“I hear you’ve taken cooking lessons from Mrs. Dole,” Jan said.
“She’s taught me a lot about technique and following a recipe so it comes out the same each time.”
“The only time I follow a recipe is for baking,” Mrs. Pearson admitted.
“I was the same. My dad taught me to cook for the family, and I thought I was pretty good, but Mary showed me I had a lot to learn.”
“I might be interested in taking cooking classes from her.”
“Hey, that’s a great idea,” I said, and then blushed when Zoe smacked my arm. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to imply anything. In fact, I think you’re a great cook. I believe I’ve proven that by coming back so many times. What I meant was it would get people to come to the restaurant when they weren’t busy.”
“I was afraid I would never see you again,” Zoe admitted.
“I think on that note, I’d better change the topic as to why I invited you here—besides eating this scrumptious breakfast,” I said, hamming it up.
“This doesn’t sound good. He wants something,” Phil said.
“It’s not what you can do for me … it’s what you can do for your country.”
Even I thought that was a bad line, but how often do you get to say something like that?
“For USA Baseball, we have batboys and girls. Up to this point, they were either local kids or players’ siblings—brothers or sisters of the players. Unfortunately, none of those players made the final cut, so they need fill-ins. The coach asked me if I could find some people to take their spots. I wondered if you three would be interested in going with me to Houston and then Mexico?” I asked Phil, Roc, and Yuri.
“You’re asking all three of us?” Yuri asked.
“Yes. They would take care of room and board. You would need to bring some spending money for any extras you might want,” I said.
“What about the farm and yard work?” Roc asked.
I was impressed he thought about it before just saying yes.
“The Bauer brothers have offered to fill in for both jobs,” Mr. Pearson said.
“I take it from that answer you’ve talked to our parents,” Phil said.
“Yes,” I admitted.
The only fly in the ointment was we’d miss the first week of two-a-day football practices. I’d talked to Coach Hope, and he wasn’t happy when I told him I planned to take Roc, Yuri, and Phil with me. He threatened to bench them for the first game.
I’d tried to reason with him, but he was as stubborn as always. He agreed he would review it when we came back, but as of now, they wouldn’t play if they all traveled to Mexico to support me. At least he’d agreed earlier I could go, or I think he would have included me in that threat.
“Before you decide, I need to tell you that you’ll miss the first week of football practice. Because of that, Coach Hope has told me he might sit you for the first game.”
“That’s crazy. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Phil said.
“When do you need to know?” Yuri asked.
“Soon. If you decide not to do it, I either have to find someone else or let them know so they can get replacements.”
“Let us talk about it, and we’ll let you know today,” Yuri said.
“I don’t need to think about it. I’m in,” Phil said.
Roc sat in thought for a moment, then looked up at me.
“If we brought a few footballs along, do you think we could make some time to work on routes and timing? At least that way, I could tell Coach Hope that was one of the big reasons I decided to head down there with you.”
Roc was using his brain. I liked that in our soon-to-be sophomore receiving phenom.
“That was my plan all along. I need to get ready for the season, too,” I said.
“I’m in, then.”
Yuri looked at Jan, and she nodded.
He turned to me, looking troubled.
“I really want to go, but I won’t have a real football reason to do it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m going to talk it over with my family, but right now I don’t think it would be a good risk to take.”
I had to respect his thinking. He was growing up.
“I think you’re forgetting something, and that’s that I also plan to play defense. I’ll work with you, too, so you’re ready. In Coach Rector’s scheme, you’ll have coverage responsibilities. If I can teach you to cover Roc one-on-one, you can cover anyone,” I explained.
“I guess we’re all going.”
“Great! I’ll get it set up,” I said.
◊◊◊
As I drove to camp, I realized I had almost decided to accept Michigan’s offer to play ball there. The fact that they were holding their camp here said a lot about their desire for me to go there. It would be nice to get recruiting over with and not have to travel all over the country, checking out schools. I pulled into the parking lot to find Jeff Delahey with his crew from Sports TV. Kill me now. This surely wasn’t starting today.
“I didn’t think I would see you so soon.”
“That was why I wanted to talk to you before we start. Let’s go for a quick ride in your car,” Jeff suggested.
He evidently didn’t want our conversation to be captured on film, so I agreed.
“Nice car,” Jeff said as we left the parking lot.
“So, why the privacy?” I asked.
“Because I wanted to speak with you in private before we get started.”
“I take it you can’t trust your crew?” I asked, half-joking.
Out of the corner of my eye, I watched as he opened his shirt and unplugged his mic.
“You and I have built up some trust over the last three years, and I don’t want to do anything to damage that. The reason we were asked to film you at camp was that Sports TV arranged to ambush you,” Jeff said.
“Just tell me.”
“Elite 11 just finished. Part of the storyline they pushed was that the winner wasn’t legitimate because you weren’t there. They talked the top three finishers into coming to this camp so those guys could show what they could do against you. When I heard, I put forward that we start the documentary we planned for the fall now. I didn’t want them doing a hit piece on you,” Jeff explained.
“You didn’t want them to shoot the goose who laid the golden egg,” I said.
He smiled.
“That was part of it, I admit, but I’ve seen enough of this sort of sleazy tactic that it makes me sick. It made me mad that they would try something like this with you.”
“So, what’s the plan?” I asked.
“Two-pronged. The first is we play up you playing baseball for your country.”
“Which is true. I’ve probably only thrown a football a handful of days this summer,” I said.
“The second is you do your ‘aw shucks’ routine and talk up the players that are here. That way, you don’t come off as a jerk.”
“Which you know I can become if I’m ambushed. As much as I hate to say this, I haven’t followed the Elite 11 this year. I don’t even know who these guys are.”
“I’ll get you the background I have on them before I talk to you about them.”
“That leaves me with one question: did the University of Michigan have anything to do with this?”
The answer to that would go a long way towards deciding if I wanted to go there or not.
“No, but they were okay with us filming,” Jeff said.
I could understand that and was glad they weren’t involved in setting me up. I just had to remember the circles of trust Uncle John had shown me and recognize that Sports TV was only concerned with their interests and not mine. It was lucky for me that Jeff was involved. He’d flat out said that if I ever did anything wrong, he would report it. But that didn’t mean he’d try to bring me down just for a story. That was what allowed me to be okay with him following me around this fall.
I took Jeff back, and he got out of the car. He asked me to go around the block, and they would film me arriving at camp. I told him I would be a few minutes. Then I drove home, left my car, and brought the Jeep back. I didn’t need the world to see me driving the Demon. To his credit, Jeff never commented on the change of vehicles.