Page 44 of Cleats and Pumps

I had an hour to waste before I was supposed to visit her, but I didn’t want to discuss going to New Mexico with Owen any longer.

I went back out to the porch and sat on the swing, one of my go-to places when I was a young man who needed to think. I knew at least three online magazines that would love the story about Amos coaching a team. I had already seen a few articles wondering where Amos was now that he’d been benched. I needed the job, and although a freelance article wouldn’t paymuch, it would help me keep my name in the spotlight and help Amos. I texted Owen.

Me:Okay, send me the address where Amos is doing his thing.

Then a few seconds later.

Me:Also, I need you to let the coach and Amos know I’m headed out to write the article.

Owen immediately texted back a smiley face, and then a thumbs-up. Owen got his way. There were few things the man loved more than that.

I grabbed my keys and headed over early to see Grandma. Yeah, she’d still be busy with her gin rummy game, and the fast food I’d stop to get her might get cold, but if I was going to take off again, I wanted to spend a little extra time with her before I did.

30

Amos

Iwassodistracted.Everytime I’d try to focus, I’d glance over and see Tommy sitting up in the stands, analyzing every move I made. Finally, Jake came over and whispered, “If you don’t mean to be this obvious, you might want to go on up and talk to him. As it is, the boys are beginning to snicker.”

I looked at the team and sighed. “Yeah, give me a minute,” I said, and Jake chuckled.

“Take your time…” he said and I could hear the humor in his voice.

Tommy had shown up about an hour ago while we were doing drills. Jake was really hitting the guys hard now that they seemed to be applying themselves. I felt proud my little impromptu skit thing and dad speech had worked.

I climbed the stairs and sat next to Tommy. “So, you came…”

He smiled. “Well obviously. So, tell me about the team.”

I cocked one eyebrow. “No ‘hid’y, how do you do’? Just right into an interview?”

Tommy mirrored my cocked-eyebrow look and sighed. “I mean, hi, Amos, how are you?”

I smiled as big as I could. “I’m excellent, man. How are you?” And I held out my hand to shake his like we were meeting for the first time.

“You’re a nitwit,” Tommy accused causing me to smile even bigger. That had been something he’d called me a lot before… well, before things went to shit.

He glanced back over at the team. “They look like… well… green.”

I laughed. “You have no idea. Until a few days ago, it was worse.”

“Do they have any chance of doing anything? Any stars on the team?”

I swallowed hard, but I needed to lay the law down on this, even if it was Tommy I was talking to. “Um, so I’m not going to do that, pick one kid over another. That’s not what I’m doing here. Besides, Coach Jake is who you should ask about that, anyway. I’m just here to support him.”

I looked back over at Tommy, who was staring at me. “So, what, you don’t think there’s one guy standing out over the others?”

I shrugged and went to get up. I really hated that kind of shit being thrust on a group of kids. Right now, they needed to be a fucking team, not cherry-pick one over the others.

“Amos, for real, don’t get mad; it’s a legit question.”

“No, not really at this stage. I get it. People are always looking for the next star football player, but those kids just need a chance to be a team, have some damn fun. I should probably get back.”

He reached over and literally pulled me back down on the bench. “Stop acting like this is a weird set of questions. Okay, tell me about theteam,” he said, using his fingers to air quote the word.

I shook my head. “Okay, see that kid there—he’s a freshman, sucks at everything right now, but he’s got some nice raw form. IfJake stays on him, I’m betting he will be quarterback his junior year.”

“See, that’s not too hard,” Tommy said, causing me to flip him off.

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