Tank and most of my other teammates rallied around me and the other players that had been targeted. Coach claimed he never knew anything about it, and no one ever came up with any proof that he did. His winning record was what ultimately saved him from further scrutiny.
What I thought was the final blow for me came when some of the scouts were banned from campus, among them the one from the Ravens, who it was reported was the team that had their eye on me. I never knew one way or the other, and with only a handful of other talent scouts interested in coming to look the team over, I had to face the fact that I might not get to go pro.
Lo and behold, when the first round was released, my name was on it. And it was for a team that I had never given a second though to, not to play for anyway: the San Francisco 49ers.
It was pure luck that Tank’s internship that summer was for a marketing firm in Frisco. The company was his top choice at which to get permanent employment. All he could do was work hard that summer and see how it played out. Well, it worked out that he’d start his permanent position that fall. Which meant that he could go ahead and marry Gwen so they could move forward with their plan to have her finish undergrad and start nursing school there too.
I was bummed as hell that I couldn’t be Tank’s best man. They’d planned the wedding to be in San Francisco too, and the only reason I couldn’t stand up for him is because we had an away game that weekend. I was twice as bummed when I found out that Keira was going to be Gwen’s Maid of Honor. I also knew that me not being there was probably how Gwen convinced her to do it.
Be that as it may, I wasn’t giving up. I never had, really. I just needed for the smoke to clear so I could figure out how I was going to get Keira back in my life. When I looked ahead at the schedule, I knew we were only going to have one by-week before the playoffs. So that would have to be the time for me to make my move.
Now, I wasn’t stupid, at least not as stupid as I had been. I knew the first person I would have to get on my side was Keira’s mom. I knew Keira would never speak to me, not without some help. So, I did some detective work and I asked Gwen to find out when Keira would be at work so I could call her mom and have a nice long chat.
Nancy Wells sure didn’t make it easy for me to make things right for her daughter. She made me grovel, and I didn’t blame her. I told her the whole story again, the parts she already knew and the parts she didn’t. I told her what my plan was, and that I’d do whatever it took to make Keira understand that I loved her, that I’d never stopped loving her. She finally agreed to help me with the caveat that if I ever hurt Keira again, she’d stab me in my sleep.
I knew Keira would never have taken the money I saved to pay her as a tutor. I’d saved it thinking I’d eventually buy her a ring. But since I no longer needed it for that, I used it to buy her a plane ticket to San Francisco.
I overnighted it to Keira’s mother, and since there was no practice that week, I flew out on Friday morning, which meant that I’d get there shortly before dinner time that night. It was perfect. If things went even marginally well, I’d have the entire weekend to spend with her, either making our plans for her to move to Frisco, or for me to grovel some more if I needed to. I got to the house about an hour before Keira got home from work. When we heard her car pull into the driveway, I ducked into the living room to wait for Keira to open the envelope.
She was all flustered and as soon as I heard her mother say that the ticket had come by “special delivery” I knew that was my cue.
I don’t think any game or test at school or anything had ever made me so nervous. Not even standing up to that asshole McDaniels. I took a deep breath and stood behind her chair in the dining room. When she turned around and looked at me, I swore I felt the room tilt. She was just so damn beautiful, and I wanted to rub that furrow in her brow with my thumb.
“Nate? But what are you doing here? Did you…?” She looked down at the plane ticket and back up at me. “What’s going on?”
“Keira, there is so much I have to say to you that it’s not even funny. Starting with how I stopped seeing Tracy right before your dad’s memorial service. I told McDaniels what he could do with his plan, and I blew the whistle on the whole thing to the Board of Trustees. The whole thing blew up, and I wasn’t sure I’d be drafted by the NFL after that since some of the scouts were banned from campus. But I can tell you about all of that later. I did get drafted by the 49ers. I just needed to get myself organized, and we have a by-week, so I came to see you.”
Keira just stood there with her mouth open for a moment.
“But why did you buy me a plane ticket?” She said with a bewildered look on her face.
“Well, first of all, I told you I was going to pay you for all the tutoring you gave me. And second of all it goes with this.” I pulled a black velvet box out of my coat pocket and handed it to her. And she was crying again. Shit.
“Nate, I… this is…”
“A lot I know.”
“You’re asking me to marry you, Nate? After all that’s happened?”
“Well, yes. But I’m not asking you to put the ring on right now. Like I said there is a lot of ground to cover with you. But right now, all I’m hoping for is that you’ll come out to dinner with me. Talk to me. All night if that’s what it takes. And I want you to consider coming to San Francisco with me and making a life with me. Because Keira, I love you. And I will regret not saying it before for as long as I live. But I’m here now, and if I’m right about you loving me too at one time, I think we have a shot.”
“Mom, you knew about all of this?”
“I only found out about it a short time ago. Nate called me and we talked for about two hours one day while you were at work. I have to say I was skeptical, and still very angry at the way he hurt you. But honey, everything he said was on the local news. I just never told you. For Nate to stand up that way, even though he might never be drafted, says something. And the fact that he sent the plane ticket and then came here in person is pretty remarkable.”
“But what about you? I can’t just run off to San Francisco… oh this is too much.”
“Keira,” said her mom, “all you have to do right now is have dinner with the boy. Talk to him. If nothing else, you both deserve that. And if you decide not to use the plane ticket, I will! I could use a vacation.”
“Your mom makes a good point, honey. And what I haven’t told either of you yet is that this is a package deal. Your mom comes with us. I make enough to get your mom her own condo, and to buy us our own house too.”
I knew Keira’s head was spinning, so I walked over to her, and took the ring and the plane ticket from her hands and set them down on the table. I reached up and swiped at her tears with my thumbs. Then I pulled her close and kissed her. Nothing too hot that would embarrass us in front of her mom, but firmly for sure. I hoped - no I prayed - that feeling my lips on hers would remind her of what we had and that it would be enough to make her at least want to have dinner with me. When I broke the kiss, I looked down at her and smiled. Her little turned up nose was all pink from sniffling and crying.
“Okay,” she said.
“Okay?” I asked.
“Okay, I’ll have dinner with you. But what about you mom?” She said, turning to her mom.