No One Left Behind, Except for Me novel · Chapter 14 of 24
Chapter 14: The Captain's Cup
The Captain's Cup was held in the grand ballroom of the downtown hotel, under three chandeliers.
Three hundred people were seated at round tables with white cloths and blue centerpieces.
At the door, a security guard ran a finger down a printed list.
"Cahill," he said, and shook his head. "You're not on it, miss."
"I know," I said.
Heidi stood beside me in her one good dress with the notarized page in her purse.
Behind the guard, the head coach came out of the ballroom in his navy suit and looked straight at me.
"She's my guest," he said to the guard. "Table one. I bought her seat myself this afternoon."
"Sir, the athletic director said..."
"The athletic director doesn't buy my tickets."
The guard stepped aside.
The coach did not look at me again until we reached the table, and then he said, low, "I should have asked who counted you on Monday. I'm asking now."
"Thank you," I said.
"Don't thank me yet."
I sat down with Heidi on my left and Doc's empty chair on my right.
Doc came in a minute later, carrying a leather laptop bag and a flat envelope under his arm, and sat without a word.
Across the room I found Mikkel standing against the back wall in his charcoal coat.
He kept both hands visible at his sides.
He did not come closer, and he did not look away.
Dinner was chicken.
The speeches were long.
Reagan ran the program from a podium with her laminated schedule, and every time she said "our family" she looked at my table.
At nine, the athletic director took the stage to present the Captain's Cup.
"Our captain," he said. "Tate Rowley. Through injury, through a storm, he has proved that nobody on this team is ever left behind."
The ballroom stood and applauded.
Tate came up the steps in his tuxedo with his right arm still in its brace.
He took the trophy in his left hand and waited for quiet.
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