Page 14 of The Cadence

Even with the doors now closed and with the efficient staff in the orange polo shirts hustling around, it took a while to get everyone out of the giant hall where the Woodsmen players had their tables.

Will had told me that I didn’t need to stay with him but I had, anyway.

He’d taken several breaks and we’d gone into a back room to hang out, and he’d introduced me to some other players and their entourages.

I had cut out earlier, before the autograph signing began, in order to go on the tour with the head of security and to look around at the other events—but I’d rather have been with him then, too.

“Jesus Christ,” he sighed as the last fans were ushered away, and he shook out his hand again. “How many things did I sign?”

“You’re too precise,” I told him. “I watched the other guys, and they basically make a line with a few dots and call it a signature. You do every letter, W-I-L-L B-O-D-I-N-E.”

“That’s my name.” He seemed a little puzzled, and it made me smile.

“That’s how you do everything,” I said, just as one of the polo shirt ladies came over to start collecting all the decorations.

That was a big job since they’d put around a whole lot of orange stuff so I got involved helping her and finding where my sunglasses had gone.

Then Will and I went out a back way to where we’d parked and with the stadium security escorting the car, we were able to negotiate the traffic and return to his house.

I took a while getting ready for the Woodsmen party, and I thought about being pretty as I did.

Now I didn’t mind how I looked, not so much, but I’d definitely had issues when I’d first come to live with my grandmother.

I had towered over her and my hair was a vivid red that (at the time) had stuck out shaggy waves.

I had always cut it myself and I’d never done a very good job, so the hacked pieces looked uneven and unruly.

That had been one problem that she’d helped to solve, by carefully trimming it herself into more of a style and less of a messy bush.

But shortly after I had shown up on her doorstep, I’d had to start attending the huge high school.

I’d also towered over almost every girl there and many of the boys, too.

I’d been skinny with a body made of sharp angles that I couldn’t seem to manage well, and I’d been awkward and gawky in every way, even how I walked.

Eventually, I’d gotten my hair under control by letting my grandma continue to cut it more neatly and as it grew longer, its weight also helped to tame it.

The color had darkened a little as I’d gotten older and it was more of an auburn now.

My eyes were still the same hazel as before, but they didn’t look so large and demonic because my face wasn’t as narrow and pinched.

However, my features were still…I tried to figure out a word.

Elfin? It didn’t matter much, of course, because there was nothing I could do to change my face, especially not tonight while Will was waiting for me.

“I’m ready,” I told him as I let myself into the main house, and he again approved the outfit that my grandma had made.

I approved what he was wearing, too—he never dressed in a way that Miss Mozella would have called “flashy,” but he always looked good.

That was just him, though, because even naked, he would have looked classy.

Not that I would ever find out, but I could imagine. I had done that more than a few times.

Will made sure that I’d locked up the guest cottage and then we left for Roy’s Tavern, a bar located in a tiny town not too far from where he lived.

“The quarterback’s wife owns it,” he explained.

“I heard that it used to be a hellhole before she took over, and it’s still a dive.

” That was ok with me, because I’d worn my good black shoes with the thick, square heels that would keep my feet off the floor, and they also had closed toes (that gave me blisters).

The parking lot at Roy’s was blocked off but a guard moved the barricade when he spotted Will behind the wheel, and the door was manned by another guy who opened it when he also saw that this was a Woodsmen player.

Inside, it was packed with giant men and their friends and dates, crowded enough that moving through wasn’t easy.

“I’ll get you a drink,” he yelled, and made his way over to the bar.

I was used to him being the biggest guy around and it was strange to see others who were his size.

Then I could only catch glimpses of him across the room as people blocked my view.

They laughed and hugged each other since many of them probably hadn’t been in contact since the season before.

A woman bumped into me hard enough that we both stumbled. “I’m so sorry,” she apologized. “Are you ok?”

“I’m fine. It’s just crowded!” I answered, and she nodded.

“Who are you here with?”

I pointed toward where Will had gone and said his name. “I’m Calla,” I introduced myself.

“Kasia,” she told me. “This is my first Fan Day party.”

“Me too,” I said. I asked more about her and who she was here with, and she showed me her new engagement ring. Another woman joined us and Kasia introduced her as Audrey.

“Calla is a beautiful name,” she told me.

“I’m named after my grandmother,” I said. “I love it. But she called me Bug, and so did her friends.”

“Why did they call you that?” Kasia asked.

“It’s for ladybug, because of my red hair.” I swallowed and managed not to cry, and they didn’t appear to notice anything wrong.

“How long have you and Will been together?” Kasia asked.

“Oh, we’re not. We’re friends, from back home in Tennessee,” I explained. “I came up here because…well, he said it was so I could work for him, but it was mostly that he was worried about me.”

“Why?” Audrey wondered, so I gave them a brief outline of what had been happening. It wasn’t the most fun conversation for a party and I tried to keep it simple and non-sad.

That didn’t work very well, and now they definitely saw that I got upset. “I’m sorry to hear about your grandmother,” Audrey told me.

“I just keep crying,” I said and used the high neckline of my dress to wipe my eyes. “It keeps hitting me and I have to get another tissue. Will filled a closet with extra boxes of them.” I sniffled and pointed toward him.

She peered through the crowd at where I had indicated his location. “I don’t know many guys on the defense, but he seems nice.”

“He is,” I promised. “He’s quiet and sometimes that makes people nervous because they want to fill the silence. Or sometimes, they think he’s acting aloof and rude, but he isn’t. He’s reserved—not shy, but reserved.”

“How did you two get to be friends, then?” Kasia asked.

“He was forced into it,” I said, and they both stared.

“Not by me, by our school.” That didn’t clear up the situation, so I had to explain the whole story of the fight.

“One thing about Will is that he defends people,” I began it.

“He’s protective, like how he brought me all the way to Michigan because he was worried, even though I was only a girl he’d known in high school and hadn’t talked to in years.

The fight happened in high school, too. Some guys were pushing around another boy, and he was younger and smaller.

Will told them to stop. They didn’t and he stepped in, and he ended up throwing one out of the way. ”

Both women nodded, as if a man throwing another person was a normal thing that they might have seen before.

“That kid ended up going down a flight of stairs by mistake, and it ended up being two flights, because he kept rolling,” I continued.

I looked across the bar and saw Will talking to someone who must have been another Woodsmen player, because he was just that large.

He looked back at me and I smiled at him.

“Good grief,” Kasia said. “Was the other guy injured?”

“Not too bad,” I assured her, “but Will got in trouble over it. He was already so important, though, because of football. And basketball, and baseball, too. The whole sports department depended on him so they couldn’t suspend him or make a big stink, and they had to punish him in another way. It was me.”

“What?” Audrey asked.

“I was new to the school and I was already failing my classes. My grandma didn’t know what to do, so she had been showing up at the principal’s office to get me help.

She went a few times a week to meet with them, and seeing her there must have given someone an idea.

They made Will tutor me as community service, a punishment for the fight, and that’s how we met.

He was really good at school, really smart,” I explained, “and he helped me a lot. Even when he didn’t have to come over anymore because the vice principal wasn’t making him, he kept on showing up to read with me and to study.

And he would help my grandma, too, like with moving heavy things or doing yard work. ”

“But you said you didn’t keep in touch,” Kasia noted. “Not even after all that?”

I shook my head. “We didn’t talk for years.

” I watched him finally approaching, a glass in each hand.

I took mine, said thank you, and introduced him to these ladies.

Then Kasia also introduced me to her fiancé Tyler, a guy that I hadn’t really noticed before when I’d watched the Woodsmen games.

When the offense was on the field, I had read a book or done some cleaning.

We all talked for a while, and it was a fun party. There were a few people who were loud and a few who acted too good for the rest of us, but I enjoyed myself a lot. Most of the other guests asked how Will and I knew each other, and his story was different from mine.