The Las Vegas Saints are brand new. We don’t have any team traditions or team heroes from days of old. We’re still fairly new to practicing together, let alone playing together. I need to dig deep and find ways for us to become a cohesive unit.
Skydiving. Hell. Go big or go home, right?
A couple of hours later, Pike grins at me as he’s about to make his jump, the engine of the plane roaring in the background.
“See you on the other side, boys!” he calls out, waving as his instructor triple checks the equipment linking the two of them together.
When the two of them jump, Pike lets out an excited whoop. I look over at Pax, who grins, shrugs and offers to go next.
My stomach is churning with a mixture of nervousness and excitement. Mostly because I’m about to jump out of a fucking airplane, but also because I’m hoping this gives our team the shove we need to start playing not just for ourselves, but for each other.
We’re playing around .500, winning and losing about the same number of games. But the fire isn’t there. As captain, it’s my job to create that fire.
“Ready?” my instructor Randy asks me.
I give him a thumbs-up, getting a good look at the brown, rocky landscape below. Randy gives me the signal, and together we take the plunge.
The air hits my face with a whooshing sensation, and it feels like my stomach drops out of my body. But then…a euphoric sensation hits as I realize this is as close as I’ll ever get to flying. I put my arms out and take in the soft blue sky.
I savor every second, already knowing I want to do this again someday. Randy makes sure we have a smooth landing, and once I’m on the ground I get to watch the rest of the guys make their jumps.
“That was fucking incredible!” Grady yells as he reaches the ground.
This may or may not help us play better as a team, but either way, he’s right—it was a hell of a good time.
Later that evening, bronzed by a day in the sun and full from dinner and drinks with my teammates, I sit down on the side of the pool in the backyard of my house and call Gia.
“Aren’t you old-fashioned?” she says in answer. “With a phone call instead of a text.”
“Yeah, I’m not sure how we’ll handle this if you beg me for dick pics, though? Do I just describe it in great detail?”
She laughs. “Oh, God, please don’t.”
“I said when you ask. I’d never provide an unsolicited description of my junk.”
“Then we aren’t going to have a problem,” she says, a smile in her tone.
It sounds like there’s a kid screaming in the background, and I wonder if I caught her out at the grocery store.
“What are you up to?” I ask her. “And how’s Ro?”
“She’s…getting a huge kick out of all the videos of Pike rescuing her.”
The Internet spun the story of Pike carrying Ro to my car into a tale of him saving a woman after she was attacked on the Strip. He put a statement out on social media that she wasn’t attacked and he was just helping her get to the hospital after a fall, but that only fed the flames. It’s been two days since it happened, and the views just keep going up. It was approaching a million last time I heard.
“He thinks it’s pretty funny, too,” I tell Gia. “Did you go back to work last night?”
“No, Gia’s parents came home and her mom insisted on cooking for us. We were stuffed with pasta until we couldn’t eat another bite.”
“That’s nice, though, that she wanted to come over and help.”
There’s a pause. “Actually, we’re at their house. They were out of town seeing her dad’s sister but they came home yesterday after she told them she’d broken her foot and sprained her ankle.”
“Jack, leave your sister’s cast alone!” a stern female voice cries in the background.
Gia sighs softly into the phone. I sense she’s feeling tense.
“Well, that’s uh…good, if they have space for you guys, I guess.”
Gia laughs lightly. “Ro’s on the couch and I’m in a recliner. She’s already giving me the evil eye about going to work in…an hour and twenty minutes.”
I kick my feet lightly in the water of the pool, making small splashes.
“Do they just want you over there because Ro’s injured?” I ask.
“We have a third-floor apartment,” Gia explains. “Ro can’t do the stairs on crutches.”
“I’m willing to crawl!” Ro says in the background. “Jack, stop driving your cars over my cast, you little shit!”
They only let one person in the room with Ro at the hospital the other day, and that was Gia. When we arrived, the emergency department nurse told them they were very busy and it would take hours to get X-ray results and a cast if Ro needed one. Gia insisted Pike and I leave and said she’d update us later. If I had stayed, I would have known they couldn’t go back to their apartment.