I detected a whiff of hostility in his tone, and I laughed. “Calm your ass down. Jamaica fixed it so Chessly couldn’t ignore me.” I lathered up and stepped back beneath the spray. “She’s tricky, your girl. No wonder she runs your ass in circles.”
“You and Chess are back together? Thank fuck.” He turned off his shower and toweled off. “About fuckin’ time.” Grinning, he snapped his towel at my ass when I snagged mine from the hook on the wall outside the showers. “We were about to stage an intervention.”
“What-the-fuck-ever.” I wrapped my towel around my waist and returned to my locker to dress for the day.
“Now maybe you can remember you’re a senior and a starter and start playing that way.”
“Did Ainsworth put you up to that speech?” I didn’t bother to hide my irritation.
“Nope. I want to win a national championship. With my best friend. But I can’t do that if my best friend isn’t giving everything he’s got every time he steps on the field.” He shrugged. “Just sayin’.”
Bax stepped into the conversation. “What are you just sayin’, ’Han?”
“The three of us came in together with one goal. We have one last chance to meet that goal, which means Finn needs to pull his head out and play like the pro prospect he is. That’s all.” ’Han pulled a hoodie over his head and sat on the bench beside me to lace up his shoes.
“Now that he’s back with Chessly, he’ll be all right,” Bax said. “At leastheonly fucked up in practice rather than in a conference game.” He coughed into his hand. “Just sayin’.”
A grin lifted the corner of my mouth. “Good point, Bax.”
“Fuck you.” Apparently, Callahan had a sore spot when it came to us reminding him how he fucked up last fall when things with Jamaica went south.
“You catching a ride to campus with me?” Bax asked.
“Yeah. If you don’t mind.” I shoved my duffel bag into my locker, snagged my backpack off the floor in front of it, and followed Bax to his truck.
I had a full slate of classes and labs on Fridays. Not the best schedule. Certainly not a schedule someone with three years of college under his belt should have arranged. But I’d missed the window on setting up my chemistry labs in the two-hour Tuesday/Thursday slots, which meant I was stuck with them on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. After reconnecting with Chess, all I wanted to do was meet up with her somewhere on campus, but our classes fell at successive times, so we couldn’t find even ten minutes for a quick hello. Or a kiss or several.
The day had dragged on to at least double its length by the time practice started. She’d texted that she’d be there, but when I glanced up at the stands, only her friends were seated in their usual spot. My heart sank, but then I remembered she had a late lab. Though she’d said she’d get out of it, with her medical school goals, she couldn’t afford to skip classes. I relaxed.
We ran a few drills, practicing our footwork and breaking down to tackle. Coach Ellis was a stickler for proper footwork and form tackling. Over time, the drills had become so repetitive, I probably could have done them in my sleep, except for the fact the coaching staff scrutinized every single one of us on every single repetition. The work was a kind of meditation, and during drills, I forgot everything except for the mechanics of what I was doing.
When we moved on to plays, true to his word, Ainsworth stuck me with the second string again. Bax shot me a sour look as he trotted off the field after running the series with the rest of the defensive starters. But I didn’t panic. As Ainsworth chewed my ass—before I’d run even one play—I glanced up into the stands again and saw my lady sitting with her friends. She smiled and offered me a little wave, and my whole world lit up like the sun bursting through a cloud.
Four plays later, I’d “sacked” the backup QB twice and hurried him once. And I’d managed those impressive stats without jumping offsides. At. All.
“So you’ve decided you want to play football after all, huh, McCabe?” Ainsworth asked as he marked something on his clipboard.
“Yes, sir.”
“Uh-huh. Just for today, or is this a permanent choice?” He didn’t look up from his notes as he let loose with his sarcasm.
“I told you I’d pull my head out. Told Larkin the same thing this morning too.”
“We’ll see. Get back out there.”
I joined the starters and ran four more plays. My late night had started catching up with me, but this wasn’t the time to give in to fatigue. Sneaking a peek up into the stands, I caught Chess’s eye and the grin on her face—the one that said she was thinking about last night. When Coach sent me out yet again with the second string, I blew up the tackle and guard double-teaming me and accidentally put the QB on his ass. Or. rather, I twisted mid-air and let the poor kid land on me.
“Fuck, McCabe.” Ainsworth shook his head. “You’ve made your point. Go grab some water.” Turning his attention to the rest of the defense standing on the edge of line of scrimmage, he yelled, “Jones! Get in there!”
“Well, well, well, looks like you’re back,” Bax said as I joined him on the sideline while the second string practiced the series.
“Look, I know I’ve been AWOL these past couple of weeks, but it’s all good now.” I shot back some water. “Tomorrow’s scrimmage is going to be awesome.”
He laughed and bumped my fist.
When my roommates and I arrived at Stromboli’s after practice, we found our girls seated together in our usual booth with two pitchers of beer and enough glasses to go around. We rearranged the seating so each of us could sit beside our ladies. It was a tight squeeze, which I liked since it meant I was touching Chess from her shoulders to her knees along my right side.
With a playful wrinkling of her nose, she allowed me to squish her into the corner of the booth. For her ears only, I said, “Thanks for showing up today. It meant a lot.” I enjoyed her little shiver when I ghosted a kiss over the shell of her ear.
