Senior Year Box Set

“What I will say is, I know Tim, and I know you. Of all the guys you might have picked, I couldn’t have chosen a better one for you to be with. I see how happy you are with him, and there’s no way I can ever begrudge you that happiness,” I said to ease her mind.

“What about you and Brook?”

My face lit up.

“Honestly, with her, it’s easy. She totally gets me, and I always look forward to the next time I see her. She’s confident enough that I don’t have to worry that she’ll see or hear something and jump to conclusions. Brook knows how I feel about her. I never feel like there’s a need for me to play a role when I’m with her, if that makes any sense.”

“After our talk about how you feel like everyone wants a piece of you, I’m glad you don’t think she’s playing any games,” Tami said.

I thought about that for a moment. Something I was sure of was that Brook would never take advantage of our relationship. When I was with her, I was just David, and right now, that was precisely what I needed to be.

Then Tami changed the conversation once again. It seemed she wanted to cover as much ground as possible if I was talking to her.

“I talked to Cassidy last night. She told me that your fight with that man in Oklahoma really was bothering you. Are you okay?” she asked.

“Not really. It’s one thing to learn to defend yourself, and I will forever be in Cassidy’s debt for taking me under her wing and teaching me. It’s just that … I don’t know …” I trailed off.

Tami pulled a Dawson on me and waited me out.

“I guess that once it was over and I looked back on what happened, I saw how easy it was for me to hurt him. You had to be there. This guy wasn’t a typical dad. He’d grown up in a rough part of Dallas and could handle himself. Were I a regular high school kid, he would have kicked my butt effortlessly. The man was a bull and walked right through several of my punches.

“I don’t know if you understand the type of training Cassidy has had me doing. It isn’t about doing forms and looking good. For the most part, we go full-out. She never backs off and has forced me to learn to protect myself. With her training, I know that even if the tide of a fight is going against me, I have the skills to turn it around. Without that, I might have been seriously hurt.

“What I was doing with him wasn’t working, and it was like my body just reacted and changed tactics. I knew I had to put him down hard. That man was not going to back off. When I reacted, it was almost too easy. He started to go down, and I used a finishing move intended to either disable or kill him. If medical help hadn’t been close at hand, he might have died,” I said.

“How do you feel about that?” she asked.

I gave her my one-eyebrow-raised look. Tami sounded way too much like my uncle.

“It’s messed up,” I admitted.

“Cassidy said you haven’t been back to the dojo.”

“Cassidy has a big mouth.”

“Settle down. Have you forgotten I can find out anything I want to know about you?” Tami asked with a grin.

That had been one of our biggest issues. It brought a small smile to my face.

“I need time to figure things out. I’m sure that I’ll eventually be back to training with Cassidy. The dojo helps me with a lot of my life that’s not related to self-defense. It makes me a better ballplayer and helps me with my focus. It’s also a great way for me to work out my frustrations.”

“Good. The only other advice I want to give you is to talk to Brook about what’s going on with you.”

“For once, I beat you to the punch. She and I had a good talk.”

Tami appeared to be taken aback by that. It seemed she’d never imagined I would find anyone else to help work through all my ‘stupid boy’ problems, as she called them.

Our conversation drifted to safer ground as she updated me on all my friends at Wesleyan. I planned to go visit sometime soon. That was if I could ever find the time.

◊◊◊

Ohio State was on a bye week, so they didn’t have any recruits on campus, other than us. Kevin had been instructed to bring us over to the Woody Hayes Athletic Center when we were done with the campus tour. Brook and Cassidy joined my dad and me, and we soon found ourselves in Coach Casey’s office. We were joined there by John Lunt, their quarterback coach.

“It’s good to see you. I understand that you’ve been up north this weekend,” Coach Casey said.

“What is it with neither of you being able to say the actual name?” I asked.

“I realize it sounds silly, but once you’re here, you’ll understand. Our fan bases get a little excited when we talk about each other.”

“I see that you’re ranked number two after your win at Oklahoma last weekend.”

“That was a key game for us,” he admitted. “Anytime you can go into their stadium and come out with a win, it’s a big deal. I think we’re in a good position to run the table and win the national championship again. And I wanted to point out that we had 16 players from last year’s team sign NFL contracts.”