Fire Inside by Dawn Douglas

Author:Dawn Douglas [Douglas, Dawn]
Language: eng
Format: epub

BY THEIR St. Patrick’s Day home game, the Fire Foxes were beyond hot, even hotter than Maria Brady had hoped for in her wildest dreams back when she’d hired me at the beginning of January, and if it wasn’t 100 percent thanks to Tyler, well, he was by far the biggest factor. Watching him from behind the bench was like seeing poetry in motion. He’d always been good, but these days, there were times I thought the kid must have grown wings when I wasn’t looking. We were on a nearly seven-week-long winning streak, one of the best in the history of the game, and we hadn’t lost at home since before Christmas, which had put us within striking distance of the top five home winning streaks of all time. Most of the time, the Fire Foxes had three, occasionally four games a week. About half of the games were away, about half of them at home.

When they were playing in St. Louis, lots of the players had full-on retinues that buzzed around them thick as flies after the home games. The crowds around the players got bigger with every win, but Tyler still just had me. He didn’t seem to mind the lack of attention, though, and we’d fallen into a definite post-game pattern that hadn’t changed significantly with my seat shift.

One thing that could always be counted on, no matter where the team played or which column the game ended up in, was the Gutter Groupies. Gutter Groupies were women hoping to catch the attention of a player. They were always thick on the ground as soon as the team started trickling out of the field house. Lots, maybe even most, of the players—and the players’ staffs—availed themselves of the ladies’ charms.

But Tyler almost never even glanced at them, rushing past and getting into whatever car we drove like his ass was on fire. I’d asked him once how he made it through the gauntlet when he was on the road, and he’d mumbled that he always made sure to be the first one on the bus back to whatever hotel the team was staying at. By the way he shivered when he said it, though, I knew it couldn’t always be quite that easy. But I also knew I couldn’t fight all the kid’s battles. He’d made it through years without me—I trusted him at that point to tell me when he needed me. And so far, he hadn’t asked me to break the player staff taboo and start traveling with him.

At that point, I’d been with Tyler for three months, and I knew the kid’s drill. At least, I thought I did. That night in mid-March, the Fire Foxes had their first home loss since I’d been taking care of Tyler. To say that the kid took it hard was a gross understatement.

I’d watched every minute of the game. The center from the opposing team had earned a technical foul when he slammed Tyler into the ground early in the first quarter.

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