Raging Fires by Candace Camp

Chapter Fifteen

The hydrotherapy room was mostly empty, just one guy on the underwater treadmill and Asa and Kowalski in the hot pool. Jake raised a hand in greeting to them as he went to the cold pool. The cold pool was better than the ice tubs, but getting in it still made his entire body shriek that he was insane. They better be right about it reducing inflammation because it felt like it was reducing his life span.

When he got out, he went to the hot pool, where Asa and Kowalski were still talking.

“So then I told her I’d take her to Burning Man to make up for it.” Kowalski was saying as Jake stepped down into the pool. “I don’t want to go to Burning Man.”

“Don’t worry,” Asa told the big offensive tackle. “She won’t still be around by then.”

“You talking about the woman who broke up with you last night?” Jake asked. “She’s back?”

Asa snorted. “Clearly you’re new around here. That was just Break-up Number 1.” Kowalski held up two fingers. “Sorry, Break-up Number 2. They’re still in the early stages of the relationship. She didn’t wreck his car, only busted out the tail lights.”

Jake stared. “Isn’t this the girl you said was a heartless whack-job?”

“Yeah. She is.” Kowalski shrugged.

“That’s Gramps’ type,” Asa explained.

“Look. Could we stop talking about my messed-up sex life?” Kowalski aimed a look at Jake. “I’m not the one who just got married and spent the night drinking with two dudes.”

“Fair enough.” Jake leaned back, spreading his arms out along the rim of the pool and studying the ceiling. After a few moments of silence, he said, “Was I really that big a tool back then? When I was first playing?”

“Just then?” Asa joked. “Seriously, I didn’t see you all that much our first year; I was just trying to survive with Denver. But, yeah, you were pretty bad. The screaming match with your receiver on the sidelines. Hitting that fan.”

“That was after Kelli left. I went… sort of nuts. I meant before that, when I first got all that money and was spending it like crazy. Going to all the clubs.”

“You were kind of an attention whore,” Kowalski said.

“Wait. I didn’t even know you,” Jake protested.

“Hey, man, you were all over the media. Couldn’t help but see.”

Jake sighed, closing his eyes. “It was all so much—the money, the praise, everybody wanting a piece of me, the expectations… I don’t know.  I was on top of the world, feeling like I was the best quarterback ever; I was going to show everyone I was worth it. I felt like I couldn’t stop, had to keep going or they’d… I don’t know.”

“Find out you were a fraud?” Kowalski offered.

“Excuse me?” Jake opened his eyes and glared at the other man.

“I don’t mean, you, you. I mean everyone in general, you.” Kowalski went on, “That’s how it was for me. I was thinking, they’re crazy, this much money for a tackle? Tackles don’t go in the first round. I mean, Andre Smith, okay, but not me. I’m a workhorse, you know, not a star. And I was scared as hell that they’d figure out that they’d made a mistake. That they’d realize I didn’t know what I was doing.”

“It’s the money, man,” Asa put in. “It’s scary. What do you do with all that? It’s so much, it’s like meaningless numbers. Hell, I didn’t go in the first round, but it was still more money than I could wrap my head around. I didn’t grow up poor, but, you know, my dad was a postman, and my mom was a secretary. Just regular old middle class. I was scared of being one of those guys that wastes it all, but I didn’t know how to invest it. And I was even more terrified that it would go away. That I’d get cut. I bought a Mercedes and a house, and my whole rookie season, I kept thinking, that’s showing off, but then I’d think, no, I’d earned all that, and then I’d worry that I’d get cut and wish I’d kept it in cash. It was enough to mess with your head.”

“I didn’t spend it,” Kowalski said. “I did grow up poor, and I just wanted to hold onto it. I bought a car, but it was used, and I had a one-bedroom apartment. I didn’t know how to invest the money—neither of my parents ever even had bank accounts. There was no reason for them to, living paycheck to paycheck. So I just sat on it. Sometimes literally.” He laughed. “I hid some of it in an old recliner that—” Kowalski looked up. “Hey, Neil.”

“You literally sat on what?” Moran stepped into the pool and sat down, letting out a blissful sigh. He must have just done the cold plunge, too.

“My signing bonus. Salary too.”

“We were talking about our first money.” Asa explained. “Jake here spent like a made man in a mob movie, Kowalski was a miser, and I was worried whatever I did was wrong. What did you do with yours?”

Neil shrugged. “Invested it. Well, I bought that classic Corvette. But I put most of it in stocks.”

“Of course you did,” Asa said

“Hey, in my defense, my dad’s a CPA.”

Kowalski let out a hoot, and Asa just shook his head. “You are such a Boy Scout, Moran.”

“No.” Neil grinned. “That’s one thing I wasn’t. Didn’t have time for it, with all the sports. You guys have no respect.” He turned toward Jake and gave him a quizzical look. “I’m surprised to see you here today.”

“Don’t be,” Kowalski told him. “This dude has got a more screwed up love life than me.”

“I didn’t know that was possible.”

“Trust me,” Jake told him. “It is. It really is.”