Catching Cameron: A Love and Football Novel

by Julie Brannagh

  The first episode of Third and Long was broadcasting tonight. After investing in the best security-consulting money could buy, the Sharks’ training camp now resembled a high-security compound with better food and the latest video games. Cameron’s stalker was still in jail, unable to raise the half a million dollars in bail the judge asked for during his arraignment. The Sharks front office knew there most likely would not be a repeat of last week’s incident, but they didn’t want to risk it.

  Cameron was still on the job. She was interviewing fans and players in an off-field location. She was trailed by personal security everywhere she went, though. He knew she was spending the evening answering carefully-screened viewer questions on PSN’s Facebook page.

  He stuck the key in the front lock, only to hear the frantic barking of a twenty-pound puppy. “Butter. Buddy, it’s me. I’m home.”

  The puppy’s tail wagged so hard his entire body moved. He barked again.

  “Sit, Butter.”

  Butter looked up at him as if to say, Are you kidding? Play with me!

  “Butter. Sit.”

  The puppy sat. Zach gave him a pat on the head, which earned him more tail wags. He walked inside, tossing his keys on a small table inside the front door as he shut it behind him.

  “I’m home,” he called out.

  Seconds later, five women advanced on him at a run. Actually, his grandma couldn’t run any more, but he could see the glowing smile on her face as she moved toward him. Five women tried to talk to him at once, too.

  “Zach! What are you doing here?”

  “We made baked spaghetti for dinner. There should be plenty.”

  “Butter learned to roll over at obedience class.”

  “That show’s on tonight. Are you watching it with us?”

  Whitney threw her arms around his midsection. “I missed you.”

  He ruffled her hair. “I missed you, too. Did you get that paperwork in?”

  “Yeah.” She nodded vigorously. “It wasn’t as hard to fill out as I thought it was going to be.” He knew that wasn’t the whole story, but he’d be talking with her about that later.

  He wanted his kid sister to have the time of her life in college. Maybe she could pledge a sorority or go to some of the sporting events. Mostly, he hoped she could overcome the fear of being on her own for the first time. He would work to impress on her that even though she might be on her own, they weren’t far away.

  His sisters were tugging him toward the kitchen, and he let them. It smelled great in there. He felt a breeze from the open kitchen windows. The sun was still high in the sky, but late afternoon tinted everything in gold. Their kitchen décor was simple: He’d bought a hardwood expandable rectangular table and chairs from Ikea a few years ago. His sisters usually had a plant or flowers as a centerpiece in one of his grandma’s old glass vases. Whitney had painted a huge, colorful flower arrangement on a canvas which hung on one wall.

  Butter the puppy ran circles around them, barking excitedly and trying to jump on Zach. He reached down to scoop up the wriggling puppy, and Butter licked his chin.

  “How many times a day are you walking him now?”

  Shelby grinned up at him. “He goes out twice, but we’re wondering if he needs a walk at lunchtime. He’s crazed.”

  “The breeder warned me about that. I know it’s rough on all of you while I’m gone. How’s the chewing?”

  “We haven’t lost any shoes lately. He tried to snack on one of your game helmets, though.” Courtney scratched under Butter’s chin, which sent him into a wriggling, licking frenzy. “He didn’t like the taste. Even with the chewing, the trainer says he’s making great progress. She wondered if he’d like to take a few more classes so he could get a certification to be a therapy dog. He could visit kids in the hospital. He has the temperament for it, she said.”

  Zach held the little dog up to his face. “No eating the football helmets. Bad puppy.”

  Butter licked his nose and gave him a puppy grin. So much for the scolding. He cuddled the little dog against him. He knew he’d have to be firm with the dog, but it was hard to resist anyone who was so excited to see him. He also liked the idea of Butter’s getting additional training so he could come along when Zach went to visit sick kids at Children’s Hospital, for instance.

  “Do you want me to help you all with dinner?” Zach said. His grandma sat down at the kitchen table and nodded toward another chair. He lowered himself and Butter into it.

  “It’s all under control,” Shelby assured him. “We’ll eat in twenty minutes or so.” She sat down in the other chair. “How’s training camp going?”

  “So far, so good.” He leaned back in his chair and reached out for his grandma’s hand. “How’s my favorite girl?”

  “I’m fine.” She squeezed his hand with her much frailer, thinner one. He gave her hand a gentle squeeze in return; he knew her joints hurt. Her arthritis was getting worse. The girls would all go to school or work during football season. It was time he started thinking about a companion or nurse for her during the day and for when the team was on the road. She had so much trouble getting around, and she still tried to cook and clean for all of them. He’d told her he’d take care of it, but she resisted every time.

  “Grandma, what did the doctor say about those anti-inflammatories he had you on? Did he give you some that worked a little better?”

  “He says I would feel much better if I took up swimming or maybe a yoga class for older people.” She made a face. “I don’t know, honey. I’ll miss my shows if I’m gone all day.” His grandma was a daytime-TV junkie. She was always after him about what Dr. Oz had to say on any subject, which he found comical. She didn’t seem to understand that pro football teams had the best medical advice money could buy, but that was okay. He knew she loved him and was only trying to help.

  “Maybe I could find a yoga instructor who would come to our house. Would you like that?”

  “Just as long as he or she doesn’t expect me to get on the floor.”

  He had to laugh. “I promise he or she won’t. Let me look into it.” He set the puppy down on the floor by their feet and said, “Grandma, I have something to talk with you and the girls about.”

  ZACH PATTED HIS belly after a second helping of baked spaghetti, garlic bread, and salad. “That was delicious.”

  Ashley grinned at him from the other end of the table. “We’re glad you liked it. There’s freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies for dessert.”

  “I’ll try not to eat them all.” He glanced around at his sisters and his grandma. “Maybe we can have dessert in a few minutes. We need to have a conversation about something.”

  Whitney pushed her plate away and folded her arms. Ashley exchanged glances with Courtney and Shelby.

  His grandma started to stack the empty plates and got out of her chair to carry them to the sink. “No, Grandma,” he said. “Let me do that. You relax. Does anyone want some coffee or something else to drink?”

  “No.”

  “We’re fine.”

  “Don’t worry about it.”

  He had a bad feeling all four of his sisters knew what the topic of discussion was. Sure enough, when he returned to the table with a glass of his grandma’s sweet tea for himself, Whitney spoke up.

  “Is this about Cameron Ondine?”

  He tried to look casual. “That’s not a problem, is it?”

  “I don’t like her. She broke your heart. She’s not a nice person,” Whitney burst out.

  Of course, the other three chimed in.

  “Why are you talking to her?”

  “Her dad spread rumors about all of us—”

  “Please tell me you’re not going out with her again.”

  They’d evidently discussed the matter before he got there and agreed to present a united front as a result. He loved his sisters, but it would be great when they had other things to focus on besides his love life.

  “Girls,” his grandma said. “Let him
talk.”

  All four had now folded their arms over their chests and regarded him with varying degrees of anger and disappointment reflected in their faces. He let out a sigh.

  “Whitney, I was pretty mad at her when I thought she was trying to talk to you on-camera. You grabbed her as she went by, didn’t you?”

  His sister slouched in her chair. In seconds, she was the eight-year-old he remembered that got in trouble for throwing peas at her older sisters during dinner. “Yes,” she mumbled.

  “I heard you weren’t very polite to her.”

  Whitney’s head snapped up. “I don’t like her! Why can’t you date someone like Holly? She’s nice. She likes us.”

  He hauled breath into his lungs, and sat up a little straighter in his chair. “I enjoy talking with Holly, but she’s eleven years younger than I am. Even if I was interested, that’s a pretty big age gap.” He looked around the table at his sisters. “I understand that you are worried about my talking to Cameron or spending time with her again. The reason why I wanted to talk with you about what’s going on is that I’m sure you’re not going to be happy with some of the things you’ll see on the TV show tonight, and I thought you might want a little warning ahead of time.”

  “What things?” Shelby demanded from the other end of the table.

  “Are you dating her?”

  “Zach, why?”

  His grandma reached out to put her hand over his again.

  “People have made snap judgments about all of us since we were little. What did we learn from that?” he asked them.

  “It’s not the same thing,” Ashley burst out. “She’s going to hurt you again.”

  “Yes, it is the same thing. You’ve never actually talked to her. You don’t know anything about her besides what’s been on TV or in magazines. Maybe you should give her a chance before you make up your minds.” He pulled in another huge lungful of air. “I want to bring her home for dinner with all of you next week.”

  “Do you get why we’re worried about this?” Courtney asked.

  Tears stood in Whitney’s eyes.

  “Whitney, honey,” his grandmother said. “Why don’t you help me get the plate of cookies.”

  His littlest sister got up from the table without another word and walked away from him. His grandma patted his shoulder as she moved away from him. The other three stared at him.

  “So, there’s nothing we can say to talk you out of this?” Shelby said.

  “I’ll bring her home. Just give her a chance. Listen to what she has to say. What happened to me with her dad—it wasn’t her idea. She had nothing to do with it.”

  “Sure she didn’t—” Ashley burst out. Courtney grabbed her hand.

  Shelby stared at him and said, “I hope you’re going to remember this when we bring home a guy you might not like.”

  THE ANDERSON FAMILY gathered in the family room to watch the premiere of Third and Long with chocolate chip cookies and tall glasses of cold milk. Zach was fairly positive that most of his teammates were out on the town, not sprawled on a huge sectional couch with four sisters, their grandma, and a puppy rapidly falling asleep in his lap.

  “Grandma, there might be a lot of cursing in this,” he warned as the opening credits scrolled across the screen.

  “I’ll plug my ears,” she replied. He had to smile. He heard Cameron’s voice over a montage of Sharks players.

  “Welcome to the Seattle Sharks training camp. I’m Cameron Ondine. I’ll be spending the next month living in a dorm with eighty men who want to be able to run out on the field for the first game of the NFL season in a Sharks uniform. The Sharks can sign only fifty-three of them. We’ll be following them and their stories over the next month.”

  He bit into a cookie and watched as his teammates ran onto the practice field the first day of camp. The cameraperson zeroed in on Drew McCoy and Derrick Collins. Their comments on audio were crystal-clear.

  “Did you see the rookie LB yet? Mr. Butkus Award winner?”

  “That kid is huge. We’d better watch our asses.”

  Derrick snorted. “He’s not so tough. He probably still sleeps with a teddy bear and calls his mama each night before he’s tucked in.”

  The next piece of film featured the defense lining up against the offense. The rookie linebacker burst through the line and gave the Sharks’ QB a shove before he could get a pass off.

  “Nice,” Derrick yelled at him. “Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about.”

  “Hey, old man,” the kid yelled back at him.

  Derrick looked momentarily pissed, and then started to laugh. “You’re all right, rook. You’re all right.”

  To Zach’s surprise, the show didn’t gloss over what happened with the former head coach. They let video tell the story, including the incident between the head coach and Cameron, which he was amused to note Logan had caught in its entirety. He wondered how she felt about being part of the story.

  The rest of the hour program, to his chagrin, was a retelling of his and Cameron’s attempts to spend some time alone. He had to laugh at the shaky, hand-held camera attempts to film their stroll on a darkened practice field while his teammates heckled him over the fact the media had discovered he and Cameron were previously married. He was surprised to see a few minutes of video of their late-night brownie feast in the cafeteria one night. He laughed again at the video of his having breakfast with Cameron, and badgering her to eat more than a few bites.

  He wondered who had edited the video. They’d managed to catch Cameron at her most likeable and sympathetic. It also wasn’t lost on him that his sisters smiled at the footage, and laughed when she interviewed the three little boys watching practice that first day.

  The last ten minutes of the episode made his stomach clench. Security cameras must have picked up Cameron’s being led away from being confronted by her stalker outside of the facility. The security guard was telling her, “Officers are here. Let’s get you inside the building.”

  He could hear her frightened voice. “We can’t leave. He’s still there with Zach. We have to help Zach. Please.”

  “Zach’s right behind us, Ms. Ondine. The other officers have the suspect in custody.”

  She tried to break away from the guard. “I don’t see Zach. Where is he? Please tell me he’s not hurt!”

  The screen faded to black, and the credits rolled. The room was silent.

  Chapter Seventeen

  * * *

  CAMERON AWOKE THE morning after the Third and Long premiere to a madly vibrating cell phone and insistent knocking on her dorm room door. She wasn’t surprised about the phone. She was so tired last night she fell asleep despite the noise. Right now, it scooted across the nightstand of its own accord. If that wasn’t enough, one glance at the clock radio on her bedside table told her she’d overslept.

  She heard more knocking at her door.

  “Who’s there?” she called out.

  She recognized Drew’s voice. “There’s two guys in the lobby looking for you,” he said. “And good morning.”

  “Good morning,” she said. She crept closer to the door in the soft gray light of an overcast morning in the Seattle area. “Did you recognize them?” She grabbed for the Princeton logo hoodie at the foot of her bed and pulled it on, jamming her glasses on seconds later.

  “I think you’re going to recognize them,” he said.

  She opened the door a crack. She was willing to bet it wasn’t the first time Drew saw a woman with no makeup, glasses, and bedhead. Over the past few days, he and most of his teammates seemed to forget that she was the enemy—a working member of the media—and started treating her like a pesky kid sister. She couldn’t decide whether she was insulted or complimented by the fact he’d seen her multiple times now when she was less than camera-ready, and it didn’t seem to matter to him.

  He grinned at her. “I’m pretty sure it’s your dad. He’s with a guy who looks like he has a stick crammed up his ass.”

 
Her stomach dropped out. She really wasn’t in the mood for a confrontation with her father today. She’d avoided his phone calls since the night Zach told her what really happened in Las Vegas ten years ago, too. She’d realized any discussion with him was going to have to happen in person to have any impact at all. He’d just hang up on her and do what he wanted if it didn’t.

  “Thank you for letting me know,” she said.

  “He tried the ‘Don’t you know who I am?’ line with Joanna the receptionist. She wasn’t having any of his shit.” Drew’s laughter echoed in the hallway. “She told him she didn’t care if he was the President of the United States. He wasn’t getting into the players’ dorm, and that was final.”

  Cameron owed her. She wondered if Joanna would prefer a spa weekend or a piece of fine jewelry more. She didn’t have time to think about it right now, though. She made a mental note for later.

  “I appreciate the warning, Drew. I’ll get myself down there.”

  “Want us to duct-tape him to the goalpost?” he asked. She must have looked surprised. “Zach mentioned he can be a bit of a handful.”

  “No, thank you. I’ll take care of it. Thanks again.” She shut the door and hurried to the bathroom.

  One hour later, Cameron was showered, dressed, and ready for her day. She called downstairs to discover that her father and his unidentified guest had taken themselves off to the nearest Starbucks. She’d also had a tense conversation with Kacee via cell phone. Kacee was unavailable. Again.

  “I’m working on something for Ben,” Kacee insisted. “I can be there in a couple of hours.”

  “That’s not good enough, Kacee.” Cameron let out a long breath. “I’ve been really patient with you and all of your ‘extra duties for Ben,’ and it’s not helping. If you don’t want the job, tell me and I’ll find someone else.”

  Cameron glanced down at the huge list of “to-do’s” on her iPad. She needed a new assistant as soon as possible. Interviewing candidates in the middle of her existing responsibilities would be all kinds of fun, but she couldn’t put it off any longer.