Him & I

To Make You Feel My Love - Part 1

When the rain is blowing in your face
And the whole world is on your case
I could offer you a warm embrace
To make you feel my love
——To Make You Feel My Love, Bob Dylan

March 13, 2019

Cait woke up alone, but for Tyler, who had snuggled up to her, and immediately felt guilty. She'd kinda yelled at Grayson the night before.

Not that he didn't deserve it, because he did. But she suddenly wasn't sure that it had been her place to give him a hard time.

He had coaches for that. But those coaches didn't know him the way she did. 

She'd recognized that he was tired.  That the season was long.  And had been frustrating.  But if he was allowed to just wallow in his own thoughts, he'd be useless.  He'd needed a kick in the ass.

She laid there and stared at the ceiling.  At Duke, Coach K would have handled this before Grayson ever got off the court.  Or before he got out of the locker room, at least.  But she wasn't sure who was handling it here.

Coach Snyder was busy with the players that actually played for the Jazz, as were his assistant coaches. The Jazz had a ton of player development staff, but they worked with Grayson on mechanics, footwork, things like that. Cait wasn't sure who was looking out for his state of mind.

Maybe as a professional, he should be able to do that for himself. And he'd been doing pretty well. Maybe she was overreacting to him having one off night.  But she was concerned.

*****

It turned out that Cait wasn't the only one that was concerned.  There were a few of other people.  And Grayson had gotten texts from them. 

Sherry's text was short and to the point.  Get it together, son.  And call me.

Jae's was a bit more profane.  Rook, what the fuck was that shit?  Imma kick your ass.  Call me.

And Coach K, who really should have been focused on the ACC tournament, sent a text that was even shorter than Sherry's.  Stop being a dumbass.

"Well, then," Grayson muttered to himself. "Nothing like the support of your family and friends."  He tossed the phone aside with a sigh. 

Cait had been right.  He knew it.  But he'd been in one of those moods.  And as much as he loved her, and the other three people that had texted him, he needed to get himself out of it.  One way or another.

He got himself out of bed, wincing as he stood.  Damn, he felt like an old man.  He knew he was in good shape, but apparently he needed to do even better.  He walked around a little bit to loosen up his legs.

He also got the text saying that he wasn't going to Phoenix. That wasn't much of a surprise, really. With both Ricky and Raul back, the Jazz didn't need him.

The Stars weren't leaving Texas until tonight, headed for Sioux Falls, South Dakota, which pretty much sounded like hell to Grayson. He figured he was about to find out first hand.

*****

March 14, 2019

He didn't even get to watch the Jazz beat the Suns, because he was on a commercial flight that arrived in Sioux Falls in the middle of the night. None of that did anything at all to improve his mood.