Power Play (Play Makers Book 4) (34 page)

“Call him Dub,” Spurling advised with a
chuckle. “Otherwise we’ll get confused about who’s in charge.”

Darcie laughed too, knowing that wasn’t
likely, and Jake Dublin grinned to confirm it. “I’m just here for
the food.”

“Me too,” she quipped.

Spurling took her by the arm and led her
inside, explaining, “Dub’s engaged to my niece. So he’s practically
family.”

“That’s cool,” Darcie assured Jake.

“Yeah, you should both come to the wedding.
It’s gonna be epic,” he insisted.

Darcie wondered how Johnny would feel if the
Surgeon showed up at a family event, but decided not to overthink
it. Jake was just being polite, wasn’t he?

Or possibly just being a troublemaker, since
he had a mischievous gleam in his eye when he insisted, “Sit with
me,
Darcie. We can talk hot dogs while these two do their
football thing.”

“She’s sitting with Wyatt,” Spurling
corrected him. “But you can entertain her.”

When Jake flashed a mischievous smile, she
melted just a bit. So cute! Reminiscent of Sean, but brawnier and
definitely wilder.

“Tell them how you met my Sophie while I
serve the food,” the coach was saying as Wyatt pulled out a chair
for Darcie then dragged a second chair from the far end of the
table and placed it close to her. Romantic. Or maybe just staking
his claim.

For the next ten minutes, the dinner was
served as Darcie and Wyatt heard the hilarious story of how Jake
had run into a pretty blonde in an elevator and had fallen for her
on the spot. And because he wasn’t a coach at that time, but rather
a sports journalist and blogger, he had blogged about his
adventures with “Elevator Girl,” delighting his readers but failing
to come clean with Sophie about her Internet stardom. Every time he
tried to clue her in on the joke, something prevented it. And so he
dug the hole deeper, and deeper, and
deeper . . .

“Oh, my God,” Darcie told him, catching her
breath from a new spate of laughter. “She must have been
so
mad. I would have
killed
you.”

“She’s a Spurling, so she’s a sport. You’ll
see when you meet her.” He quirked an impish eyebrow in Wyatt’s
direction. “What about you? How’d you meet Darcie?”

Knowing how private Wyatt was, she expected
him to respond the way he had when his family begged for a Bourne
story. Instead, to her shock, he leaned back, grinned, and said,
“So I’m on this flight from Newark to LA. Minding my own business,
right? And this gorgeous woman sits next to me. I’m weighing my
options when she says, ‘Excuse me, Doctor, but my boarding pass is
under your shoe.’”

Coach Spurling asked, “‘Doctor’?”

“That’s what
I
said. And
she
said she heard someone at the gate refer to me as a doctor. And I
said, ‘Are you sure they didn’t say “surgeon”?’ And she says,
‘What’s the difference?’”

Jake howled and even Spurling seemed to find
it hilarious.

“That’s not the best part,” Wyatt assured
them, wrapping his arm around Darcie’s shoulders. “I told her my
name, and that I was an NFL quarterback, and she says, ‘Really?
Because
I’m
a sports agent.’”

Jake roared again, slamming the table with
his palm. “This stuff’s gold, Darcie. Were you putting him on?”

When she pretended to glare, Wyatt jumped
in, assuring him, “It was her first day on the job. Fast-forward
two months and she
owns
the league.”

“Yeah, I’ve seen the evidence,” Jake
agreed.

“And speaking of the league,” Spurling
interjected, pushing his plate away and reaching for an orange from
an overflowing bowl in the middle of the table. “That was some game
you played, Wyatt.”

Wyatt’s mood grew wary. “That means a lot,
sir, coming from you. And obviously I can’t say enough about the
Rustlers.”

“Yeah, too bad Stoddard crapped out,” Jake
muttered.

Wyatt turned to Darcie. “Luke Stoddard was
their starting quarterback. An amazing talent. But the pressure got
to him, which is understandable since he was a rookie.”

Darcie knew a nuance when she heard one, so
she picked out an orange of her own, then focused on the discussion
at hand. Wyatt Bourne, the effing Surgeon, didn’t need career
advice from anyone, not even an idol. But Coaches Spurling and
Dublin needed guidance on their rookie QB, and who better to get it
from than Wyatt?

Of course, they could have asked Johnny—the
reigning Super Bowl QB—but for some reason this worked better for
his dad. Pride, maybe? Or just simple logistics, since the coach
and Wyatt had run into each other.

Jake spoke again. “The coach told me about
your idea, Wyatt. It’s something we’ve been kicking around
ourselves. Bringing in an experienced QB—hypothetical at this
point, obviously—as a mentor for Luke. But someone who can win
games for us right out of the chute.”

Wyatt hunched forward like he was in a
huddle, and Darcie had to smile. She had seen Johnny do this,
hadn’t she? So maybe the two QBs weren’t so different after
all.

One thing was clear—Dublin, Spurling and
Wyatt had reached the true purpose for this chili fest: salvaging
Luke Stoddard and thereby salvaging the Rustlers’ second season in
the NFL. What a tribute to Wyatt that Spurling would value his
opinion this way. And apparently not just about the benefit to
Stoddard, but to the whole team. Because once the three men started
plotting in earnest, there was no position left untouched.

Wyatt had opinions on moving the current
right tackle to center in order to make the snaps—well, snap. He
saw a mediocre corner as a promising running back if they would
just give him a chance. Almost every position, every player, came
under the Surgeon’s microscope.

Spurling agreed with virtually every
observation, then upped the ante by insisting his own play-calling
had been too conservative, mostly in deference to his rookie
quarterback. Wyatt was all over that, citing chapter and verse, or
in this case? Specific plays in specific games. It was way too
technical for Darcie, and she was pretty sure there weren’t any
nuances in this minutae, so she followed Spurling’s lead and
focused on peeling her orange.

Spurling’s eagle eye caught the movement and
he grinned. “You like oranges?”

“Apparently not as much as
you
do,”
she teased him, gesturing toward the giant fruit bowl.

“I keep them on hand for my daughter-in-law.
She likes grating orange peel into her hot chocolate. And I like
seeing her do it.”

“Yum, I’ll have to try that.” She smiled.
“Are we talking about Erica? Or Jason’s wife?”

“Erica,” he confirmed. “You know her?”

“We’re already friends,” Darcie said. Then
she winced at Wyatt. “Sorry, where were we? More defense? More
running plays? I lost count.”

The men laughed, then Jake told her, “The
point is, we want to help Stoddard, because he’s a wreck. But we
have a responsibility to the rest of the guys as well. Bringing in
an experienced quarterback—a
hypothetical
one, obviously—who
can mentor Luke while helping us build a stronger team seems like
the way to go.”

“It’s a great idea,” she agreed. “The
question is, are there any experienced QBs available at this point?
Aren’t they all spoken for?”

Unnerved by the dead silence around the
table, she looked at Wyatt and asked warily, “What am I
missing?”

“Nothing,” he assured her. “We’re just
shooting the breeze.”

Spurling reached across the table to touch
her hand. “When your quarterback falls apart, the whole team
collapses. So it’s a multi-level approach. Bring in another starter
without demoralizing the troops. Give them something to shoot for.
And if possible, restore the backup QB’s confidence.”

“By mentoring him,” Wyatt added. “But in a
nonthreatening way. He needs to know he’s not
losing
his
starting job. Just taking a step back to regroup. The veteran has
his back, teaching him some tricks, buying him time to mature, then
handing back the reins when he’s ready.”

“Meanwhile,” Jake explained, “we’re
strengthening the rest of the offense, thanks to the expertise of
the veteran QB
.
That in turn will inspire the defense. We
made it to the playoffs last year, right? Because the whole team
was on a Spurling-Stoddard high. But with Stoddard imploding, no
one thinks we can do it again. Vegas predicts five wins, so there’s
that. We’d
love
to prove them wrong. Make it to the playoffs
again. Maybe even the division title. And the year after that, if
we stay on course . . .” His breath caught in his
throat. “Man, who knows?”

Spurling and Wyatt seemed equally
enthralled, with Spurling insisting, “This could be the defining
moment for our team. They’re young, but with this kind of
inspiration? A top-tier quarterback with laser-like precision and
an uncanny feel for the game? The sky’s the limit.”

A top-tier quarterback with laser-like
precision and an uncanny feel for the game?

Darcie’s brain cells exploded. They were
talking about Wyatt!
He
was the experienced veteran who
could mentor Luke Stoddard, redesign their offense and defense, win
games left and right—

And then what?

The men had resumed their kingdom building,
but she could barely listen. He had asked her to pick up the
nuances. Instead, they were clubbing her over the head!

So she raised her palm to stop them,
insisting hoarsely, “Can I say something?”

“Of course,” Wyatt assured her.

“That’s why you’re here,” Spurling
agreed.

“Okay, then.” She took a deep breath,
reminding herself to respect the convention. This was all
hypothetical. Some anonymous veteran QB. Just shooting the breeze,
right?

“You’re saying you could bring in an
experienced quarterback to mentor Stoddard. To take the pressure
off him. Teach him all the tricks. Meanwhile the experienced guy
would run the offense. Brainstorm strategy. Help you re-tool from
the ground up, maybe even recommend new blood. The Rustlers
skyrocket toward a title. NFL minds are literally blown. And after
that unprecedented accomplishment, the veteran just hands the
starting job back to Stoddard?” Eyeing them coolly, she drawled, “I
don’t think so.”

Wyatt covered her hand with his own.
“Helping Stoddard is the whole point, Darcie. His potential is
through the roof. All he needs is another year to mature. Then he
steps back into his old job.”

“Except his old job is gone.”

“No, Darce. You’re missing the point.”

Spurling chuckled sympathetically. “Listen
to your agent, son.”

“What?” Wyatt stared in disbelief. “I’m
sorry, sir, but I didn’t sign up for this. Stealing the kid’s job?
It’s the
opposite
of what I’m trying to do.”

Jake cleared his throat and weighed in.
“Here’s how
we
see it. Luke already lost his job. One way or
the other, we bring in a new starter this year. Someone
functional—which Luke isn’t. After that, we can draft or trade for
someone better. Or if by some miracle we can get someone
good—someone
great,
hypothetically—even better. But either
way, Stoddard never starts for the Rustlers again.”

Wyatt was shaking his head, half frustrated,
half desperate. “He can be great again—”

“We agree with you,” Spurling told him
firmly. “That’s the beauty of this approach. If we mentor him—give
him time to grow, to learn from the best—he can fulfill his destiny
someday with a playoff-caliber team. Or we can palm him off to a
lesser team when he’s still not ready. There are franchises that
will take him as-is, no doubt about it. But they’ll play him too
soon. Make the same mistake
I
made. And the next time he
self-destructs, it’ll be for good.”

“Do you see what Coach is saying?” Jake
pressed. “If Luke spends the next year learning from the best—being
his backup, his protégé—top-tier teams will fall all over
themselves to sign him a year from now. And he’ll step into a
winning situation. Thanks to you. Or someone
like
you,” he
added with a sheepish grin.

Ignoring the gaffe, Wyatt scowled. “If
that’s what we’re talking about, then we’re done.”

“Then Stoddard’s career is over,” Spurling
retorted. “Don’t do him the wrong favor, son. If we do this right,
everybody wins. Think about it.”

Darcie looped her arm through Wyatt’s. “We
know you don’t want to take his job. But his job is already gone.
The question is, will he find another one? Not just a do-over but a
full re-boot.”

Spurling grinned at Jake. “Write that one
down.”

Darcie sighed. “Maybe it’s like Coach
Spurling says. Maybe
everyone
wins under this new scenario.
Especially
Stoddard.”

Wyatt locked gazes with her, shutting
everyone else out. “It just feels wrong.”

“Then don’t do it. These guys can find
another top-tier, unselfish mentor who can take this kid to the
next level. They’re a dime a dozen, right?”

He laughed reluctantly. “Did anyone ever
tell you you’re obnoxious?”

“All the time.”

Spurling re-took the reins. “Now that we’ve
got the easy stuff out of the way, let’s gut-check this puppy.”

Darcie giggled. “Excuse me?”

“We never had this hypothetical discussion.
But if we want it to be more than bullshit,
you’ve
got some
work to do.”

“Me?”

“Or someone like you.
I
know
football. So does Dub. Wyatt’s the Surgeon for a reason. And
you’ve
got potential up the wazoo. But no one in this room
can crack this nut. For that, we need a master. And there aren’t
many of ’em.” Quirking a gray eyebrow, he said carefully, “Your
boss being the only one I can think of.”

Darcie drew back, honestly shocked.
“Murf?”