Chapter 5: Hotness

Sunday September 11

I was getting ready to go running when my cell rang. I looked at the caller ID, and it was an 859 area code. I tried to think where that was.

“This is David,” I answered.

“David, Coach Styles,” said the head coach for the University of Kentucky.

“Morning, Coach, how can I help you?”

“I saw you left us off your visit list. I know you’ve been on campus a couple of times. What I’d really like to do is to schedule an in-home visit before you get much further into your recruiting process. I think I can help you narrow the field and make this process as easy as possible.”

“By committing to the University of Kentucky,” I finished his thought.

“I knew you were smart,” he said and chuckled.

“When did you want to do this?” I asked.

“I talked to the woman answering your phone, Megan, and she said something about you being banned from your dojo until Tuesday. Would tomorrow night work?”

I would have to talk to Megan about sharing too much information with recruiters. I knew that she hadn’t given him my number. He’d stolen it when we met at Wesleyan a year and a half ago. This was the first time he’d used it. I was glad I hadn’t had to block his number.

Kentucky had been the first school to offer me and Coach Styles had always been honest. He’d offered to help me through this process, so I decided to accept the visit.

“I’ve only done this for baseball. What do I need to know about a football in-home visit?”

“I want the decision-makers to attend. I suspect that will be your parents and any trusted advisers you have. I’d like them to be able to get to know key members of my staff and me. I think it’s important that they know who they would be entrusting their son to for four years. I also want them to know everything the University of Kentucky can offer you,” he said.

“Is it okay if I invite my girlfriend and her family?” I asked.

“I’m comfortable with you inviting anyone who you think needs to be there.”

“What about Wolf Tams and Tim Foresee?”

“I planned to call them next. I also want to talk to Ty Wilson while I’m in town.”

“Okay. Call Megan, and she’ll coordinate everything. I look forward to seeing you,” I said.

After I hung up, I called Brook, and her phone went to voicemail, so I called the house line.

“Hello,” a sleepy Ava answered.

“Hey, it’s David. I need to talk to Brook,” I said.

“What time is it?”

I looked at the clock.

“7:30.”

“And what day is it?”

“Sunday.”

“And you think my daughter’s out of bed?” she asked with amusement in her voice.

“Maybe you could have her call me when she gets up,” I suggested.

“Oh, no. Let me go get her,” Ava said.

I heard her knock on Brook’s door, and Brook say something rude.

“Who died?” Brook asked when she answered.

“Hey, I thought that was my line,” I teased.

I’d said it more than once while I was in LA and Brook forgot about the time difference.

“Bite me, Big Daddy. What’s up?” she asked, sounding more awake.

I explained the recruiting visit and wanted to know if she and her parents wanted to come.

“I’ve been curious about this whole process, so count me in. I’d suggest that you also invite Cassidy, Tracy, and Pam.”

“I thought Pam planned to go back to California for college.”

“She does, but she is your Baby Mama. Don’t you think she wants to at least hear what’s going on with you?” Brook asked, making way too much sense.

“This is turning into a circus,” I moaned.

“Are you serious about Kentucky?” she asked.

“Probably not, but I don’t want to burn any bridges, either.”

“Here’s how I would look at it. Use this one as a practice run. Have whoever you think would want to be part of the process come to this one, so they get an idea of how this all works. Then when you meet with the ones you’re genuinely interested in, just have the key players there.

“Plus, are you crazy? Your recruiting will be a circus whether you want it to be or not,” Brook predicted. “Use this to help manage it.”

Everyone had been badgering me about where I planned to go. I sure hoped Coach Styles had a sense of humor. I suspected that this might be a unique in-home.

“Okay. I can see where this might calm some folks down,” I said, thinking of Tracy in particular. “Are you guys coming to brunch today?”

“Yes. On that note, I’m going back to sleep. Next time you wake me up on a Sunday morning at this time, there had better be a payoff, if you know what I mean.”

“I might have to think of a new nickname for you. ‘Hotness’ might not be enough to describe you,” I said, dropping down into my sexy voice.

“It was just a thought.”

“I like how you think. We need to figure out how to dump Cassidy and Don. I love her to death, but I want to spend time with you,” I said, referring to our double date last night.

I’d tried to talk Wolf and Tim into taking Cassidy and Don on a double date. They’d both laughed in my face.

“You should get your brother to do it,” Brook suggested.

“I’m sure I could get my mom to babysit,” I said.

“No, ‘stupid boy,’ your other brother. The one that has a girlfriend and no car,” Brook said.

“You’re a genius! That would be perfect,” I said, imagining all the free time Brook and I would now have.

What could we possibly do?

“Okay. I’m done solving all your problems. I’ll see you after you get back from church,” Brook said, and then hung up.

“You want to have how many people?” Mom asked at brunch.

The list had grown when I’d thought about it at church. I wanted Coach Mason and Coach Hope there. Then all the guys and their parents plus their girlfriends and their parents. Then my family, including Phil and his parents. Dad had pointed out that Megan and Caryn should be there. The list felt like it might be never-ending.

“You should invite Jeff and his cameraman,” Dad recommended.

He had a point. The streaming video had attracted a lot of viewers. Jeff had done us a solid in the morning paper and followed Coach Mason’s spin. I suspected he planned to show the whole sequence in his documentary.

“Where am I supposed to put everyone?” Mom asked.

“Our House is closed on Monday nights. Let’s have it there,” I suggested.

“It’s a good thing you’re one of the owners. I’m not sure where else you could call and only give a day’s notice,” Ava said.

I could probably call Greg and have him get Monical’s banquet room, but she was right. Having your own restaurant for events like this was nice.

After brunch, the girls were going to the mall. Dad and I had a meeting with Caryn and Megan to talk about my businesses. We came in the back and found crates of mail stacked halfway up the wall. I took a closer look and saw they were recruiting letters.

“What do you want us to do with all this?” Megan asked as she came back to get a soda.

“You should read it all,” I said, and Dad smacked me on the back of the head.

“Ignore him. We’ll take them to the recycling drop on the way home,” Dad offered.

We followed Megan into the conference room. On the wall were eight-by-tens of Wolf, Tim, and me in full color. In the background, there were black-and-white action shots of each of us from yesterday’s Washington game. There were eleven different photos. Each had us Photoshopped to wear the jersey of each school that was on our list, plus Kentucky. Each picture had the school’s name and logo, and underneath it had hashtags. For example, Ohio State’s string said: ‘#WhyNotUs #GoBucks.’

“This is cool,” I said.

“We’ll talk about that later,” Caryn said as she sat down.

Caryn linked up the video conferencing, and I soon saw Jack Mass, Frank Ingram, Shannon Goehl, and Kent Crain’s faces all up on the big-screen TV. Something must be up if the brain trust was all present.

Caryn was all business and called the meeting to order. She seemed to be evolving into the role of COO. I remembered when we’d hung out in my trailer on the set for The Secret Circle.

Shannon Goehl, our corporate counsel, was up first and informed us that we now had all the companies registered with the appropriate government entities. Then the reason why everyone was on the line became apparent when Kent, the senior manager for Dawson Management, got his turn.

“We’ve been going through Craig’s contacts and talking to them about us being their managers. Kendal signed up six new clients, and I was able to sign four. They’ve also agreed to use IDC – Public Relations and Mass Investments,” Kent announced.

“We’re ahead of our most aggressive projections, according to the business plan. We’re going to need to hire more managers to help out Kent and his team,” Frank, president of Dawson Management and a managing partner of IDC – Public Relations, shared.

“What does that mean?” Dad asked.

“In the short term, we may need to spend some money to hire and train people, but if we continue at the pace we’re going, we’ll be in the black way ahead of projections,” Caryn explained.

“I want to hire some people familiar with modeling. We haven’t touched David’s modeling contacts yet,” Kent said.

“I know who you should call: Aubrey Dunham,” I suggested.

“Was she the woman I met in the UK?” Dad asked.

“Yes. She and Adrienne are friends, and she’s currently working at Ford Models in Europe to help train new models. She knows the business and just recently retired from being a full-time model herself.

“The other person you might want to contact is Clare Thomas. She’s the niece of Deb Thomas, who’s a vice president in charge of talent development in Ford Models’ Chicago office. Claire was my agent there but quit and went back to school to get her MBA,” I said, giving them a couple of options.

The discussion then turned to my recruiting.

“We mocked up pictures we want to send to each school’s bloggers and sportswriters,” Frank said. “I need to give Lily credit for coming up with the hashtag #WhyNotUs. I think it’ll help brand the three of you as a package.”

“I like it,” I admitted.

“We’re also getting requests from ‘insiders’ to talk to you about your recruitment,” Megan said. “They told me they want to make their ‘crystal ball’ predictions, whatever that means.”

“One of the recruiting websites has people who’re supposed to be plugged into college football make predictions about where a recruit will end up. I admit that I find it amusing to read some of the fan message boards’ meltdowns when a prediction changes. We could have some fun with this,” I said.

“You risk alienating potential fans if you start creating a bunch of drama. People will look at you as an attention-seeker and write you off,” Frank advised.

He could be a total fun-sucker sometimes. But he was right. Message boards tended to create their own drama. Diehard fans of a school hung on every post and tried to glean any information they could get or make up. Being on the Internet, where they could hide from the world in their parents’ basements, they could be a bunch of cyberbullies while acting like experts.

Some of my favorite threads were the ones where they tried to prove that their school was better than a rival. The Ohio State and Michigan fans had it down to an art form.

What made it all hilarious was that these adults didn’t have anything better to do than try to figure out what a seventeen- or eighteen-year-old meant with a post to social media. It felt a little like they were stalkers when their comments would stray to talk about the girls the recruits would either start to follow or get messages from.

The Wisconsin board was convinced I was going there because Dawn, the college basketball player I’d met on the trip, and I had started following each other online. I was sure that if I went to Kentucky’s message board, I’d find they were talking about me following John Phillips, their starting quarterback, and my friend.

“Okay, fine. I do have something else to talk about. My mom was approached by a representative of Southwest Central State. They wanted me to come for a visit and seemed to indicate they might pay for it.”

“I’ll talk to Duane Morris and find out what we should do about that,” Shannon said, going into lawyer mode.

Mr. Morris was the sports attorney Ms. Dixon had hired to deal with NCAA issues. From there we wrapped it up and went home.

I was in my apartment, reading ahead when Cassidy came in looking sad.

“What’s wrong, Bad Girl?”

That brought a grin to her face.

“Mr. Hicks is mad at my dad. Dad has to go talk to him tonight,” she explained.

Mr. Hicks was our athletic director and Coach Hope’s boss. I kept my expression neutral because Cassidy was a friend.

“Dad would like to talk to you before he meets with Mr. Hicks,” Cassidy said.

“I’m fine with that.”

We did need to clear the air or I would have a problem working with him the rest of the season. Cassidy sent a text and then went downstairs when there was a knock at the door. Duke came running up the steps. I’d left him in the house with the little ones taking naps. Duke acted as an early warning system for when the boys woke up. Peggy appreciated it because she didn’t have to check on them. Duke would come to get her as soon as one of them would stir.

I was glad to see my dad come up first, followed by Cassidy and Coach Hope.

“Somehow this seems wrong,” Coach Hope said.

I gave him a confused look.

“I just assumed you’d be off on some adventure. This just seems so ordinary, but then again you do get good grades,” he said while pointing to the book I was studying.

“I’m not a natural like your daughter. I have to work for my grades,” I said.

Coach Hope actually grinned, and Cassidy gave me a dirty look. She put zero effort into studying and was a solid ‘B’ student. Her dad and I both knew that if she tried, she would be getting ‘A’s.

“I wanted a chance to talk to you, and the other boys I owe apologies to, before school tomorrow,” Coach Hope said, getting to the point of his visit. “I’m sorry I didn’t talk to Wolf and Tim when they came back. If I had, none of this would have happened.”

“You didn’t think Alan was capable of doing it? Remember what he did to Lisa Felton?” I asked.

Alan had posted her private blog on the school’s internal message system. He’d lost access to students’ information and athletic websites because of his breach of trust. Looking back, that was when I began to think about him as no longer being my best friend. When I thought he’d had sex with Tami, I was hurt and pushed him away. Without our friend Jeff around to curb his impulses, he’d turned into someone I seriously didn’t want in my life anymore, regardless of our past childhood friendship.

Uncle John’s talk about Circles of Trust came to mind. There was a part where people who meant you malice had to be dealt with to protect your close friends and family, your inner circles. Alan had joined Mike Herndon and Cal Bell, Pam’s dad, in the ‘these people will do you actual harm and may try to get at you through your friends’ circle.

“I honestly thought that you two were just having a disagreement and would get past it. It never crossed my mind that Alan would pull something like this. I thought about talking to Tim and Wolf, but the more I did, the madder I got. I thought we had an understanding and they had broken it,” he admitted.

“I suspect Alan was in your ear the whole time, talking about me thinking I was privileged and could do anything I wanted,” I said.

Coach Hope’s face got pink as I hit the nail on the head.

“Alan is no longer a part of the football program.”

“I hope you locked him out of your football software. I wouldn’t put it past him to steal the content and then delete everything.”

“No. That was the first thing I did. I did learn a few things in the Marine Corps. I should have taken to heart my last review. I wasn’t promoted to Lieutenant Colonel because I was deemed as being too inflexible and having control issues,” Coach Hope shared.

I sat up for a minute. Wow! Coach Hope really must be rattled. That was the kind of stuff you don’t usually share with anyone except the very few people you trust absolutely. Either that or maybe I was becoming part of his innermost circle.

“I thought that was a trait of all football coaches,” Dad said to lighten the mood.

“You’re probably right,” Coach Hope said, then looked at me seriously. “I was wrong for what I did. You were right when you said all I had to do was communicate what my issue was. It was unfair of me to put you boys through that.”

“After the steroid debacle and then this, I have some serious trust issues right now. I thought we had a better relationship than that. I don’t think I’ve ever given you a reason to believe what Alan sold you. I’ve strived to be the consummate team player and tried to set an example in leadership. And frankly, it hurts a bit that you would think I would try to pull something after I went out of my way to make sure that Yuri, Roc, and Phil could join me in Mexico.”

“I understand and don’t blame you. At this point, all I can do is say I’m sorry and hope that we can work to put this behind us,” Coach Hope said earnestly.

I sat back and thought for a second. If Coach Hope left, we’d be okay for the season, but I couldn’t see Coach Mason or Coach Rector being here next year. I didn’t want Lincoln High football to implode as soon as I left.

But even more importantly, it would have a devastating effect on Cassidy, and also Coach Hope. I realized they were both my friends—my good friends—and they didn’t need to be hurt over this any more than they already had been. Words from the guys’ retreat came back to me. ‘To have a good friend, you must be a good friend,’ and, ‘If you want someone as a friend, you must be ready to forgive them for one great flaw.’

I smiled to myself. This decision, when put in perspective, was easy.

“One of my goals is to leave a legacy of excellence at Lincoln High. I think you’re going to be a huge part of that. More importantly, I think of you and Cassidy both as good friends and I don’t want to lose that with either of you over this. If you need me to talk to Mr. Hicks, have him call me,” I said.

Coach Hope smiled sadly.

“I appreciate that. I need to go mend more fences and then go face the music,” he said.

I told them about the Kentucky in-home visit, and they agreed to be there. He and Cassidy left.

“What do you think?” I asked.

“Personally, I would kick Alan’s ass.”

Wow! My dad surprised me sometimes. Thank goodness my mom wasn’t around to hear that.

“I’ll put that on my to-do list.”

Hotness.

“Yessss...” I hissed as Brook took me to the hilt.

“You seemed a little stressed.”

I ignored her. I needed to concentrate, or this would be the shortest sex session of my life.

Brook had come back from shopping and wanted to show me what she bought. I played the dutiful boyfriend and acted like I was interested. That all changed when she came out in a matching bra and panty set. Someone had gone to Victoria’s Secret.

Mr. Happy had taken control of the body, and I’d grabbed Brook’s hips when she came within reach. I’d simply released my member and pushed her panties aside and found hotness, nirvana, bliss, and every other pleasurable term that had ever been uttered. I think that had been Brook’s plan all along because she didn’t object. She leaned back against my chest and moaned with satisfaction.

“We have to stop double-dating with Cassidy.”

I wished she would stop talking. I was busy doing my math homework in my head to keep from exploding. She’d talked me into not using condoms since we were in a committed relationship, which meant I could feel everything.

Brook planted her feet on my knees so she could get leverage and began to move up and down my sensitive member. I was about to erupt way too soon, so I reached around and began to rub her sex vigorously with four fingers to help her get there with me.

She screeched into my ear and about knocked me out when her head slammed into my chin. One of her feet slipped off my knee, and she slammed down, taking the last little bit I had to offer. I felt her inner hotness begin to throb, which was more than I could take. I felt the dam break as I had my release.

“That didn’t take long,” my mom said from the top of the stairs.

I looked over at Mom and Ava taking in the show. Ava’s mouth hung open, and my mom looked amused.

“Out!” I bellowed.

Brook took that opportunity to jump off my lap and run into my bedroom. Mr. Happy waved at everyone, and I stuffed him into my pants. Ava’s eyes were locked onto my crotch. I took it that I wasn’t getting them to leave, so I went to find Brook.

When I cleared the bedroom door and shut it behind me, she tackled me and almost knocked me down. I pulled her into my arms and just held her as she shook.

“I’m so screwed,” Brook said into my chest.

“I think your mom wants to do naughty things to me.”

That earned me a punch and got her giggling.

“Do you think it would get us out of trouble?” she asked.

“I see how it is. If it benefits you, you’ll pimp out your boyfriend,” I said in mock horror.

She didn’t even hesitate.

“Yep. That’s part of having a girlfriend. You do whatever she tells you to.”

“Okay, Miss Bossy. What do you want me to do?”

“Go find out how much trouble we’re in.”

I predicted none, but I’d had a girl’s father punch me so I would do this cautiously.

I came back out and found my mom making tea. Ava’s face flushed a deep red when she saw me. She’d been perving on me ever since we went on vacation to the Caribbean. Mom saw me.

“Sorry about that. I figured it would take longer for you two to be doing anything like that. I think I forgot what teenage love is all about. I should’ve used the intercom,” Mom admitted.

I pulled a Dawson and just shut up until I knew whether this was just a ploy before she pounced. I’d fallen for the false sense of security act before. I think Ava was more confused than I was.

“Brook! We’re having tea. Please join us,” Mom called out.

Brook stuck her head out of the door, and I gave her a little shrug. She came out, having changed back into her clothes, and sat on my knee as Mom and Ava took the couch. Mom served tea and cookies like everything was normal.

“Do we need to talk about what we walked in on?” Mom asked and looked directly at Ava.

“I hate to admit this, but I don’t think David was her first. I was sixteen when I became sexually active. They’re both eighteen and seem to like each other. That was better than what my experience was,” Ava confessed.

“My first played baseball and was kind of a jerk. He ended up getting a minor league baseball contract and left me so he could go follow his dream,” Mom shared.

“I sometimes wonder whatever happened to Bancroft,” Ava said.

“Steve actually lives in town and has two boys David and Greg’s age,” Mom said.

My mind came to a screeching halt. It wasn’t bad enough that our moms were sharing their sexual history with us, but I put together who she was talking about.

“Steve Herndon?” I asked, praying that Luke and Mike’s dad wasn’t the one.

She just nodded, and I decided I’d just died a little bit.

“Bancroft? Surely that was his last name,” Brook said.

“Nope. He was also a fourth. It was a family name, and he insisted that everyone use his full name,” Ava said, and then turned to her daughter. “Who was your first?”

I love Brook. She was quick on her feet.

“David, just now,” she said with a straight face.

“What about you, David?” Ava asked.

“I just remembered that Dad wants me to mow the yard,” I said, getting up and almost dumping Brook onto the floor.

As I rushed out of my apartment, I couldn’t get the image of Mike’s dad and my mom bumping uglies out of my mind. I sure hoped that Mike and Luke never found out because I might have to kill them if they ever said anything.

Dad and Ian were messing with the grill when I pushed the lawn mower out of the garage.

“This can’t be good,” Dad said.

“Why?” Ian asked.

“If David ran out of his apartment with our wives and Brook up there, and he’s going to mow the yard, it has to be something bad,” Dad observed.

“They’re sharing stories about losing their virginity.”

“I might need something stronger than beer,” Ian predicted.

I was with him on that. I was afraid that Ava and Mom might just cause me to need therapy if they continued to torment me.

Five minutes later, Brook fled my apartment with a haunted look. I probably shouldn’t have bailed on her, but at that point, it was every man and woman for themselves. Mom and Ava strolled out, and their eyes landed on Dad and Ian. I suddenly had two eager helpers. Mom had a satisfied smile as she saw us taking care of the yard.

Monday September 12
Alan was a no-show at school. Word was out about what he’d done, and it was probably good for him that he didn’t come to school. Yuri was so mad that I’d bet he would take one for the team and get suspended for three days for beating on Alan. I predicted that someone would punch him before the week was out.

I also found out from Cassidy that her dad and our athletic director had had a long talk. Coach Hope had offered to resign, but Mr. Hicks had turned him down. I liked the idea of Coach Hope remaining a friend, but in some ways, it was good to be able to take Coach Hope off his pedestal and realize he was just a man with his own flaws like everyone else. That didn’t mean I wasn’t still a bit upset when I thought of how close we’d come to disaster.

Coach Mason was right, though. I had to respect Coach Hope in front of the team. They needed to be confident in his leadership, and I honestly didn’t have the time, energy or desire to undermine him.

At football practice, we skipped the film session and went out to practice. Coach Mason’s plan to rotate skill players had kept us fresh and injury-free, so there was no real need to go easy.

Halfway through practice, Coach Rector called all the defenders together. I saw Cassidy there and wondered what this was all about.

“I was talking to Coach Hope about hand-to-hand combat, and the topic of how we could use that for football came up. I’ve come to embrace the concept of not meeting force head-on but redirecting it instead. I think it’s helped you all get off your blocks and not get tied up.

“I was telling Coach Hope that I wanted to win the turnover battle and cause more fumbles. That was when Cassidy told me about using pressure points. I wasn’t convinced until she tried them on me,” Coach Rector shared.

Coach Rector invited me to be Cassidy’s test subject, but I refused. Dan Ball was dumb enough to go up front.

“The arm has two nerves that are tied to the hand that I want to focus on: the ulnar and radial,” Cassidy taught.

She had Dan hold out his arm.

“The ulnar runs on the inside of the arm and controls the ring and pinky fingers,” she explained.

Cassidy pointed to three points: the inside of the top of the arm, inside the elbow, and then inside the lower part of the arm.

“The radial nerve controls the thumb and index finger, and you can find it along the outside of the arm.”

She then handed Dan a football and had him tuck it like a running back would.

“Coach Rector has taught you to try to rip the ball out of a running back’s hands,” Cassidy said as she tried to punch it out of Dan’s grip with no success.

Dan made some smart comment about a little girl not being able to make him fumble. Tim, Yuri, and I cringed when she smacked him inside the elbow. Dan let out a yelp and dropped the ball.

“What the fuck,” he complained as he shook his arm.

That was precisely why I hadn’t volunteered.

“Now it’s illegal to punch someone on the football field, but if you’re making a play on the ball, it’s okay to hit them,” Cassidy said.

She had us pair up and try to knock the ball loose. I’d worked with her on this in my self-defense classes, so I was her star pupil. She then showed us how to hit the back of the hand or grab their hand and dig your thumb into the meaty part between the thumb and index fingers.

I wasn’t sure that teaching this bunch of dumbasses how to make each other’s arms go numb was a good idea. Cassidy seemed pleased when everyone was shaking their arm at the end of practice. I couldn’t wait to try it in a game.

We planned to have the Kentucky in-home visit at Our House, my restaurant. The idea was to let everyone feel that they were a part of the process, and the Kentucky coaching staff were being good sports about it. Yes, the complete staff had made the trip. When Coach Styles heard what I planned, he thought it was a great idea.