Page 10 of Love Game

Once upon a time, Danny’s scrimmages had taken place in a two-story, indoor practice arena carpeted with the latest and greatest in synthetic turf and boasting a weight room that spanned the length of the field. Today, he stood in a field of mushy weeds watching a ragtag bunch of walk-on wannabes play hot potato with a football. And it still wasn’t the worst he’d seen in the last few years.

“Yeah. That sandy hardpack the boys at Rio River Junior College played on was sure nice,” Danny murmured, his eyes trailing after a running back who wasn’t completely without promise. “Go Rattlers.”

“Danny—”

“Stop fretting. You sound like my mother.”

“How is your mom?”

Danny had to smile at Mike’s eagerness to change the subject. “Relieved.” Wolcott might have been a step up from his last couple of jobs, but his had been an extremely long fall from grace. “And still too much woman for you.”

Mike sighed. “Probably always will be.”

But as much as Danny liked to brag about her, his public humiliation had taken a toll on his indomitable mother.

“And Tommy?”

Take care of Tommy. Protect Tommy.

With my life, Ma.

At the mere mention of his little brother, the ache in Danny’s jaw came back with a vengeance. He hadn’t been the only McMillan to lose his job that day. “Doing fine,” he replied tightly.

And it was the truth. After the shitstorm finally died down, Danny had made a few calls. His baby brother had come out a damn sight better than he had, career-wise. Hell, Tommy was a hot commodity these days. One of the best specialty coaches in the business. Ironic, considering his little brother was the one who screwed everything up in the first place. But Danny spent a lot of time and energy trying not to think about all the ways Tommy had fucked him over.

“Your office okay?”

His office was little more than a shoebox filled with shipping cartons, but he couldn’t care less. “It’s fine.”

“I think you have some potential in the backfield.”

Danny winced. The needy edge in his friend’s voice both annoyed and shamed him. The fact that Mike had taken a risk in hiring him wasn’t lost on either of them. “Possibly.”

“You can do what you want with most of the staff, but I’ll ask you to keep Mack Nord if you can find a spot for him. The guy is one of Wolcott’s longest-tenured employees and kind of an institution.”

“Seem to have a lot of those around here.”

“Tradition is important at Wolcott. It’s a pretty, uh, conservative community overall, and you know people will be watching…”

Mike trailed off, and the awkwardness grew thick between them.

Danny fixed him with a level look. “Watching what?”

“Everything.”

The word fell to the spongy ground with a thud. Shoving his hands deeper in his pockets, Danny zeroed in on a cornerback who seemed to have no clue how to defend the post. But instead of mentally tracing the route, his thoughts churned through the clues Mike trailed through their conversations.

They were as simple to decode as a Cracker Jack mystery. The kinds of shenanigans that got him sent to Division II purgatory would get him exiled for good next time. This was his second chance at the big time. There wouldn’t be a third.

As if he would risk this opportunity. Not only had he gotten older while he was wasting the best years of his career at the JuCo level, but he had also managed to grow wiser. A part of him wished he’d thrown his staff under the bus, but that wasn’t how things were done. The head coach was responsible for everything that went on under him. He wasn’t the first coach to own up to a laundry list of NCAA recruiting violations. Hell, most of the big guys had. Taken in context, his indiscretion was small potatoes.

But then the shit hit the fan in college athletics, and suddenly, zero tolerance was the rule of the day. No one wanted perspective; they wanted blood. The NCAA had been poised to make an example of someone, anyone. He was just the first to own up to committing some sins after college football was rocked by a series of scandals so salacious no breach of ethics could or would be forgiven. Particularly not when it was discovered that the coach in question was also involved in a relationship with a gorgeous red-headed grad student.

He turned to face his new boss. “Mike, I’m really glad to be here.” The simple statement seemed to put the AD at ease, but even thinking back to those jumbled, frantic days still twisted Danny’s gut into knots. “I think I’ll get a dog.”

The lack of segue didn’t seem to faze Mike in the least. “As long as it’s not one of those little yappy ones.”

Danny crossed his arms over his chest as he watched a wobbly spiral arc through the air. “You think I look like the type to carry a dog around in a purse?”

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