Gah!Why did he have to bring up his way-too-nice-for-my-peace-of-mind parents?
“They’re planning to fly in to watch our first playoff game in two weeks since I can’t go home for Thanksgiving.”
“They’re super-proud of you,” I said quietly.
“I’m super-proud ofyou, which is why I wanted them to meet you.”
Ah, damn.Why did he have to go and make this socomplicated?
Chapter Twenty-Five
Cash
Winning the conferencemeant a bye for the first round of the playoffs.The time off gave us all a chance to rest and recharge.It also meant we could take finals on a regular practice schedule.Staying on campus for Thanksgiving was less of a bummer than I anticipated, though, since my parents surprised me by joining the team for the community dinner my teammates had informed me was a Wildcats tradition.
The moms of several of the players, the partners of some of the coaching staff, and members of the booster club combined forces to put on a proper Thanksgiving feed: turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie among assorted additional goodies.I rolled out of the gym where the meal was served and worried that while a hangover couldn’t put me off my game in the film room, Thanksgiving dinner very well might.
The second tradition of the day was to watch one of the pro games in the state-of-the-art film room at the facility.The game we watched was the Denver Broncos versus the Chicago Bears.From the way the coaches asked us questions and pointed out plays, a guy would have been excused for thinking they were dissecting our last game.Still, it was instructional, and I saw a few things I wanted to run past Coach Wiley in practice.Fortunately, my food coma didn’t kick in until near the end of the fourth quarter.
After we’d finished with the football portion of the day, (read: most of the day), I met up with my parents at our house.
“Thanks again for coming out.It’s one of your best surprises,” I said as I hugged them hello.
“With your brother spending the holiday with his girlfriend’s family, we were at loose ends.Joining the team for dinner sounded like a good time,” Mom said.“It was.Jeri Ellis is a lovely woman.We had a nice visit.”
“Hello, fellas.Great game against the Bears,” Dad said to my roommates, who were sprawled across the chairs making up our living-room furniture.
Taco was sitting nearest the front door.“Thanks, Mr.Donovan.Thanks for the special dressing, Mrs.Donovan.Yours was my favorite.”
“You can stop gushing, dude.It was gone before the freshman finally made it into the gym,” I said, ruffling his brown curls on my way past him.
“Hey!”he yelled in protest as he ducked his head.“I worked all morning getting my hair exactly right.”His laughter only punctuated the lie in that statement.I didn’t think I’d ever seen Taco’s hair in anything other than disarray.
Dally and Dalton added their hellos and thank-yous to the chorus as I led my folks into the kitchen where we could actually talk.My roommates were watching the latestMissionImpossibleinstallment, which Dally had accurately described as “James Bond, only serious” when he’d suggested it after we all arrived home from the facility.
“Is Saylor spending the holidays with her family?”Mom asked as I set the teakettle on the stove for her.
“Yeah.Thanksgiving is her family’s favorite holiday together.”I pulled a couple of beers from the fridge, handing one to my dad.“Her brother is a college prospect at safety, so her parents wanted to make the most of what will probably be their last Thanksgiving together as a family.”
“You like her a lot,” Dad said after swallowing a pull from his beer.“Which is good.She suits you.”
A memory of our night together before she headed home to Kalispell flashed in my head, Saylor smiling down at me as she rode the hell out of my cock.I shot back a long drink from my beer to cool myself down.
“Saylor’s great.”
“Uh-huh.I think I hear a ‘but’ in there.”
Mom had always been hyper-perceptive about what was going on with me.She’d figured out things with Gillian, my previous girlfriend, were on the rocks before I’d fully processed that I was over her.
With a heavy sigh, I admitted, “She’s not on board with us being a couple.She thinks if she lets herself feel what I know she’s feeling, she’ll have to give up her rock ‘n’ roll dreams to follow me through my NFL career.”
Dad’s black eyebrows shot to his salt-and-pepper hairline.“NFL career?What’s going on, son?”
Rolling my beer can between my palms, I said, “After that last game, I started hearing from some NFL scouts.Initially, they were here scouting the big dogs—Callahan, Bax, Finn, and Dally.”I gestured over my shoulder toward the living room, where my roommate was watching TV.“But my stats have their attention now too, which—I’m not gonna lie—has me cautiously optimistic I might get the chance I thought I lost at Washington.”
“Saylor isn’t excited for that for you?”Mom asked as she rejoined us at the table with her steaming mug of tea.
“She was commitment-averse from the get-go.I haven’t told her about the scouts yet.”
