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?”
