Nico and his sister sat in the fifth row. Seated beside him was his fellow rookie Razer and his date, the girl from the club in Hollywood. The two had apparently bonded over texts after they flew back home after the Cobraswin over the Knights in week eight of the season. Nico wore his badge of being a matchmaker with great pride.
Nico and Razer wore matching white suits.
It was Nico’s first awards show. He once dreamed of winning Rookie of the Year. After his second concussion, his chances clearly had gone out the window. Still, a man could dream. Maybe next year, he could win the Comeback Player of the Year award, but the odds were slim. Nobody had quite said it out loud, but Nico wasn’t stupid. He knew his former coach had practically stolen his job the second he announced his un-retirement.
Nico hadn’t counted on the ceremony being so boring, though. He fought through yawns as the evening wore on, and was met with the hard blow of his sister’s elbow against his ribs on multiple occasions.
Nico envied being the center of attention, but in this crowd, he was just another face.
Retired all-star pro Lewis Farmer, former quarterback for the Portland Pioneers, took the stage to announce the award for Comeback Player of the Year. The theater fell quiet as the legendary baller took to the podium and announced the already-public nominees.
It was no surprise when he named Cooper Callahan as the winner.
The audience erupted into a roar of thunderous applause and Nico found himself swept up in the energy of the crowd. He clapped his hands together and hollered as his former coach stood up in his seat at the front of the theater.
And then his clapping stopped, his heart skipping abeat, when he watched Cooper bend over to kiss Stassi on the lips. In no world would that ever be Nico.
The first minute of Cooper’s speech was the easiest part. Everything went as planned and if his mother had changed anything, he hadn’t noticed.
“After my father died, it was my…” He stopped reading aloud, instead opting to read silently. At least a paragraph droning on about how it was his mother who inspired him to continue playing football. Cooper had no doubt his speech was rewritten to soften the image of his mother who would soon be announcing her bid for the Senate.
He searched the crowd for his mother and found her standing at her seat in the mezzanine. He shook his head at her and stuffed the speech into his pocket, gripped the sides of the podium and cleared his throat.
“Sorry,” he continued. “After my father died, it was the Davies family who pulled me through it. Stassi Davies, my beautiful girlfriend and the love of my life, and her twin brother, Luke Davies.”
He watched as his mother took a seat. Mission accomplished. He looked back to the crowd as a whole, talking into an abyss of people with faces, names, but absolutely no understanding of the battles he fought daily.
“Losing my father was the hardest thing I ever had to do,” he said. “He was a force in this world and he left us far too soon. Even in his final years, he was cool, calm, collected, and above all, caring.” Cooper had been covering for hisfather’s bad behavior and alcoholism for years, so that when the lies came out, they came out like smooth butter. “After my accident, I tried to be more like my father. In his younger years, he was also in a car accident that sidelined him for a year. Like father, like son, except he returned to play and I swore I’d never play again. That car accident changed me. It broke bones in my body and tore a hole in my chest.” He exhaled softly to steady himself. “I love football more than anything in this world but I couldn’t see myself playing again without my best friend there beside me. I was placed on injured reserve after the accident and in that time, my bones healed. My body got better, but I… I never got better.” He pointed to his head. “This up here, my mind, it didn’t heal quite the same. So yeah, I swore I’d never play again and on the surface, I think I meant it and so I officially retired.”
He looked out to his seat in the crowd that was no longer empty.
Luke sat in his place, smiling.
Cooper stared a little too long, shook his head, and continued on as if he wasn’t losing his fucking mind in front of a crowd of his peers. “I started this year in week seven, brought onto serve in a coaching capacity for Nico Fallon. It was an absolute joy to help guide and shape him, but deep down, being back on that field only served to ignite a hunger I’d forgotten. Nothing in this world compares to being on that field, and I’m so happy to be back. So, this award is not only for myself, it’s for my team. Those who are still here and those who are gone. This award is for Luke Davies, my right-hand man, the best wide receiver I’ve ever played with, and my best friend.”
He picked up the heavy metal award and raised it above his head. “Thank you and god bless.”
Nico spent most of the rest of the night watching Cooper from a distance. While at the bar, getting a drink with Natalie, he watched Cooper schmooze with Matteo Reyes on the other side of it. While talking to reporters in the atrium, he caught Cooper slipping into the bathroom.
Finally, he watched his former coach sneak through a door leading to a stairwell.
Nico followed, jogged up the stairs, and by the time he reached the roof of the hotel, Cooper was standing at the edge with his hands shoved into the pockets of his navy trousers.
The door slammed shut behind Nico, alerting Cooper to his presence.
“I didn’t see you in the crowd,” Cooper said dryly, his warm breath dancing in front of him like a furnace. But underneath the flat tone of voice, he wore a smile.
The contrast confused Nico.
“You must not have been looking hard enough.” Nico pointed over his shoulder. “I was about four rows behind you.”
Cooper just nodded. He was never one for many words. Nico calculated his former coach had moaned, grunted, and groaned more combined than the number of actual words that ever came out of his mouth.
Nico continued his slow approach, the bitter-coldFebruary air biting at his windswept face. “Are you going to the Super Bowl?”
“The only time I’ll ever go is when I’m playing in it.”
Nico reached Cooper and stood beside him. “Almost made it this year.”
