Page 97 of The Sun
My team of coaches and I are committed to helping you develop your amazing athletic skills. My experience has allowed me to coach players from all levels from high school to college to the NFL. I am confident I can teach you the techniques necessary to take you to the next level in your football career.
Life-after-football opportunities await you at the University of Alabama. From law to business to education, the University of Alabama offers varying levels of degrees that I feel will lay the foundation for you both personally and professionally, paving the way to a successful life.
NCAA rules require that I disclose to you that this scholarship offer is contingent upon—
I didn’t needto read the rest. Those rules were the same no matter what college offered you a scholarship. I took the letter and tacked it to the side of the fridge, along with three others. And I wondered if Mr. Lower would consider an NFL player good enough because dammit, that was my goal.
Judah came into the kitchen and opened the fridge, grabbing a Coke. “Got another letter?”
“Yep.”
He stared at the new addition to the fridge. “Ah, man. Alabama. Roll Tide Roll!”
“Did you sell the rest of that pot?”
“Yeah.” He took a swig of soda. “Three hundred. Put it in the safe deposit.”
I did a quick calculation in my head. “That’s six thousand then. That’ll cover us until August.”
My emancipation approval came in the mail back in January, and I had already started on getting custody of my dingbat brothers.
“Just going to lay this out there, I would be more than okay moving to Tuscaloosa.” Judah grinned. “The girls there are hot.”
“You think girls everywhere are hot. You don’t really have standards.”
He snorted. “Whatever, man. So what’s gonna happen with Sunny? She gonna go with us?”
Judah may not have been the brightest crayon in the box, but surely, he had more sense than that. “What do you think, dipshit?”
“That you’re pussy whipped.”
I grabbed the paper towel roll from the counter and chucked it at him. “Hey. No more dealing either.”
“All right, Captain Buzzkill. We’ll be law-abiding citizens from here on out.”
34
Elias
March 2000
We’d spent nearly two hours at the mall in Daphne.
First, we looked for a pair of Doc Martins, and now, much to my dismay, we were looking at baby clothes for Daisy. Sunny held up a pink onesie with pale-yellow cat heads on the feet. “What do you think?”
I skimmed through the rack out of boredom. “I think it’s baby clothes.”
She rolled her eyes before grabbing another outfit, and I shoved my hands deep into my pockets, trying to ignore the women giving us nasty glares.
One woman whispered something to her gray-haired friend. They both looked right at me and shook their heads disapprovingly. I wanted to shout, “She’s not pregnant. Her friend is.” But I didn’t.
We left the baby section, and Sunny dragged me straight over to the jewelry counter.
She traced her finger over the display case, finally jabbing at it. “Something like that?” she asked.
I circled my arms around her waist and looked over her shoulder at the thick, silver wedding band beneath her finger. “Yep. That seems about right.”
“That’s just like the ring I saw at Macy’s that was two hundred bucks, and lucky for us, I saved two hundred and fifty from Christmas.”
