“Patterson’s a hell of a scrambler, that’s for sure.And he finds you pretty regularly.”I grabbed a wooden spatula from the counter and stirred the meat browning in one of the pans on the stove.“I’m more of a traditional pocket passer.Coach gave me the idea he wants to use me on third and long when he needs the pass to be fast, accurate, and maybe something that breaks a receiver—or a tight end—for a long gainer.”I returned my attention to Callahan and watched in fascination as the wheels turned in his head.
“Coach is thinking about a two-quarterback system?”
I shrugged.“I’m not sure that’s exactly what he has in mind, but when he offered me a scholarship, he told me to expect to play my share of downs in the fall.”
“Huh.Wonder if Patty knows.”
I went back to stirring the meat.“If morning lift is anything to go by, he has less attitude about me than LeSean.Besides, Patterson is still the starter.From what I can see, the team is one hundred percent behind him.Only a dumbass walks in and deliberately inserts himself into such a tight unit, especially one on the edge of winning a National Championship.”
“You want to play in the National Championship.”Callahan wasn’t asking a question.
“What can I say?A rising tide floats all boats.”
He tore open a couple of bags of stir-fry veggies and dumped them over the sizzling meat in the pans.For a few minutes, we stirred his dinner in silence until he broke it.“You’re not what I expected, Cash.”
“That a good thing or not?”
“I think you’re going to be an asset to the ’Cats.”
Chapter Three
Cash
Aside from LeSeanCall’s simmering animosity, my introduction to the Wildcats had gone more smoothly than I anticipated, mostly thanks to Danny Chambers.What started as Danny and me tossing balls following weight training that first day had grown to Callahan O’Reilly and another transfer player, wide receiver Josh Mitchell, showing up to run routes and catch passes.With classes starting in a few days, our impromptu post-weight training practices would probably end, but I was feeling good about the rapport I’d been able to create with a few of the offensive players.
As the four of us headed out of the locker room to the practice field, Mick Patterson caught up to me.“Heard a few of you were tossing balls.Mind if I join you?”
“The more the merrier,” I said as I held the door for him.
We spent a few minutes warming up before we started throwing routes.Without consulting each other, Mick and I stood on the left and right hash marks and took turns calling out plays.After a few minutes, he figured out Danny and Callahan had given me the calls for the various plays and routes Coach Ellis liked to run, and he grinned.
“Wanna have some fun with these guys?”
“Because we’re not having fun already?”I asked.
I absolutely loved throwing the pigskin—I’d wing passes twenty-four-seven if not for needing little things like food and sleep—so I was more than up for whatever Mick had in mind.Within a couple of minutes, we were raining footballs over our teammates, running them ragged with trying to catch everything we were throwing.Callahan caught on first.With the devil in his grin, he started throwing balls back at us.Then Danny copied him.Josh raced around for another minute, trying to keep up, before he noticed what the other two were doing.
Without consulting each other, we dropped back out of the range of their throws, our laughter almost as loud as the panting breaths of our teammates.He held his fist out, and I bumped it.
“At the risk of overstepping, I noticed you’re a little stiff in the hips when you’re throwing a post.Can I show you a trick?”I asked.
The look in his eye said Mick was intrigued, so I picked up a ball and called out to Danny, “I wanna show Mick something.Could you run another post?”
He jogged over and lined up in the designated spot.
“Watch the progression from my hips through my shoulder as I send this pass,” I said to Mick.
I called the cadence, and Danny took off, running the perfect route as usual.I almost forgot what I was doing as I watched him do his thing as if he were Jerry Rice or something.I dropped three steps and flexed my left hip a millisecond ahead of my arm.The momentum of that lower-body move carried up my torso to my shoulder, giving the ball some snap as I released it, lasering it downfield right into Danny’s waiting hands.
“Did you see what I did there, Mick?”
“Yeah.Mind doing it again?”
“Okay.You’re up, Mitch,” I said to Josh Mitchell, who was still trying to catch his breath.“Run the same route Danny did.”
Once again, the momentum I built from my hips to my shoulder helped me laser the ball directly into Mitchell’s hands.
“All right.I think I got it.’Han, let’s try this,” Mick said to O’Reilly.
