I was ready for tomorrow. Hell, I’d been preparing for this my entire life. This was my ticket out of here, and nothing was going to get in the way of that. I walked back to my bike and drove around the corner to my house. My mom was at the stove cooking and I could see Gram asleep on the couch in the next room. This was a typical night at my house.
“Hey, Ma.” I kissed her cheek.
“How was practice?” she asked. “Wash up. Dinner’s almost ready.”
I stopped at the kitchen sink, my hip bumping hers in the small space. We lived in a little shack just a few blocks from the lake. Our home resided on the side of Willow Springs that was not touristy, which I actually preferred. I had a spot that was just mine, which would never happen on the busy part of the lake where the larger homes in town stood.
My mom and my grandmother did what they could to make this dump presentable. But since Gram had been off work since her breathing issues had worsened these past few years, money was tight. What started as a mild condition had turned into a shitty case of COPD, and Gram had suffered from pneumonia the past two years as well, which had put her in the hospital.
We had rent covered for the next two months, so I could focus on football. After that, I’d start picking up a few fights once the season ended.
“It was good. We went over the plan and it sounds like Coach is going to let me pass to Jax and Shaw as much as I pass to Alec.” I rolled my eyes and filled our glasses with water as Mom scooped pasta onto our plates. “Ty has been playing really good too, so we’re going to try to pass him the ball tomorrow.”
“That sounds good. And Coach Devo from TU will be there, right?” she asked, peeking in the family room to see if Gram was still asleep.
“Yep. So, I need to be on. Should I wake her, or let her sleep?”
“She wasn’t feeling well when I got off work, so I think we should let her sleep,” Ma said. Dark circles framed her eyes, and a sharp pain settled in my chest. The woman worked on her feet all day. I couldn’t wait for the day that I could take care of her. She’d sacrificed her entire life for me, and I’d never forget that.
“Is it the breathing stuff again? If she’s not feeling better tomorrow, you stay home with her. You don’t need to drag her out in the cold air for the game.” I closed my eyes as the red sauce from the pasta flooded my senses. Ma was one hell of a cook. “Damn, this is good.”
She chuckled. “You’re just a growing boy who likes to eat. And don’t you worry about Gram. If she’s under the weather, I’ll go to the game alone and have her stay home and rest.”
I finished chewing. “I see Wren at all the games, and he’s always walking out right behind you. What’s his deal?”
Wren Staub was the local bad boy in Willow Springs. At least that was the perception. No one messed with the dude and he had his hands in a lot of pots. I’d just found out that he owned the warehouse where my fights took place. Wasn’t shocked. The dude was everywhere. And he seemed to take a special interest in my mother, and I didn’t like it.
“Nothing. I’ve known Wren since we were kids. He’s a friend and a regular at the diner.”
My mom was the queen of secrets, or so I’d recently learned a few months ago when I overheard a conversation between her and her best friend, Shay. She rarely spoke of my father. She’d only said he’d left her to deal with me on her own, and she didn’t know him well. I’d imagined him a million times in my head and somehow sainted the asshole. I’d always thought maybe he was an undercover CIA agent who couldn’t put down roots because he was too busy saving the world. Or maybe he was a Navy SEAL, and he was off on a mission working for the government. But after overhearing the conversation that wasn’t meant for my ears, I knew why Ma had kept him a secret. And he was no longer a saint in my eyes, but a monster I hoped I’d never meet.
A lot of people in town treated Ma like she was the shit beneath their shoes for getting knocked up as a teenager and raising me alone. It pissed me off. She wasn’t the first young girl to get pregnant, but she was the only one I’d ever known to step up to the plate and put her life on hold for her child. Knocked up at sixteen, dropped by all her friends, yet she somehow managed to finish high school while raising a baby. She’d worked at the diner in town for as long as I could remember. She’d given up her dream to go to college because she’d had a baby, and no one had a clue how much she’d gone through. That was some stand-up shit in my eyes. A lot of sacrifice for a young girl. And then to have people you’d known your whole life turn on you—it’s why I wanted to get the hell out of here.
Since I’d become the quarterback at East Texas High, people definitely treated me and Ma better. But we both saw through it. I could count on one hand how many dates she’d been on since I was born. The woman was selfless. She was a fucking saint in my eyes. And the thought of Wren being the monster that probably haunted her nightmares did not sit well with me. He’d been oddly interested in me most of my life, and I’d always basked in that attention up until a few months ago. But suddenly that attention had me wondering if there was a reason that he had such an interest in Ma and me. Now I cringed at the thought that he could possibly be my father and the man I most despised in the world.
“How often does he come around the diner?”
“Not often, sweetheart. Good lord, you worry too much.” She chuckled. “So, big weekend, huh? You’ve got the game tomorrow, SATs on Saturday morning, and then the dance. Do you like Jessica, or are you going as friends?”
I groaned. My least favorite topic. “I definitely do not like her as anything more than a friend, so don’t get all worked up.”
“I hope that you aren’t avoiding having a girlfriend because you’ve never seen me, you know, in a happy relationship. It doesn’t mean you can’t have one.”
I took a moment as I swallowed a bite of garlic bread. I needed a minute to process her words. Never dawned on me that she’d think it was because of anything she’d done. “Listen, Ma. If I had to choose anyone to look up to in my life, it would be you. I don’t date because I’ve just never liked anyone enough to want to, and the truth is, I can’t wait to get out of this shit town. There’s no one here for me in Willow Springs.”
She shrugged. “Well, you never know. And you may end up missing this town once you leave.”
“Nah. If I can get you and Gram out of here, I’d never look back. Shaw and Jax will be leaving for school too, and we all want to put this town behind us. I’m ready to play college ball where the coach doesn’t have to call the plays based on how much a player’s father donates to a program.”
“That’s not Coach Stephens’ fault, Jett. That’s just the way life works.”