Page 47 of Ruff and Tumble

Chapter 12

The matchup against Texas was the first home game in the entirety of Cole’s career that his parents weren’t there to watch. Even though he couldn’t see their usual seats from the field, he felt their absence the entire time.

It was ridiculous. He was a grown-ass man with a stadium full of fans. There were twenty television cameras pointed on him at any given moment. Two hundred people were working hard to ensure that every pass he made and every play he called were broadcast around the world in real time.

None of that made the least bit of difference. He still felt weird, like he was playing the game with only half of his heart.

“Would someone please tell Bennett to come get his damn dog?” The irate voice of one of the assistant coaches hailed him before he even made it all the way to the locker rooms. The team was euphoric, having secured a place in the championship game and now only one win away from the Kickoff Cup, but the assistant coach looked less than pleased to see him. “There you are. What the hell is wrong with this animal?”

The animal in question came bounding toward Cole as though they’d been parted for days instead of hours. Heedless of the fact that Cole was fully geared up and sweaty as all get-out, Philip launched himself into his arms. He wriggled and licked and otherwise made the pair of them look like lovesick fools.

“Yes, Philip. I know.” He did his best to control the puppy’s gyrating movements. “I missed you, too, buddy.”

“How come Bennett gets to bring his dog to games, and I don’t?” complained Johnson. “My kids would love to see Napoleon getting a little airtime.”

“This isn’t any dog.” Cole pointed the puppy at the kicker. “This is my Puppy-Cup-winning lucky charm. Kiss him for seven years of good fortune.”

Johnson, who was six feet of long, lanky foot power, eyed him askance. “I thought it was the woman who was the lucky charm.”

“She is.”

“Then what good is it going to do me to kiss the puppy? I’d be better off kissing her.”

Cole couldn’t argue with that. Kissing Hailey seemed to have done him a world of good. Not only had they won the game, but his arm wasn’t giving him any more trouble than the usual grueling ache. Each pass had gone more or less where he’d wanted it to, his strength holding out for as long as the team had needed him. He liked to think that even Hailey’s father would have been proud of his performance today.

“I’d kiss a frog if it meant we could get another win like that one,” Garrett said, jogging up to join them.

“I’d kiss your mom for it,” Johnson returned. “Hell, if it means breaking the curse, I’d kissyou.”

Garrett responded to this by planting a loud, smacking kiss on top of the kicker’s helmet. This kind of high-adrenaline camaraderie was common after a win as important as this one, and Cole would have normally jumped right in to join them. But he caught sight of Regina standing off to one side of the hallway, her cell phone pressed to one ear while she plugged the other with her finger, and moved to join her. He only had a few minutes before he’d be needed for the postgame interviews, and he wanted a word with her before she switched into full manager mode.

“Uh-huh. I’ll tell him. I know. Iknow, Mom.” Regina caught sight of Cole and rolled her eyes in an exaggerated gesture of annoyance. “Give Daddy our love and tell him we’ll see him later, yeah? I have to go now. And please make sure Mia goes to bed at a relatively normal time tonight. I don’t care how many tears she manages to squeeze out at you first.”

Cole chuckled as Regina finished up the call. “You know she’s going to be up until midnight now, right?”

“How is that my fault? I’m the only adult in her life who refuses to fall for that sob story of hers. She’s all alone. No one loves her.” Regina sighed. “Bullshit. You’re turning her into a monster, the whole lot of you.”

“Speaking of monsters…” Cole began with a glance at the phone clutched in Regina’s hand.

She didn’t miss his meaning. “He’s alive and kicking, but just barely. It would have been nice if you could have won that game by a few more points. Mom says they were discussing sedating him until the game was over to keep him from having another heart attack, but he threatened to walk out if anyone came near him with a needle.”

Cole assumed his sister was joking, doing her best to make light of a bad situation, but that didn’t stop him from saying, “Our father’s life is entirely in my hands. Got it. Win the Kickoff Cup or be held liable for patricide.”

“Hey.” Regina frowned and gave his foot a light kick. “I was kidding.”

“Were you?” he asked. He heaved a sigh before she could answer. “I take it I’m not invited for visiting hours tonight?”

Regina winced. So far, he hadn’t been invited foranyvisiting hours. Every time he’d expressed a wish to swing by the hospital, he’d been fed another story about how his dad was sleeping or he shouldn’t leave practice early or it would be better if he focused on football so his dad could recover in peace.

“He’ll just worry more if you’re there,” his mom kept saying. “You can do more for him by working with your team than by visiting.”

“Stayaway” had been Regina’s less tactful approach. “It’s not as if there’s anything you can do for him, anyway.”

“No need to come up with an excuse,” Cole said as Regina prepared to hit him with a fresh wave of reasons why it was best for him to celebrate with the team instead of his family tonight. He curled a protective hand around Philip’s head. “Message received.”

“It’s not personal, Cole,” Regina said, glancing down at where he was clutching the puppy. “We’re just trying to manage his stress levels, that’s all. You know how he gets this time of year.”

Yes, he knew. From what Regina had told him, his dad had cried last year when the Lumberjacks lost to their longtime rivals in Arizona. He hadn’t shed a single tear when his own father—Cole’s grandfather—had died, but that 21–18 loss so near to the Kickoff Cup had almost broken him. The same thing used to happen when the stakes were much lower, when becoming a pro player was the pot of gold at the end of an endless, laborious rainbow. Weddings, birthdays,funerals…they could easily be dispensed with, just so long as Cole got the ball in the end zone.