Chapter 32 Ash
In the team’s locker room, I was putting my cleats on when I felt someone sit beside me.
“You okay?” Gray asked me casually as he fixed his pads and his jersey.
“Never better,” I told him with an easiness that I was not feeling.
It was a huge game today; Thanksgiving weekend was always big.
We’d gone home on Wednesday night, but Ava had refused to come with us — she wasn’t leaving Red alone on Thanksgiving.
Ava’s mom had wanted them home for the holiday, but Coach wanted us at practice for Friday afternoon, and even though the four of us had gone home to have the day with our families, we had all come back to Cardinal on Friday morning.
Because we were coming back Friday, Ava didn’t want to be away for the Thanksgiving weekend home game, so her mom came to campus.
I knew from Jett that Ava’s mom bought the story about the apartment having a leak and they’d benefited from getting a remodel.
The three of them had enjoyed a meal in their apartment and then had gone to Cardinal so Red could show Jill the bar she was going to be singing at.
Was it weird that I appreciated Ava’s mom parenting Red?
Checking on her, making sure she was okay?
From Jett’s account, the three of them had a relaxed family day.
Jill left mid-afternoon on Friday, and Ava returned to the football house.
Red hadn’t.
When I asked Ava on Friday night how Red was, she had told me Red was saying nothing about it.
When I asked if that was a good thing, Ava suggested I call her.
I hadn’t. I wasn’t sure if we were there.
I mean, had we been dating? Was the “family” fight, our fight?
Of course it was; she pretty much made demands of us, but then, when I thought about it, hadn’t we made a demand of her?
More than one when you thought about it.
I didn’t know what to do. Did I make the first move, was there a move to be made?
The whole situation fucking sucked.
“You speak to her yet?” Gray asked me.
“No.” I didn’t make eye contact with him as I fixed my own pads.
“Yeah, she disappointed me too,” he said with sympathy. Fuck sympathy.
“She has a right to know,” I grumbled as I sat back. “She just had a shit way of asking.”
“Nerves do that to people.”
I grunted, and then I realized my cousin was putting his jersey on. “What are you getting kitted up for?” I looked at his hand with the strapping on it. “You can’t play.”
“Says who?” Gray gave me the smile that usually made Jett or me start paying attention and doing damage control.
“Coach? I hope.” I looked for his brother and saw Jett talking to Jamie Woods.
“I’m not playing,” Gray said. “Unless you need me to save your asses, and then I’m playing.”
“We won’t need saving,” I told him as I stood. “He is never going to give you the ball.”
“I know, that’s why he’s captain.”
“We’re going to win,” I said with conviction. “Kentucky is going to lose their game, and then we’ll be in the conference championship.”
“That’s what I like to hear,” Coach said, slapping my back as he passed me. “You boys are ready. This visiting team won’t know what hit them.”
“Hopefully, it’ll be our defense,” Gray said with a quick grin to me, and I laughed at his joke as I nodded in agreement.
His humor faded as he looked at me and then around the locker room, ensuring we had privacy.
“Once we get this, we have one more week, then you can deal with Mia and see what’s going on there. ”
Frowning, I stepped away from him. “I don’t need to see anything. She made her choice.”
“We made her leave,” Gray reminded me.
“She’s the one who walked out the door; no one shoved her out,” I reminded him. “Did you speak to Onyx, after Thanksgiving dinner?”
“Obviously,” Gray scoffed as he picked up his helmet.
“And?”
“And he’s Onyx, he told me nothing.” Gray looked at me as if I should have known better, and I probably should have.
“Did you tell him that she told us to ask?”
“No, I’m not stupid.” Gray punched my shoulder as he passed me. “Come on. Football first, your redhead later.”
I wanted to comment that he hadn’t put football first when he was thinking of Quinn, but that would have been a dick move. Plus, Quinn was different. They were like soulmates or something equally restrictive that basically meant you were ruined for all other women. And Red wasn’t my anything.
Jett came over as we lined up to leave the locker room. “Your head in the game?”
“My head’s always in the game,” I told him.
“We have this, we can beat them, and then it’s the conference championships,” he told me with excitement.
“Let’s get through this game, we can focus on the rest later,” I cautioned him.
“And then we can sort out your girl,” Jett said as he slapped me across the shoulders.
“Why does everyone keep asking me about Red? She made her choice. It’s not a big deal.”
“I know,” he replied easily. “But it makes my girl sad, and I don’t like my girl sad.” He looked at me with a raised eyebrow. “You’re also a shit actor. We all know you liked her. Fuck, a few days ago, you realized you were dating her.”
“Yeah, well, a few days ago was a few days ago, this is now,” I told him grimly. “And this is a big game, so can we do this?”
Jett nodded and rolled his head. “Okay, you remember practice? Everything we went through.”
I didn’t answer. This was Jett in game mode. He would ask questions, but he didn’t want answers, confident that we all knew the answers. Pretty soon, we were out of the tunnel and basking in the screams and cries of a home crowd.
Gray was beside me. Usually he stayed close to Jett, and I said nothing at first as my cousin sat beside me on the bench.
“Why the shadow?”
“I get lonely.”
My snort of amusement made him grin. “You’re so full of shit.”
“I know.” He smiled at me, and I laughed out loud before I turned back to the field.
“Yo, Woods,” I shouted to Jamie, who was putting his helmet on as the defense took to the field. “Crush it.”
He nodded curtly, and Jett sat next to us as we watched the defense line up. “If he imagines every player’s you today,” Jett said with a sly smile, “we may just get the Woods we see in practice.”
“I have no idea what I apparently did to him,” I confessed as we watched the snap.
“Who cares,” Gray said as he watched the quarterback of the other team make the pass, and then their running back was taking off down the field. “Who the hell is this guy?” Gray asked as his eyes narrowed on the other team’s running back.
Ben, our backup quarterback, was sitting close to us. “Freshman, their regular player broke his ankle. This is their backup. Apparently, he’s good.”
“Of course he’s good,” I snapped. “This isn’t pretend, this is college football. Good is the default setting.”
“Did we know the RB broke his ankle?” Gray asked Jett as one of our defense finally stopped the run.
“No.”
“Happened last night,” Ben supplied. “Rumor has it that this guy was going to be replacing him anyway.”
“Gray,” Jett asked quietly. “What’s our brother doing?”
My attention snapped to them both, and my eyes widened. “He wouldn’t.”
“His brand of Mayhem leaves more things broken than ours does,” Gray said grimly.
“Bones?” I protested. I watched the offense on the field. “He wouldn’t.”
“He’s entirely ruthless,” Jett argued. “But why would he make it so the team we’re playing has a better offense?”
Gray started to chuckle. “To test us. Fuck, he’s a prick.” His smile was pleased. “I’m playing,” he said as he turned to Jett. “You pass that ball to me, or I’ll shove it up your ass, understand?”
“Are you serious?” I asked as I tore my eyes away from third down. “You’re here to motivate, and if we get the championship game, you play then.”
“I play now,” Gray said with a manic laugh.
“We’re getting to the championship, and when we do, I’ll play then too.
” He turned to go talk to Coach, and although I hoped our Coach had some sanity, I doubted it.
It was very hard to say no to a Santo, especially one who would make a massive difference in our game.
“I’ll move to cover him,” I told Jett as the kicker came out to make a field goal.
“I need you on the left,” Jett said grimly as the opposing team took the three-point lead. “He wants to play? Let him play, and when he fucks his hand more, then we can remind him and Onyx that it was their choice to fuck it up.”
Picking up my helmet and shaking my hair out of the way, I considered my cousin with barely concealed mockery. “Tough love? Fantastic.”
In the huddle, Jett barked out the instructions for the play. I saw Gray test his hand against the glove, and I said nothing.
Lining up, I waited for the snap. I was on the left, a brick shithouse of a guy across from me.
Jesus, if he lands on me, I’m feeling that for weeks, I thought.
The snap happened, and Jett danced backward, his offensive linemen forming his pocket.
I was already heading down the field. Looking up and over my shoulder, I saw the ball arcing its way to me.
I caught it, tucking it in tight when I got caught, and I came crashing down onto the turf, but I knew I had made first down.
The defense player helped me up, and I said thanks before we formed the line of scrimmage again.
I saw more defense coming forward. They were stacking the line to stop the run.
Which meant Jett would pass. Gray was behind him, poised and ready.
When the snap happened, Jett dummied the pass to me, and Gray took the ball, and then he was dust.
The speed of my cousin when he was in full offense was impressive. As Gray ran, I saw the two defenders running toward him. He’d made first down. Drop down, Gray, take it down. Don’t let them make contact, I urged.
Gray must have heard me somehow and dropped just before the defense collided with him.
“And today we play baseball,” Jett laughed as he passed me to the point where play stopped.
“Only if the crazy bastard remembers not to play for a home run every time,” I called out as we reached the others.
Just like the last play, the opposition stacked the defensive line, and I knew I would need to either be fast or switch sides and protect my cousin.
Our wide receivers weren’t going to be able to make the run through them.
Only Gray would make it through them. He had the speed, the skill, and the ability to see a gap where no one else could.
I saw the defense look at me and shift. Jett wouldn’t dummy again, but did they know that? Our wide receivers were locked down, the pocket was going to protect our QB, and Gray was at the back, poised to rip a hole in the defense.
The defensive lineman was no longer fully focused on me. His eyes kept moving past me to the line. To the QB. To the danger behind the QB.
They were waiting for Gray to run.
When the snap was made, I didn’t falter; I took off down the field, running wide, keeping myself to the line. Looking up over my shoulder, I saw the ball come sailing toward me. As I caught it, my feet left the ground when I was tackled hard. The grunt left me, and I knew I had to land right.
The whistle went, and I looked immediately up at the screen. Tell me I was in bounds, come on.
Throwing my head back, I howled as the stadium cheered. We were at the fifteen, and it was still first down. If we didn’t get points on the board from this drive, I would be amazed.
In the next two plays, Jett was sacked on the first, and the pass was incomplete on the second.
Jett called the huddle. “Ash, you ready to block?”
“Yup. Gray?” I asked quickly.
“Bring it.”
“Keep me fucking protected,” Jett snapped at his line.
The play happened. As soon as Jett got the ball, I dropped back, confusing the fuck out of my man marker.
Jett passed the ball to me, and I offloaded it to Gray, who came streaking past me like a dog at the races, and I sprinted hard to catch him.
Keeping the defense off him as he ran, I ran with him, my stiff arm knocking away any fucker that tried to stop him.
He was over the line.
Touchdown.
The fancy fucker did a backflip in victory before he slapped the back of my helmet as he jogged past me off the field.
“Don’t miss,” I called to the kicker as he made his way to the field.
On the bench, Gray was grinning as he and Jett watched the replay. “Hand?” I asked as I sat down and took a drink of water.
“Good, not really used it,” he said as he flexed his fingers. “Not back to being a hundred percent, but fuck, it feels good to be playing.”
“We have the points on the board. Let’s keep the lead. We may not need you next play,” I cautioned reasonably.
“I know.” He nudged me with his shoulder. “Don’t worry, mom, I’m not stupid.”
“You’re a little bit stupid,” I countered easily.
His laugh was loud and carefree as he turned to see the extra point being scored.
“We’re so owning this fucking game,” Jett crowed.
“Still in the first quarter, man, let’s keep the celebrations on the low.”
There was no need. Our opposition didn’t handle our defense well, as Woods and his players stopped every run and almost every pass. Gray sat out the next few offensive drives, but in the third quarter, he was back. As our offense got stronger, their defense fell apart.
Our wide receiver entered the end zone, and I looked up at the scoreboard as we came off the field.
“Santo,” Coach barked, and three of us turned to him. “Jesus, you.” He pointed at Gray. “You’re done. Good game.” He turned to me. “You, you’re done.”
“What? Me? Why?”
“Need you for the championship.” Coach Bowers gave me a shit-eating grin. “Kentucky’s getting annihilated.”
My eyes widened as I looked at my cousins. “Serious?”
“There’s still a quarter to play,” Jett said as he looked at the field and the score.
“They’re thirty-three down,” Coach said.
“Holy shit,” Gray blurted. “How?”
“Not their day,” I answered with a huge smile.
“Rest up, you two. Jett, we’ll see how we go, but I’m putting Kowoski in.”
Jett nodded as he sat beside us. Halfway through the fourth quarter, the Saints were winning, but the three main offensive players were on the bench. It was the first time in my ball game, in any of our games, where we were being purposefully rested for the next game.
When the final whistle blew, Coach turned to us, and I’d never seen him looking more triumphant.
“Joint leaders of the conference.” He laughed. “’Bama lost. We’re tied, with two losses each.”
“Conference championship?” Jett said as he jumped up off the seat.
“Conference championships!”
What a great fucking day to be alive.