"I'm going with you."
"To the locker room?"
She gave an abrupt nod. "To the locker room."
Ron regarded her uncertainly but made no comment as he led the way through the subterranean depths of the stadium. They entered a locker room that was ominously quiet. With the exception of their helmets, the players were fully dressed, and she felt as if she had stumbled into a land populated by titans. On the field, they were enormous, but trapped indoors wearing full battle gear, their size was truly awesome.
Some of them stood while others hunched on wooden benches with their knees splayed and hands dangling loosely from bent wrists. Bobby Tom and Jim Biederot sat on a long table at the side, their backs resting against the wall. All of their faces were grim as they listened to Dan speak.
"… we're playing our own game out there tonight. We're not going to win with field goals. We've got to win in the red zone. We've got to win in short-yardage situations…"
Dan was so intensely focused on his players that he didn't notice she and Ron had entered the locker room until he had finished.
Ron cleared his throat. "Uhm… Miss Somerville wanted to stop by and wish all of you luck tonight."
Dan's frown indicated that she was unwelcome. Forcing herself to ignore him, she pasted her brightest smile on her face and stepped into the middle of the locker room. She swallowed her self-consciousness and assumed a pinup pose that showed off her outfit. "Hi, guys. What do you think? Pretty nifty, huh?"
Several of the men smiled, but she knew it was going to take more than a fashion show to cut through their tension. Although she was the last person to consider herself an authority on football, several facts seemed clear to her. The Stars had superb players and excellent coaching, but for some reason, they couldn't manage to hold on to the football. To her mind, that was a mental problem, not a physical one, and ever since yesterday's plane ride, she couldn't shake the idea that they wouldn't fumble so much if they could just relax a little and have fun.
She stepped up on one of the benches near the front so she could see everybody. "Okay, guys, here goes. My first and—I sincerely hope—last locker room speech."
Several of them smiled.
"I have complete faith in Coach Calebow. Everybody tells me that he's a wonderful football strategist and a great motivator of men. Besides, he's's-o-o-o cute."
As she had hoped, they began to laugh. She didn't risk looking at Dan to see how he was receiving her teasing. Instead, she puckered her brow. "Not that the rest of you aren't cute, too. Except for Webster. I've seen Krystal in action, and, believe me, I'm not even looking in Webster's direction."
More laughter. Webster grinned and ducked his head in embarrassment.
Her own smile faded. "What I want to tell you is this. If you win tonight's game, you'll make my life easier as far as the press is concerned, but, to be totally honest, beating the Giants is more important to all of you than it is to me. I mean, I can only get so worked up about a football game, and—"
"Miss Somerville…" The warning note in Dan's voice was plain.
She hastily went on. "However, as incredible as it seems to me, I've actually gotten to like a few of you oversized bozos, and since all of you want to win so badly tonight, I'm going to tell you how to do it."
Even though she was deliberately avoiding looking at Dan, she could feel those fierce green eyes boring holes right through her skin. Regardless of her position as team owner, this was his turf, and she had invaded it. Still, she went on. "Coach Calebow has eons of experience, and I'm sure you should pay attention to everything he's told you. But if you'll do just this one little thing for me, I can practically promise you success."
She could feel the anger rolling off Dan's body. He had spent the entire week working the team into a killing frenzy, and she was blithely undoing all his efforts. She had to set aside her own survival instinct so she could concentrate on the men, not an easy feat when he was standing so close. "Tonight, gentlemen, when you line up on that field, I want you to do this." She paused. "I want you to pretend that the Giants are naked."
They were staring at her as if she had lost her mind, which probably wasn't all that far from the truth. She heard a few nervous chuckles, and regarded the offenders with mock gravity.
"I am absolutely serious. When the Giants are lined up, just pretend that guy across from you, on the other side of the—" Her mind went blank, and she turned to Ron. "What's that thing called?"
"The line of scrimmage?" Ron offered.
"Right. Pretend the guy across the line of scrimmage from you is naked. It'll work. Really. I promise you. It's a trick I learned in school to overcome stage fright. I mean how can you be seriously worried about getting beat by some guy who has his—uh—stomach hanging out?" She smiled brightly. "So, for tonight… Think naked!"
For better or for worse, the tension in the locker room was gone. As the men's shoulder pads shook from their laughter, she knew she had accomplished her goal, and she finally allowed her own instinct for survival to kick in.
Jumping down from the bench, she made a dash for the door. "I'll see all of you on the field."
Unfortunately, Dan caught her before she could escape, and her courage flagged as she saw that his face was pale.
"You've gone too far, Phoebe. When the game is over, you and I are going to have it out for the last time."
She swallowed hard and slipped past him.
Ron found her twenty feet down the hallway, where she'd collapsed against the wall.
Chapter 17
« ^ »
The Giants' defensive line was stunned the first time they took their positions at the line of scrimmage and found themselves staring through their masks at eleven grinning faces. None of them could figure out why a team with a one-and-four record was smiling unless they had a few dirty tricks tucked up their sleeves. The Giants didn't like surprises, and they definitely didn't like to see the opponents smiling.
Words were exchanged.
Unfortunately for the Giants' defense, several of those words reflected unfavorably on the morals of Darnell Pruitt's mother. On the next play, the infuriated Stars' offensive tackle took out two powerful linemen and an All-Pro linebacker to produce a first down.
It was beautiful.
By the time the first quarter had ended, the Stars were ahead by three, and Phoebe had nearly screamed herself hoarse. Although the violence on the field still made her flinch, she'd gotten so involved in the game she forgot she was supposed to return to the skybox until Ron appeared to escort her. As he led her through the gate that would take her from the field, she was so caught up in the excitement that she turned back toward the bench, cupped her hands around her mouth, and screamed, "Think naked!"
She realized too late that she was making even more of a spectacle of herself than usual, but the players who were nearby grinned. Fortunately, Dan was too engrossed in diagramming a play to notice.
During the second quarter, Biederot engineered a touchdown drive ending in a pass to the Stars' rookie halfback, while the Giants could manage only a field goal. When the whistle blew, the Stars were ahead by seven.
Phoebe had already decided that she would only make a fool of herself during the dreaded halftime interview with ABC's Al Michaels if she pretended knowledge that she didn't have, so she responded honestly to all of the questions directed at her and shared with the audience the difficulties her own ignorance of the game was giving her. She decided that she'd done as well as she could when, at the end of the halftime show, Michaels remarked to Frank Clifford that he thought Phoebe Somerville was trying to make the best of a difficult situation and that she deserved a chance to prove herself. Michaels also took a few pokes at her father's screwball will, expressing the opinion that Bert Somerville had done an injustice to Phoebe, Reed Chandler, and the Stars.
The second half was excruciating. Her neck muscles ached with tension as she twisted her head from the field below to the skybox te
levision screen. Ron had stripped off his jacket and pulled down his necktie. Jim Biederot was only intercepted once, and put on a dazzling passing display. Bobby Tom performed flawlessly, and the defense was awesome. There were no Star fumbles.
When the game was finally over, Phoebe threw herself from Viktor to Ron, while Pooh yipped at her heels and the Scoreboard flashed the outcome: Stars 24, Giants 10.
She declined Ron's request to come with him to the locker room. Instead, she and Viktor stayed in the skybox and watched the short postgame interviews that had recently been added to the Monday night game. Dan managed to be both modest and jubilant, heaping praise on his players. His words came to her in snatches.
"Great heads-up play by the defense… a lot of quarterbacks fancier than Jim Biederot, but no one's got more heart… We got burned on the blitz a couple of times, but we came right back…" He concluded the interview by saying, "You're not going to find a better ball club than the Giants. We're just glad we were ready for them."
Al Michaels congratulated Dan on the win, then moved to Bobby Tom, who had pulled his Stetson over his matted hair. "Bobby Tom, you were open all night. How do you account for that?"
Bobby Tom gave the camera his best Lone Star grin. "We worked hard this week. And, Al, I can't say enough good things about the way Jim threw the ball tonight…"
After several more questions, Michaels turned to Webster Greer. "What do you think made the difference for the Stars this week, Webster?"
Webster tugged on the towel that he'd hung around his neck, which was still glistening with sweat. "We've been a good ball club all season, but we've been tight. Miss Somerville talked to all of us before the game and helped us relax a little. We went out there and forced the Giants to play our game. It made a difference."
Al Michaels hadn't earned his reputation as one of the best sportscasters in the business by letting a tidbit like that slip by him. "Exactly what did she tell the team?"
Greer smiled and rubbed the towel over the back of his neck. "Nothing much. A couple of jokes. She's a nice lady."
Phoebe's cheeks flushed. She felt as if she'd been handed a valentine.
It was nearly two in the morning before the plane left Newark for O'Hare. Even though the victory was only a few hours old, Ron was already thinking about next week.
"We picked up momentum tonight," he said as the plane reached its cruising altitude and the seat belt light went off. "I hope we don't lose it."
"Try to relax and enjoy the victory. They're not worried." She tilted her head toward the back of the plane, where the raucous noise of the players celebrating could be clearly heard.
"I suppose you're right."
Three rows ahead of her, she heard Dan laugh at something Tully had said. So far, she'd managed to avoid him, but she hadn't forgotten his threat. She wanted to believe that he understood what she'd been trying to do before the game, but somehow she doubted that he'd be as gracious as Webster.
Almost as if he were reading her thoughts, he turned his head and scowled at her. She watched with alarm as he began to unfasten his seat belt. Jumping quickly to her feet, she slipped past Ron and escaped to the back of the plane, where the battered players greeted her boisterously. She visited with all of them, but when Darnell asked her to get Pooh, she declined. She was already living in the danger zone, and she saw no need to dig in any deeper.
Ron was asleep by the time she returned to the first-class cabin. He barely stirred when she slid past him into her seat. As soon as she was settled, she leaned against the window and shut her eyes, only to discover that all the diet soda she'd consumed had caught up with her. Easing back out into the aisle, she walked hastily past Dan's first row seat and slipped into the lavatory.
She hated using airplane toilets. She was always afraid the plane would choose the exact moment she was most defenseless to crash, and she'd spend her final seconds of life spiraling toward earth with her bottom bare to the world. As a result, she hurried through, washed her hands, and was just opening the bolt on the door when it flew out of her grasp. Before she could react, Dan squeezed in next to her and shot the bolt back into its locked position.
"What do you think you're doing!"
His massive body pressed her up against the washbowl. "I'm giving us a little privacy so we can talk."
The tiny cubicle was much too cramped for both of them. One of his knees wedged between her thighs and her breasts flattened against his chest. It was hard for her to catch her breath.
"I don't want to talk to you now. It's obvious you're going to lose your temper, and I don't happen to feel like being yelled at."
Anger crackled from him. "Maybe you should have thought of that before you stormed into my locker room tonight."
"I didn't storm in!"
"You came this close to sabotaging a whole season's work!" His eyes narrowed into the same fierce slits that had found the weakness in the most awesome defensive lines in professional football. "I want my players focused before the game, not distracted from the jobs they have to do with a lot of idiotic mumbo jumbo. If those men ever needed proof that you don't understand this game, they got it tonight. You don't have any idea what they're facing when they run onto the field. It's serious business out there, not some kind of joke."
She struggled to squeeze past him, but she didn't have a prayer. His body pressed harder against hers, and his voice was low and furious.
"I don't ever want you doing what you did tonight, you hear me? You stay out of the locker room before the game. You're just lucky they're disciplined enough that your little exhibition didn't distract mem so much it cost us a win!"
She stared at him. "You don't have a clue why I was there, do you? You have no idea what I was trying to accomplish. My God, you really do think I'm some brainless bimbo."
"After listening to your asinine theories about naked football players, I'm not going to argue with you there."
She'd never thought of herself as a short-tempered person, but now her fist shot up from her side, and she punched him in the ribs as hard as she could.
He gave a soft "oof" and stared at her incredulously. She stared back, unable to believe what had just happened. Even though she was too close to have put any real force behind the blow, she had still struck another human being, something she had never done in her life. This man was turning her inside out, and the fact that she had let herself be pushed so far made her even angrier. A red mist swirled before her eyes.
"You stupid, pigheaded, simple-minded jock! I'll tell you what's wrong with me! I'm saddled with a head coach who is not only an emotional six-year-old, but mentally deficient as well."
"Deficient!" he sputtered. "Now you listen to me—"
Her elbow hit the mirror behind her as common sense fled, and she jabbed him in the chest with her index finger. "No! You listen to me, buster, and you listen well. I was in that locker room—not because I wanted to be there—but because you've managed to get my football team so tense that they haven't been able to hold on to the football."
"Are you actually suggesting—"
"You, Mr. Jock Strap, may be a brilliant strategist, but your knowledge of human nature is just about zero."
"You don't have the slightest idea—"
"Anytime—" She jabbed him again, punctuating the syllables with her index finger. "A-ny-time, do you hear me, that I want to address my players in my locker room, I will do it. Anytime I feel they're too tense, too jumpy, too uptight to do the job I am paying them a ridiculous amount of money to do, I'll stand in front of them and strip, if I want to. I'll do whatever I judge necessary to make certain that the Chicago Stars are able to do what they are supposed to do, which, in case you have forgotten, is what I helped them do tonight. That is, to win a football game! I, Mr. Pigskin-For-Brains, am the owner of this football team; not you. Do I make myself absolutely clear?"
There was a long pause. Her cheeks were flushed, her heart pounding. She was appalled at her loss of control, and s
he braced herself for his retaliation, but instead of exploding, he almost seemed distracted.
"Uh-huh."
She gulped. "That's all you have to say?"
The plane hit a patch of turbulence, pressing his hips more firmly against hers. Her eyes flew open as she realized he was fully aroused.
Looking vaguely embarrassed, he held up both hands. "It's not intentional. I know you're trying to make a point and I heard every word you said. Honest. But you kept wiggling while you were talking, and the plane started to bounce, and—I don't know. It just happened."
Her temper rekindled. "I'm not in any mood for this."
"Neither am I. Not mentally, anyway. As for physically…"
"I don't want to hear it."
The jouncing continued, rocking their bodies together. Once again he shifted his hips, cleared his throat. "Are you—uh—seriously trying to tell me that you think you're—uh—responsible for us beating the Giants?"
The mildness of his tone, the hot friction between their bodies, took the starch out of her. "No… Not exactly… Of course not. Well, maybe a little bit… Partly. Yes, definitely partly."
"I see." He ducked his head and braced both hands on each side of the counter behind her. His hair smelled of pine and spice from his postgame shower. She could feel his thumbs against her hips. The plane continued to bounce and she fought to ignore the thrilling abrasion of her breasts rubbing against his chest.
"You're a loose cannon," he said quietly, "and I don't like surprises." His jaw brushed her hair as he spoke. "If you thought there was a problem with my coaching, you should have talked to me about it."
"You're right. Theoretically." Her voice sounded as if it were coming from a distance. "But, you can be intimidating."
Once again, she felt the soft caress of his jaw against her hair. "So can you."