Chapter Twenty-Five
Dax
I waited until Payton emerged from the stairwell and entered the lobby before I headed out to the Navigator. I waited, holding the door open and not saying a word, as she swept out of the hotel and slid into the SUV. The ride to the training facility was icy and her silence told me that we’d lost whatever yardage we’d gained with the kiss.
I sighed as I looked out the window and tried to decide whether it was worth it to continue with this charade or if we should just agree to call it quits before it all blew up in our faces. I was mad at Payton for being such a spoiled, rich girl who threw a temper tantrum when she didn’t get her way.
As we pulled up to the training facility, I saw the press jump to attention. I looked over at Payton fully expecting her to still be angry with me and make me pay the price. Instead, she smiled brightly and reached out to take my hand.
“Let’s go do this, shall we?” she said squeezing my hand. I nodded, opened the door as she slid across the backseat, and exited the Navigator smiling up at me as if I were the center of her world. I held tightly to her hand as we pushed through the crowd without answering any questions.
“Mr. Connor, how long have you been dating Miss Lasky?” a reporter yelled.
“Is your mother upset, Miss Lasky?” another one shouted.
“How are you going to explain this to the Bears?” a third reporter yelled over the others.
Payton ignored the questions and focused on running the gauntlet with me. Security guards kept the crowd at bay as best they could, but they couldn’t stop them from snapping picture after picture of Payton and I hand in hand, but then we didn’t want them to either. Once we were safely inside the facility, I looked down at Payton and said, “Now that wasn’t so bad, was it?”
She gave me a look that let me know she wasn’t buying what I was selling and let go of my hand. I headed for the locker room with her close on my heels, but stopped her at the door.
“You can’t come in here,” I said.
“Are you serious?” she shot back incredulously. “Connor, I grew up in a damn locker room! There’s nothing in here that I haven’t seen before or even care about.”
“Uh huh,” I nodded skeptically. “Why don’t you meet me out on the field. I’ll have security walk you around.”
She muttered something under her breath before turning away. I sighed as I watched her follow the facility security guard through the hallway toward the practice field, and then went into the locker room to find Nick Wilcox. Nick’s assistants pointed me to the practice field saying he’d gone out to double check the equipment, so I headed out the player’s door on to the field.
As I exited the locker room, I heard Coach Wilcox’s voice rising above the din of the practice field, but I couldn’t make out what he was yelling until I got closer.
“Oh, hell no! You are not going to be allowed on my practice field, lady!” he shouted as I stepped around the players who’d gathered near the water table and were surreptitiously watching the commotion. “This is totally unacceptable!”
“Coach Wilcox…” Payton said calmly.
“NO! Absolutely not!” Wilcox yelled. “Get off of my field and away from my training camp!”
“Is there a problem here, Nick?” I asked as I stepped between him and Payton. Beads of sweat had formed on Nick’s upper lip and his face was beet red. To say that he was stressed was an understatement.
“This…woman cannot be at the Storm training camp, Dax!” Nick yelled as he pointed at Payton and stared at me. “She’s the enemy! She’s a goddamn Halas, for Christ’s sake! Have you lost your goddamn mind?”
“Watch your language, Nick,” I warned
“Oh please, I’ve heard and said far worse,” Payton scoffed. I turned and shot her a look that let her know I wasn’t fooling around. She nodded and backed down.
“Ms. Lasky is here as my guest,” I said looking back at the coach whose face was growing redder by the minute. “And as my guest, I’d ask you to extend her every courtesy that you’d extend any other guest of the Storm.”
“But Dax, we can’t—” he sputtered.
“Enough!” I roared. “I’m the owner of this team and Ms. Lasky is my guest. She is welcome on the field and at practice for as long as she likes. Got it?”
“Son of a,” Nick muttered as he kicked the turf and slammed his clipboard down on the bench. “This is ridiculous, Connor!”
“Not up for debate,” I said sternly. Nick shot me a look that told me everything he was thinking. I sympathized with his reasoning, but I also knew that Payton wasn’t going to go running back to the Bears with our playbook. She wasn’t a spy.
Nick walked up and down the sidelines for a few minutes and calmed down before he walked back out on the field and resumed training camp drills. I looked over at Payton, who had pulled her hat down low and was watching the opposite end of the field where our kicker was warming up for field goal practice.
“You okay?” I asked, resting a hand on her arm in an attempt to comfort her.
“Yeah, fine,” she nodded without looking at me.
Payton watched intently as the team moved through their practice drills, but she didn’t say a word to me for the rest of the afternoon.