Damien (Shaw Family #4)
Chapter 1
Damien
Today’s the day. I haven’t been this nervous since I stepped foot on the field as a rookie in my first professional football game. It’s not because I don’t trust my abilities. My ability to play the game of football is why I was drafted, coming out of college. I was offered a contract, where not only were they paying me a good sum of money, but the signing bonus was just as big. When I moved from the Arizona team to New York’s, I knew I wasn’t going to be their starting Tight End. They already had Nelson, one of the best in the league. Don’t get me wrong, I get plenty of playing time. The reason I was brought on was because Nelson is getting older. They know that within the next few years, he will be retiring. They wanted a tight end that was already part of the team to replace him.
According to the statistics, I am one of the better tight ends in the league. The other tight ends in the league are good, but if you compare stats, I am ahead of them by huge margins. I spent years perfecting my game, But I also make sure that my teammates on the field have the best from me, whether it’s to be an extra blocker, or to receive and run. Heck, I hadn’t known how versatile the tight end position actually was until my high school coach informed me that I was built for the position. If I close my eyes and think back, I can still hear his voice. “Shaw, you would make this team a damn fine quarterback, but so would a few others on the team. What this team needs is a player with your speed, your excellent pair of hands, the ability to read the movement of just not the defenders in front of you but all of them and the size to block defensive linemen as an extra lineman when needed, so I’m moving you to tight end.” I had gone home after practice that day, my feelings hurting a little cause, of course, like every young man. Being quarterback was the golden position on a team. God, the next time I run into Coach Federman while I’m visiting Sandy Cove, I’m going to thank him. I would never have gotten any interest from colleges and sure wouldn’t have my NFL career if I had stayed in the quarterback position. I owe him more than he knows.
After last week’s game, I was informed that Nelson would be out for the remainder of the season. I still cringe when I think back about the play that ended up putting Nelson on the team’s long term injured list. The entire stadium had to have heard the pop from the dislocation of his knee. He had come down with the ball, then before he could turn to keep running downfield, the defender hit him—one foot off the ground ready to take a step and the other planted on the ground, the one that popped out of place. The sign of a true player—he went down but held onto the ball. They placed me on first string, making me the starting tight end. I was so excited, I phoned my mom and brother, Sebastien, to let them know. They congratulated me, telling me how happy they are for me to get this opportunity to start as tight end. Not that they were any happier about why I was taking over as starter, of course.
Mom called me back that day to let me know at least half of my family would be coming to New York to see me play. I was shocked. I certainly wasn’t expecting them to drop everything to travel to the city just to see me play in this week’s game. Even being as close as I am to my hometown, it’s just not feasible for them to attend every home game. Seb is the one who has attended the most games. In fact, he was the only one who had attended any of my games prior to coming to New York. He had flown to Arizona to catch my NFL debut game. The rest of my family watched when the game was televised.
Trying to settle my nerves, I grab my personal family album, which has my name engraved on the cover of it, off the coffee table, and flip through it. The day before I left for college, my family had surprised me with a going away party and had given it to me. It was the last time I can remember all eleven of my siblings being in one place. Yes, that’s right! I’m one of twelve. Growing up was interesting, to say the least.
When I’m done, I snap the album shut, put it on the table, then rise from the chair to retrieve my duffel bag. Before locking the door, I take another glance around as I always to do, making sure I haven’t forgotten anything. My place is cold, nothing screams home. I need to bring my mom in and help me to decorate and spruce up my place.
As I close and lock the door and start toward the elevator, I am struck with the oddest sensation. Today’s game is going to be something special.
Arriving at the stadium, that is forty minutes from my apartment, I make my way into the locker room. As I open the door, you can hear music playing and guys in their workout gear messing around. Some are stretching and some are dancing to the music, anything to warm their muscles up. I place my bag in my locker and strip out of my gear. Coach asks us to be at the stadium three hours before kick-off. The first hour is used to warm up and getting our bodies ready for the game. The second hour is more of a mental warm up, and then the last hour is used to hype ourselves up while we get into our uniforms and listen to coach’s pep talk. Though, all I want to do is get this game started.
Tanya
“Are we there yet?” I pout.
Sebastian glances back with a tired look on his face. “For the third time, soon Tanya. Damn, I swear sometimes you’re worse than Finn and Remy.”
Ellie lays her hand on his shoulder and begins to give him a massage. “Seb, you know she’s just bugging you.” She whispers to him, then makes eye contact with me.
I am purposely giving Sebastian a rough time. Hey, he’s the one that married my best friend, Ellie. Marrying her included her extremely loving but super annoying best friend.
Don’t get me wrong, Seb is a stand-up guy, and I couldn’t be happier for them. Ellie has never been happier. But when is it going to be my time to shine? Yes, I’ve had plenty of boyfriends, and of course, that includes sex. But what still eludes me is that one man who would capture my heart and soul. Ellie has her Romance Book Husband, or RBH, as I like to call it. I’m just waiting for mine to ride in, hopefully on a motorcycle.
“Earth to Tanya. We’re here.” Seb’s voice knocks me out of my current daydream.
“Perfect. Then let’s get this show on the road before I get any older,” I spout with a smirk. Exiting Seb’s SUV, I glance towards the football stadium. I can’t believe I’m really here in the actual flesh. Normally I watch football at home on my big screen tv or at the local bar in Sandy Cove. But when Seb and Ellie invited me to join them, I jumped at the chance.
After waiting in line for around thirty minutes, we show our tickets to one of the stadium workers. Then we take a quick route to the section where our seats are located. Thank goodness Seb’s brother just happens to be playing on the home team, as we have some of the best seats in the stadium.
Once Ellie and I are fully seated, Seb takes our drink and food order, then leaves for the concession stand. A few minutes later, Mrs. Shaw and a few more of the Shaw siblings arrive.
“Ellie. Tanya, wonderful to see you again.” Mrs. Shaw waves.
We grin. “Good to see you too, Mrs. Shaw. Thank you for including me.”
“Not a problem. Ellie mentioned you are obsessed with anything to do with football. We knew we had to include you on today’s outing.”
I can’t help but blush a little. I guess I am a little obsessed with the game. “It will be nice to officially meet Damien.” He’s actually the only Shaw sibling I haven’t met as of yet. He was supposed to be at Seb and Ellie’s wedding, but then his flight was canceled due to a dust storm. That had been when he was still in Arizona. Luckily, Henry, one of their brothers and Seb’s best man had Damien on the phone for the entire ceremony so he wouldn’t fully miss it.
“My football star. We’re incredibly proud of him.” Mrs. Shaw states.
Seb returns with his hands full of everything we asked for, just as my stomach growls, letting everyone know that I am, in fact, hungry. Once he hands me all of my goodies, I dig in.
When the teams come on to the field, Ellie elbows me and points Damien out. From our seats
I notice he is tall; his arms and calves look solid. When he turns, he has a firm backside, but the rest is covered in protective gear. With his helmet on, I can’t make out his facial features —I’m sticking to that since I didn’t make out his face anyway because of spending way too much time than I should have been checking out his body—then he moves to the sideline and starts to lift the helmet off but turns his back to us before I get the opportunity to check out his facial features.
I do notice he has the hottest pair of buns I’ve ever seen. “Whew! Now that’s a tight end!”
Ellie giggles loudly, which turns into a snort. “It’s Damien position on the team.”
“Um … did I say that out loud?” I state as I fan myself with the napkin in my hands.
Ellie bursts out laughing, and Seb, who is sitting on the other side of Ellie, coughs to cover up his laughter. I glare at both of them, which only makes Ellie laugh harder.
I sit back in my seat and take a drink from my water bottle while I discreetly eye Damien. He turns around and looks up to the stands and it takes everything in me not to gasp. He has short, dark brown hair that’s been buzzed cut. His eyes are deep brown, like the color of molasses. He has a long nose, and his lips are thin, yet very kissable. He has strong-looking arms that are covered in many tattoos. The rest of him is covered by his uniform, but I would definitely like to sneak a peek under that jersey one time. “WOW!” I gulp.
“Wow, what?” Ellie looks over at me.
“Oh … um…just surprised how many people are here,” I say lamely, not taking my eyes off the only sibling I have yet to meet.
I’m in deep, deep trouble.
Damien
Winning the coin toss, we chose to keep the ball, which places our offensive line on the field first, putting me roughly four steps off of the line of scrimmage. I survey the positions of the opposing team’s defensive players while I wait for Whitaker, our quarterback, to step in position behind the center and count off. Nothing exists now—not the fans, nothing other than what is in front of me on the field.
It's as if I can hear the snap of the ball as it hits Whitaker’s hands and then everyone is in motion. I move forward to help block and keep the hole open long enough for Samson, the running back, to take the handoff from Whitaker and through the line of scrimmage.
I don’t have to look over my shoulder to see if the execution of the play happened flawlessly. I sense Samson approach and move forward to take on another defender, giving him a chance to gain yardage. The whistle blows, the play is over, and the ball is moved fifteen yards forward for a first down. If every play today has the same result for us and our defense keeps the other team to minimal yards and points, we will control this game and end with a W in the win column.
Yeah, that didn’t happen because both defenses showed up to play.
The first quarter ended with the score tied at zero on the scoreboard. Both defenses were playing tough. Our defense allowed seventy-two yards, while the other teams allowed us to gain seventy-six yards. Neither offense could move the ball. I felt blessed to have gotten five of those yards from the one short pass thrown my way.
Second quarter went much the same except each team was able to squeeze out a score. We put up a field goal from forty-eight yards for three points and the other side lucked out with a long pass that bounced off the fingertips of one of their receivers on the two-yard line and into another receiver’s hands, who stood in the end zone.
The first half came to an end with the score—them seven—us three.
While the fans enjoyed music during half-time, we enjoyed the voices of our coach and offensive coordinator going over plays to change things up in the second half.
As a tight end, I may not have the speed the wide receivers possess, but I can hold my own with them as far as catching passes.
The third quarter kicks off with the other team receiving the ball. Their offense drives the ball down the field, eating a good portion of the clock. This would give them another seven points, leaving us down ten. However, not to be outdone, we took possession on the twenty-five and finally move the ball downfield until we too put seven on the board. That would be the only scoring in the third quarter, regardless of how much both teams tried to get in the end zone or even close enough for our kickers to have a shot at a field goal. At the end of the third quarter, we were still down by four.
The fourth, and last quarter, starts out much the same with a battle of ‘who can reach the end zone.’ We ran the ball; we passed the ball—they did the same—and when the clock hit two minutes left in the game, we each had only added another seven to our score. At least our offense has the ball, and we know what we have to do—we need a touchdown to win, and we have to eat the time off the clock, leaving them little to no time to have the ball. Most importantly, we cannot let them pick off a pass or cause a fumble and recover it.
Easy, right?
We start at the twenty-yard line due to the punt being recovered in the end zone. A field goal won’t bring a win, so we need to get the ball eighty yards down field. The game clock begins to count down and Whitaker hands off the ball. Ten yards at a time and four downs to get it and then we start the process over again. As long as we keep driving with our focus on getting ten yards at a time, we will make it—I can feel it.
After fighting our way past the fifty, we work our way to the forty, then the thirty. We’ve moved the ball fifty yards, but just as the entire game has gone, it was a struggle, which leaves us in our current predicament of thirty yards to win and only ten seconds left on the clock. The coach calls the team’s last timeout. We head toward the sideline and are handed water while the coach talks.
“At the most, we have time for two more plays. All receivers are on deck and, for God’s sake, if you aren’t in the end zone when you catch the ball, catch it and get out of bounds. Do me a favor and get this done in one. I expect the line to give Whitaker the time to get the pass off and the receivers to open. Let’s get this game over and in the books as a win, cause frankly, I’m over this shit today.”
We take the field and I line up. I will be an extra wide receiver in this play. Whitaker yells his count, and the center snaps the ball to him. As I break past the line of scrimmage, the only sounds I hear are the grunts from the offensive and defensive linemen. I run my pattern as the other receivers do the same and the defenders sticking to us like glue. When I reach the end-zone, I turn to look toward Whitaker to see if he has released the ball. The defender turns his head to look, too. The ball is in the air. I can actually see it spiraling as it heads for me. The defender sees it too. When it reaches us, he raises his hands to bat it down, and takes his focus off me for the split second I need to step away from him and to the back of the end zone. Thank God, the ball came in high. I jump, snag the ball out of the air. As I wrap the ball in my arms, my feet hit the ground and I look down—yes, both feet are inbound. I look around. The referee’s arms are up, calling the TD. I glance at the clock and see time left on it. Then all hell breaks loose as my teammates go wild and the stadium erupts.