“This is not what I meant, and you know it!” she yelled. I pulled the phone away from my ear as she spat out an angry torrent of insults designed to get me to bow down and come running back to the fold. What she didn’t know was that I’d had enough and I wasn’t going to be intimidated.
“Mother, I’m going to say this only once, so I’ll speak slowly and clearly,” I said once she’d wound herself down. I could hear her breathing heavily on the other end and I knew that she was seething. “You told me to find a man and get married. You gave me the deadline of a month. You told me that I’d be disinherited if I did not do as you ordered. I’ve done everything you required, so I think you should back the hell off and leave me alone.”
“You are the most ungrateful and disrespectful child ever to have lived,” she hissed. “Your brother would never have spoken to me this way.”
“Well, we’ll never be able to prove that one way or another, now will we?” I said spitting venom. She had pushed all of my buttons and I was dangerously close to drawing blood.
“I don’t know what I did to deserve such a rude and hurtful daughter,” she said trying to shame me into line.
“I do,” I replied. “You’re being an unreasonable bitch and Daddy would be horrified to see how you’re treating me.”
“You ungrateful—you will pay for this terrible behavior, Payton Grace,” she hissed. “I will not tolerate disrespect and disloyalty from my own flesh and blood!”
“Then you probably should have thought through your decision to force me to get married,” I struck back. “Because this is all your own doing.”
On the other end, I heard a strangled cry and the line went dead. I stood holding the phone to my ear as if it would stave off the feelings of hurt, anger, and betrayal that were about to come crashing down on me. When it was clear that my mother was no longer on the line, I dropped the phone on the bed, sunk to the carpet covering my face with my hands, and wept.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Dax
After practice was over, I’d headed into the training room where the players showered and got ready for the afternoon meeting followed by dinner in the cafeteria. We had arranged to have around-the-clock meal service for the team with big meals at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but the logistics had been a nightmare since the university was in the midst of getting the campus ready for the start of the fall semester. This meant I had to spend precious time each day charming the various administrators and supervisors so that things would run smoothly.
I was headed up to the cafeteria to make the rounds when Nick stepped out of his office and motioned for me to join him inside.
“What’s up?” I asked as I entered the office.
“Close the door,” he said with a grim look on his face as he perched on the edge of a desk that took up more than half the space in the small room. I did as he asked and turned to find him rubbing his eyes.
“What’s wrong, Coach?”
“Dax, look, I know you like that girl and that you think she’s good publicity,” he sighed. “But she’s bad news.”
“How so?” I asked knowing that his objection had mainly to do with Payton being a Halas.
“No matter how you slice it, she’s suspect,” he continued. “It doesn’t matter whether she is or not, it’s the way things are going to be seen.”
“I don’t give a shit how things are going to be seen,” I shrugged.
“And that’s where you’re woefully unprepared to handle a professional football team,” he said, digging in. “Look, I know you have a lot of money and the best of intentions, but you’re going to run this team into the ground before it even gets a chance if you don’t stop treating this like one of your start-ups.”
“I’ve never treated this as anything other than what it is,” I said calmly.
“Bullshit. You’ve been running this team like an online gambling venture since the beginning,” he said growing agitated. “You’ve thrown money at us, but you haven’t invested in the long term structural foundation that will ensure we have a shot at the championship.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” I demanded. “I’ve given you every damn thing you’ve asked for! A team, a stadium, a coaching staff that is head and shoulders above the rest of the league, money for equipment, and anything else you’ve asked for!”
“You haven’t given me the autonomy to run the team how I see fit,” Nick said staring at me pointedly. “You micro-manage every aspect of the team and make me practically beg for everything.”
“Bullshit!” I spat.
“It’s not bullshit, Dax,” Nick said quietly. “I’m asking you to keep this woman away from my practice field because I don’t feel like it’s good for her to be observing our training camp or looking through our playbook.”
“She’s not a spy,” I muttered.
“Be that as it may, I don’t think it’s productive for the team,” he said as he picked up a folder off the desk and tucked it under his arm. “And if you insist on continuing to bring her to the practice field, I’m going to halt training until she leaves.”
“You can’t do that,” I said.