“Slow down. There’s no need to go there,” Colt said.
“Oh, really? And just an hour ago, you were up for trading me in so you could sleep with other girls. Now that the main draw is out of the picture, you’re surprised that I don’t really want to sleep with Phil? Admit it. You would happily fall between Kylie’s legs,” Dani said.
“Just kill me now. I’m a guy. Of course I look at other women and lust after them. That doesn’t mean that I’ll act on it,” Colt said.
“You really have no clue, do you?” Dani asked.
“Obviously. That’s why I need you.”
“That’s the first smart thing you’ve said,” Dani said as she leaned into him and gave him a quick kiss.
“What do I need to do to fix this?”
She gave him an amused look.
“Remember gander/goose? You figure it out,” Dani said with a smile.
Was she saying that he had to figure a way to allow her to sleep with David to balance out their infidelity? That didn’t sound right. Wasn’t there a saying that two wrongs don’t make a right? But in this case, would letting her sleep with David work?
If what Phil told him was true, Colt wouldn’t have to worry about David poaching Dani. If it were just a physical act, could he deal with that?
On the other hand, was Dani his forever girl? If not, then what did it matter? She might even be more open to some of the things he’d wanted to try with her.
Colt finally concluded that girls made his head hurt.
◊◊◊
Chapter 45
David
Over breakfast, David had some alone time with Phil and Colt.
“When I was in high school, this was my favorite camp besides Elite 11. I came two years straight, and it’s where I met Coach Mason.”
“How did you get invited after your freshman year?” Colt asked.
“Each year, they invite the forty best quarterbacks in the nation while adding two sophomores and two juniors to the mix. I was rated the number eight incoming sophomore quarterback. Five in front of me declined to come. While they were asking those guys, the class was re-ranked based on performances at other football camps. I moved up three spots, so I got the invite.”
“Why didn’t you come your senior year?” Colt asked.
“Baseball. I was traveling with the USA Under-18 team. The same reason I didn’t go to Elite 11. That gives you a shot at being their first two-time MVP.”
“Don’t let David fool you. You winning twice will make him wish he’d skipped baseball,” Phil shared.
He had to admit that his brother was probably right.
“What did you get out of this camp?” Colt asked.
“The big benefit was the training. While I learned a lot at Elite 11, I had tremendous skill advancement from this camp both my years. Bud Mason has one of the best offensive minds around and coached longer in the NFL than I’ve been on this planet.”
“David’s right. He hired Bud to be my personal coach this summer, and I can see the improvement,” Phil said to help validate his brother’s claim.
“What makes this camp different from the ones that colleges hold, or even Elite 11 for that matter, is that it’s open. That means you’ll be showing off your skills in front of all the scouts, recruiters, and potential head coaches. It’ll open doors to more schools because they’ll be able to see you live.”
“That’s not a problem for you,” Phil teased Colt.
“There’s a downside, though,” David said. “It’ll mean that every swinging dick will want to upstage you because you were named Elite 11 MVP. I played head-to-head with Ridge Townsend, a top-five pick in the last NFL draft in my first year, and you’d better believe I wanted to show I was as good as he was or better. So, you better both bring your best.”
“If you had one piece of advice for today?” Phil asked.
“I’ll give you the only one that matters: have fun.”
◊◊◊
NRG Stadium, the home of the Houston Texans, had three outdoor practice fields and an indoor field. Today, they were using one-half of one of the outdoor fields. David beat even Coach Mason to their practice area. He found some college coaches taking up residence in the bleachers the camp had brought in.
He spotted Coaches Haber and Hightower from Michigan. David walked over and gave Coach Haber a smile while ignoring Coach Hightower, who he considered a bully.
David had complained about Mike Herndon, and Coach Hightower had told him that he would just have to deal with the idiot since he was already committed. He also refused to let David talk to the head coach, saying there was a chain of command and that David was now a part of the team and not a special case.
As you might imagine, that didn’t sit well with David because he had a legitimate beef. Mike had ambushed his younger brother at a party, beat him senseless, and dragged Phil’s girlfriend, Jill, into a back bedroom. His intentions toward her were clear to David because Mike had raped another cheerleader when she was incapacitated just a year before that.
David had shown up to the party and first confronted Mike’s older brother, whom he took to his knees using a move Cassidy had taught him. Luke had decided to unlock the apartment where Mike was hiding rather than receive a broken arm. David had kicked everyone out of the unit and then beaten the snot out of Mike. It was a confrontation that had been several years in the making.
So, when Coach Hightower was busy asserting his dominance and telling David the facts of life, David reminded him that he hadn’t signed a National Letter of Intent. That meant he was not bound to Michigan by anything other than his word, which he took very seriously.
Mike’s acceptance to the team, coupled with Coach Hightower’s ‘asshole view of life,’ in David’s mind, meant they were breaking their word to him. Thus, they were almost demanding that he look elsewhere for college.
The end result was that he, Wolf, and Tim had all had pulled their commitment because of Coach Hightower. When Coach Haber found out, he tried to make amends, but David pointed out that his position coach would have been Coach Hightower, so he took a hard pass.
“Good morning, Coach.”
“Hey, David. This the field you’re working at today?” Coach Harbor asked.
“Sure is.”
“Good. We wanted to see the guys you’re coaching.”
“I would forget about Phil Prince if I were you,” David said and then turned to Coach Hightower. “He’s my younger brother—the one who Mike Herndon beat up. How is that piece of sh… work working out for you?”
“Coach, take a walk,” Coach Haber said, and after he left, he turned back to David. “Is this going to be a problem?”
“I would never badmouth you or Michigan. I wanted to play ball there right up until Coach Hightower showed his ass. But I won’t lie either if anyone asks me directly.”
“He really isn’t that bad,” Coach Harbor said.
“Who? Coach Hightower? He’s more controlling than I am,” Coach Wilson, Alabama’s head coach, said as he joined them. “How’s it going, David?”
“Good. You here to see my group?” David asked.
“We are looking at Max MacGregor as a Plan B or C kind of guy, but we want to see Colt Macklin and Axel Ohlson. I hear that you had Colt in for USC’s camp.”
“He has a ton of raw talent. More than he showed at Elite 11 or at our camp. When Colt grows into his body, he’ll be on par with Clemson’s quarterback,” David said.
“So, better than you?” Coach Swank, the head coach of Clemson, joked as he walked up.
David acted like he had to ponder his answer.
“My talent might be a generational type thing. I don’t think Colt is ready to be compared to the likes of me,” David said seriously and then laughed. He spotted another coach coming. “Hell, no. We don’t need the Fighting Irish lurking around here.”
“I thought I saw UCLA’s coach in the parking lot. He was making dinner reservations with Coach Clayton,” Coach Brian of Notre Dame said.