Chapter Twelve #2
The screen was full within a minute. Holden was suited up for the preseason game he was about to play across the country.
Clay and Leo were both in casual clothes, each at their respective houses since their preseason games were the following day.
Zeke and Riley were cozied up on their couch together, a bowl of popcorn in Riley’s lap.
And Kyle was on the table with a member of our training staff in a nearby room getting soft tissue work on his hamstring, his goofy grin filling the frame with the fluorescent light bright above his head.
I smiled, staring at my friends, my teammates, my family.
Life had taken us in so many different directions, but we somehow always made time for each other.
“Last week of preseason!” Clay whisper-yelled. He wore a sleeping Atlas on his chest and headphones covering his ears. Giana walked through the camera frame behind him with a wave before she disappeared again. “How we feeling, boys?”
“Ready for this shit to be over,” Leo grumbled immediately. “Preseason games are fucking boring. I hate riding the bench.”
“Speak for yourself,” Holden said, adjusting the strap beneath his chin. “Some of us quarterbacks are still out here trying not to die behind second-string offensive lines.”
Kyle snorted. “You’re dramatic.” On cue, he winced as the athletic trainer dug into his hamstring.
“Baby,” I teased.
He flicked the camera off.
“None of you have ever had a three-hundred-pound man launch himself at your ribs,” Holden shot back.
“That might be the one plus side of not being in the NFL,” Riley cut in from the couch beside Zeke. “Not sure I’d love to witness that up close.”
“No, we get to witness the wrath of teenage girls, instead.” Zeke shivered. “Might be worse, honestly.”
Riley smirked and tossed a piece of popcorn at his head.
“Where’s Daddy? Er — I mean, Mary?” Kyle asked with a grin.
Leo rotated the camera, showing a sleepy-looking Mary with her hair piled on top of her head sketching something on his leg.
“Please tell me you’re not getting a fucking tattoo right now,” Clay said. “You have a game tomorrow.”
“Preseason game,” Leo reminded us. “Not like I’ll be playing much.”
Out of frame, Mary chimed in. “Like I’d let him ruin one of my masterpieces by not following proper aftercare instructions.” She scoffed. “I’m just bored.”
“So you’re drawing on him?” Clay asked?
“Yup!”
We all shared looks before Zeke shook his head. “That woman keeps you alive.”
Palico — Mary’s cat that she adopted when out with Leo one day in Boston — jumped into his lap and flicked her tail in his face.
Leo’s face flattened. “Yeah. And this cat makes it hard for me to do the same for her.”
“Speaking of keeping people alive,” Holden said, pointing at the screen. “Kyle, you injured already, bud? Not used to seeing you on the table so early in the season.”
Kyle tilted his phone just enough that the trainer behind him flipped us all off without looking up.
“Soft tissue work,” Kyle said proudly. “It’s injury prevention. Because unlike some of you clowns, I take care of my body.”
“Your body is a war zone,” Leo said.
Zeke crunched on a piece of popcorn. “Jokes aside, how is the hammy?”
Kyle shrugged. “Fine. Just tight. Coach wants me loose tonight.”
“Careful,” Clay added. “You’re getting old.”
Kyle gasped dramatically. “You have a child. You don’t get to talk about aging.”
“So do you, asshole,” Clay shot back.
“If anything keeps me young, it’s those middle-of-the-night wake ups,” Kyle grumbled. He smiled in an instant. “She’s the cutest, though.”
There were no arguments from us — but Atlas stirred against Clay’s chest, and Clay froze like someone had just pointed a gun at him.
The entire call went silent.
“Don’t wake the baby,” Leo whispered.
Atlas let out a long breath before he was steady again.
Clay exhaled slowly.
And then we all lost it.
“Man,” Holden said, shaking his head with a grin. “We’re really out here with mortgages and kids now.”
“And nonprofits,” Leo added, nodding toward Zeke and Riley.
Riley lifted the popcorn bowl like a toast. “Novo Football Coalition is expanding to three new cities this fall.”
“Hell yeah,” I said.
Zeke nodded. “Got a big donor meeting next week. If that goes well, we’ll be able to start the scholarship program.”
“Look at you two changing the world,” Kyle said.
“Someone has to balance out the dumb things the rest of you idiots do,” Riley replied.
Kyle grinned.
Holden’s eyes shifted to me through the screen. “What about you, B? You ready?”
“Yeah,” I said, rolling my shoulder once. “Ready.”
The guys were silent a moment, assessing. I wasn’t ever much of a talker, but I’d been quieter than usual on this call, and the way they were looking at me told me they noticed it.
“Year two,” Clay said. “Big jump year.”
“Don’t remind me.”
Leo pointed at the camera. “You’re gonna kill it. You’ve been putting in the work.”
I nodded, even though a tightness settled in my chest. Year two was when teams decided whether you were worth investing in… or replaceable.
And I felt the pressure of that like a water buffalo on my chest.
Kyle tilted his head slightly, watching me through the screen. “You’ve seemed a bit off lately. Something going on?”
I frowned. “What? No, I haven’t.”
“You’ve been weird.”
Immediately, every face on the call lit up like someone had handed them fresh ammunition.
“Oh, here we go,” Leo said, rubbing his hands together.
Zeke dug his hand into Riley’s bowl of popcorn.