12. Omiri #2
Williams took over as Head Coach the year before I was drafted. He witnessed my entire career and had seen me through a lot of personal shit. There were only a handful of people who could read me and he was in that small group.
"Figured you'd be happy about that since they're offering me sixty to stay for another four years."
He snorted. "What I would like is a salary cap so I can get some quality wide receivers but you're eating up all the money."
I chuckled, not even offended. He was talking shit but partly meant that. He also understood that I was well worth the money and I personally knew he went to bat for me to make sure my offer was solid.
"I haven't signed it yet. There's still time for me to change my mind."
He grunted something under his breath. "Your conditioning numbers are decent but not your best. How about you earn that damn money?" He paused and glanced at me. "You good? You just came out the other end of the roughest time of year for you."
Losing my brother…
"I'm good, Coach. Locked in."
"We're counting on your leadership out there, Omiri. I need you to lead us to another championship so I can retire."
I barked a laugh. "The fuck you mean retire? They're going to have to drag you up out of here."
He cracked a smile. "Not if I can't get one of these rookies trained to catch the ball."
"They came out of the SEC with good numbers, that should be enough."
He frowned at me. "This is a different level of play, but you know that." He frowned harder. "I need them to know that."
"You'll get ’em right."
He grunted again. "The new concepts I'm implementing are designed around you, Hayes. I need a full commitment from you because I already have my hands full with these idiots."
"You got that, Coach. You already know."
He nodded. "That means more than just a physical presence. You'll have to have your head right and be fully engaged. No distractions. Can you give me that?"
Makari and Avi were the first thing that came to mind. I was going to have to work through balancing my time but also didn't believe Makari would be a problem. I just didn't want to miss shit with my baby girl. Unfortunately there wasn't going to be much I could do about that.
"It won't be an issue."
He studied my face again. "Alright. We can break down the offense tomorrow.
The goal is to give you more control at the line of scrimmage.
You're going to need the time to find a body to throw to.
I've also got things set up to make sure the defense is in the dark about whether or not you're throwing or handing off until the last second, which frees you up to run the ball.
I have a feeling we're going to need that option. "
I chuckled. He had no faith in the rookies. "Don't count them out just yet. They've got time to pull it together."
"Any word on Kirk?"
"Out the entire fucking season."
"Damn."
"Damn is right. Let me go, we'll dive in with more detail tomorrow."
I nodded and he pushed through the double doors, heading toward the tunnel that would take him to the corridor out to the practice fields.
I left the training facility and was almost at my car when I heard Ryland jogging behind me.
"O, hold up…"
I paused at my car and tossed my bag in, leaning against the side. "We have Rookie Roundup Friday. You're down, right?"
Shit…
I raked a hand down my face. I had completely forgotten about that.
It would be a bad look if I didn't show, considering it was an annual tradition with the team.
The veteran players took the rookies out to make sure they were properly initiated with the squad.
Strip club to get them drunk while we explained the hierarchy between the players and then we treated them to private rooms with the top dancers for the rest of the night.
"Damn, that's this Friday?"
"Yeah and you know you have to be there."
"I'll make it work."
"Good because you're captain and I have a feeling you're going to have to put your foot in McClain's ass. Kid has talent but his mouth is gonna write a check his ass can't cash."
Based on the interaction with Makari I already knew that, but I wouldn't blow up her spot by putting her shit on blast. I was sure he would give me plenty of reasons to check his ego that didn't involve her.
"He's cocky as hell, but trust, I have no problem humbling him."
"Which is why you have to be there."
"Chapter House?"
"Yeah."
"What time?"
"Ten and you know how we get down. Last man standing."
I nodded. It was always fun making sure the rookies learned their place and they were so eager to gain our respect they would always go too damn far trying to prove they could hang.
"Aight I'm down and make sure third string knows they got clean up. I'm not getting anybody home."
"Rell and Darius are on that. Shots until they pass the fuck out."
"Bruh, you're too damn excited about this."
"Hell yeah I am and you should be too. They had us so fucked up our rookie year I'm still collecting payback."
He was right. I had no idea how I didn't get alcohol poisoning that night or how my dick functioned normally afterwards.
It was only by a miracle that I didn't already have kids or something I needed a shot for because I damn sure didn't remember much from that night other than multiple women and bottles of Henny.
"You're gonna have to let that go. You can't keep making the rookies pay for the sins of our past."
He shrugged. "We'll see how I feel after Friday. Last year they were tapping out by midnight. Three of them were done before we gifted the private suites and two spent the night bent over toilets."
"You already booked the VIP?"
"Yeah, it's done."
"Aight we'll see how this goes."
I opened my car door and dropped into the seat. "Let me head out. I have to meet Van before she drops me."
"Good luck with that. Her pretty ass don't fucking play. She sent me a bill for ten stacks just because I was on a call for the first ten minutes I was supposed to be meeting with her."
I chuckled, knowing he wasn't lying, which was why I needed to be up out of here. Hopefully traffic wouldn't be backed up because I wasn't trying to let Vanessa hit my pockets like that.
When I stepped off the elevator onto the fourth floor and walked into the office of Pinnacle PR, Vanessa was waiting on me.
She was pretty as hell with her cocoa skin, diamond shaped eyes, and wide lips.
She was one of those women who always had every detail of her appearance in place and looked like a high fashion model instead of a publicist. Tall as hell too so she had the height to go with it.
With heels on, she was only a few inches shorter than me.
I did a quick scan of her slim build and she was dressed classy like always, in clothes I knew cost a lot of fucking money because she used my connection with Kameron Tyler to get free shit sent to her after they offered me a brand deal with their black label line two years ago.
Her clothes weren't the problem today though. The serious look on her face was the issue and the way she had her hands on her hips while standing in the lobby waiting on me was what had me checking my wrist for the time.
"The fuck you scowling at me for? I'm ten minutes early."
"My office, let's go. We have a problem.
" She turned on her high ass heels and walked away.
I shook my head at how she was always bossing up on me.
This was one reason why she and I would never work.
Our personalities were too similar and we would be at war with who was in charge or I would be fucking some softness into her pretty ass.
Either way, I valued her role with my career too much to cross that line, so as sexy and beautiful as she was, that was a no go for me.
Even though she was acting like I needed to run behind her pretty ass, I took my time. When I stepped into her office, she shoved a tablet at me and pointed to the screen.
"You need to see this."
I accepted the tablet, glanced at the device, and felt my stomach drop. There was an article pulled up from Baller Alert with multiple pictures on its homepage up under the headline…
Mystery Solved: Omiri Hayes Baby Mama Has Been Identified.
Fuck…
I was confused as hell because the very first image was of me and Makari a couple months back at the pharmacy the night I found out about Avi. It showed me grabbing her arm, but that wasn't the worst of them.
The next picture was me and Makari at the Super Bowl after party where we met last year.
I would recognize that damn dress anywhere because of how good she looked wearing it.
One of the pictures showed us talking at the bar, leaning in close with my arm around her, then there was one of us leaving together with her tucked at my side and her arm around my waist.
There wasn't much to it if viewed out of context but pulling all the images together, it created a timeline that confirmed the headline. Makari and I had a kid.
"Where the fuck did these come from?" I growled, swiping through more images.
"I don't know but someone did some digging. That's last year and the pharmacy is…"
"March…" I finished for her.
"Is that what the movie thing was about? You took your kid to the movies?"
I glared at Vanessa who was looking at me, royally pissed.
"What the hell does it matter?"
"It matters for everything that's important. You've known you had a kid since March, Omiri, or hell, since before then as far as I know." She threw her hands up.
"I just found out in March. That night at the pharmacy."
"Then why am I finding out like this from Baller Alert?"
"Because it's my personal shit."