“I just thought she had the day off,” Smitty adds. “Or that she was visiting Ollie.”
Several of the other guys express their dismay loudly, and I hold up a hand for silence.
I explain the situation as concisely as possible, revealing that Banks blew Ollie off right before the accident, and how he fired Ava to cover his ass using breach of contract as an excuse.
Mac’s eyes go round. “That’s messed up.”
Bates, who’s been slouching in his chair and chewing on his straw, straightens. “Dude. You’re such a hypocrite.”
“Excuse me?” I just told them Ava’s been fired and Banks is an incompetent asshole, and that was his key takeaway?
“You told the rest of us not to so much as look at Ava, and you’ve been hooking up with her all season.”
When he puts it like that, it does sound pretty shitty.
“That was Coach’s directive, not mine. It’s why we had to keep our relationship a secret.” I scrub a hand over my face, hoping I won’t regret this. “The thing is, Ava and I already knew each other when she moved to Atlanta. We met five years ago. In Cancún.”
“No shit.” Forey cocks his head. “Wait. Are you saying Ava’s the girl in the photo strip? Your lucky charm?”
“Yeah,” I confirm, nodding. “She is.”
“Holy shit,” Hardy breathes.
Might as well tell them everything. After all, in for a penny…
“I lost a bet to her the night we met and ended up with my first tattoo.”
Despite the current circumstances, I smile to myself.
Things were so much simpler then…
“But, Cap, you only have one tat—holy shit,” Mac all but squeals. “Ava’s the one who made you get a flamingo tattooed on your ass?”
D-Vo cackles, and I shoot him the side-eye.
“Small world, right?” he asks between peals of laughter.
“I’ve been thinking about Ava for five long years, and when she walked back into my life, I knew I couldn’t let her go again, despite the fraternization policy.”
“That’s wild.” Bash rubs his chin thoughtfully. “But what are we going to do about Banks? We can’t let him get away with this.”
“We must get justice for Ollie,” Fedy says, slapping his palm down on the table.
“And Ava,” Boosh adds. “He screwed her over too.”
“Exactly,” I say. “Ava has done more for this team in a few months than Banks ever has. She’s helped us bond, communicate better, play more cohesively. And that creep fired her to cover his own incompetence.”
“What do you think, Cap?” JoJo asks. “Can we fix this?”
I knew the guys would come through, but seeing it—hearing it—gives me an unexpected swell of pride. We’ve come a long way in a short time. We still have miles to go, though, and Ava should be here to make the trip with us. She earned it.
“I have a plan, but it only works if we do it together as a team. All of us equally committed, all of us prepared to pay the price.”
The mood shifts immediately, and the guys shoot each other curious glances.
To my surprise, it’s McGinnis who steps up. “We’re in, Cap. What do we need to do?”
35