when Coach threw him out of practice. Hopefully, he wouldn’t cause her any problems.
The rest of practice had gone smoothly and she was getting comfortable with her new teammates. Well, except for that one player.
After the noise of practice, the quiet in the cheerleaders’ locker room was soothing. That was one advantage of being a girl in a male dominated sport, she got a whole locker room to herself at least on practice days. She couldn’t wait to step into a hot shower and get rid of the sweat she’d worked up in practice.The smell of coconut hit her as soon as she opened her locker. “What the…” she muttered as she unzipped her bag and reached in to pull out her clothes. She dropped them with a splat on the floor. They were soaked in what smelled like her shampoo. With a sigh she picked them up and carried them to the shower to rinse them out, she couldn’t wear them as they were. At least they left her shoes alone.
The hazing was starting already. As if a little shampoo would convince her to quit. She’d been through this before and she hoped they’d get over their little snit before it got to the point that she’d have to report it. They all had a job to do and hurt feelings weren’t conducive to teamwork.
She turned on one of the showers and placed her clothes under it so it would help rinse out the shampoo while she showered.
It took an extra twenty minutes to rinse out her clothes. She wrung them out and put them on, wincing at the cold, wet fabric against her skin. At least her shoes were dry.
With a sigh of relief she slid into her car, it had been a few months since she’d done a full-on practice and she could feel it. Her muscles ached from the workout and the stress of her first practice. And then the effort to wring out her clothes. She was tired and all she wanted was to go home and relax.
When she got to her car, there were only a few cars left scattered throughout the lot. It was peaceful but also a little creepy. A breeze ruffled a paper someone had stuck under one of her wipers. Probably just a flyer for a nearby pizza place or something. She plucked the paper from under the wiper and started to crumple it when she saw a handwritten word:don’t. Smoothing out the paper she read the entire message scrawled in messy handwriting.Girls don’t belong in football. This is your first warning.
It had to be the asshole trying to scare her off. She crumpled the paper and threw it into her backseat before taking off for home.
There was no sign of Kiley’s car when she parked in her usual spot. Good, she could relax a hot bath before she had to rehash her first day for her best friend. At least most of the team was cool with her being there, more than she’d expected.
After throwing everything in her bag into the washer she took a long, hot soak for what felt like hours. Dressed in her comfiest sweats she shuffled to the kitchen for a beer. Plopping down on the couch, she set her beer on the table and pulled out her phone. Surviving her first day of practice called for a pizza from Antonio’s to celebrate.
She’d just finished an episode of her favorite sitcom when she heard a key in the door.
Kiley sauntered in with a six-pack of Rocky’s favorite beer and a pizza box. “Luckily Marcus was working and knew you’d placed a delivery order or we’d have two pizzas.”
“Great minds think alike,” Rocky said as she stood up with a groan.
“Sit, I’m sure you’re tired from practice today.”
“Yeah, I am. Working out every day is way different than football practice.” She went to the kitchen and got another beer.
“Good thing I didn’t plan a big party or anything for tonight then,” Kylie said with a grin. “How about we do something special Friday night?” She asked as she put the pizza box on the table in front of the couch and went to the kitchen for plates and napkins.
“I don’t know. Saturday is my first travel day and I don’t know what time we’ll be leaving,” Rocky said as she plopped onto the couch and opened the pizza box. She let the unique aroma of an Antonio’s pizza wash over her – yeast, tomato sauce, and pepperoni. Her stomach growled.
Kylie laughed. “I’ll let you think about it.”
“Please promise me it won’t be some huge party and I’ll let you know.” She took a bite of pizza and chewed slowly, enjoying the flavors.
“Oh, okay, spoilsport,” Kylie replied. “So, tell me about your first day? Which player is the cutest?”
“I was there to practice, not find a boyfriend,” Rocky said. “It was a normal first day. I met the players I’ll be working with the most and they both seem really nice. But there was this one guy, he was an ass.”
“In a good way or a bad way?” Kylie asked before taking a swig of her beer.
“Is there a good way?”
“You know what I mean. Was he cute?”
Rocky laughed. “Cute? Maybe in a grizzled older guy kinda way. But then he opened his mouth and ruined it. First, he thought I was a cheerleader, then a reporter, and he even tried to ask me out. You could have picked his jaw off the floor when he found out I was their new kicker.”
Chapter Three
Butch