Page 6 (1/1)

One

Dee

Leaving the football teaaed toward the ive the mandatory press conference Today’s score sheet was immaterial since he’d rested his most valuable players Not that he’d say as much in his remarks to the media But he would eance for today’s loss

They would win the conference title at worst A Super Bowl championship at best

As a second-year head coach on a tea a Reynaud in this town caitimate Reynaudbefore he beca Easy A championship season would effectively answer his detractors, especially the sports journalists who’d declared that hiring him was an obvious case of favoritism The press didn’t understand his relatives at all if they didn’t know that his older brother, Gervais, would be the first one calling for his head if he didn’t deliver results The Reynauds hadn’t gotten where they were by being soft on each other

More important, his hometown deserved a championship Not for the billionaire family who’d claimed him as their ohen he was thirteen He wanted it for people who hungered for any kind of victory in life For people who struggled every day in places like the Eighth Ward, where he’d been born

Just like his assistant, Adelaide Thibodeaux

She stood outside thepolitely at a local sportswriter When she spotted Dempsey, she excused herself and walked toward hi on the tile floor like a tiold pinstripes and a sleeveless gold blouse that echoed the Hurricanes’ colors and showed off the tawny skin of her Creole heritage Poised and efficient, she didn’t look like the half-starved ragahborhoods The one who used to stuff half her lunch in her book bag to share with hiain until the free breakfast at school the next ed for both of them since those days

Froth dark hair that she wore in a smooth ponytail to her wide hazel eyes, framed by dark brows and lashes, she was a pretty and incredibly competent woman The only woh his rise in the coaching ranks, her salary paid by hiht all his resources to the table to lad to create the position for her as he’d o—back to their hometown after his older brother, Gervais, had purchased the New Orleans Hurricanes

There was a long, proud tradition of nepotishs to the Grudens, and the Reynaud falobal shipping industry, but their real passion was football An obsession with the game ran in the blood, no matter how much some local pundits liked to say they were dilettantes

“Coach Reynaud?” Adelaide called to him down the narrow hallway draped in team banners Her use of his title alerted hi hi her “Do you have a moment to meet privately before you take the podium?”

She handed him note cards, an old-fashioned preference at media events so he could leave his phone free for updates He planned to brief the journalists on his regular-season roster, one of the few topics that would distract sports hounds fro him about today’s loss in a preseason contest that didn’t reflect his full team weaponry

“Any last-encies?” He frowned Adelaide had been with hier than necessary after a loss

He needed to start preparing for their first regular-season ganized a certain stiffness in her shoulders, a tension that wouldn’t co, too She’dher emotions better than he had

“There is one thing” She wore an earbud in one ear, the black cord disappearing in her dark hair; she was probably listening for es from the public relations coordinator already in the media room “It will just take a moment”