Page 111 of In the Safety's Zone
“Oh, mommy you said a bad word, don’t say that.”
All of us jumped at hearing the little voice coming from behind us. Billy turned and looked at her oldest daughter who was wearing her father’s number in white on a prettyDesperadosblue tennis dress.
Billy crouched down in a silk shirt that was the same color as her daughter’s, the blinged-out 90 brooch sparkling as she moved. If I knew her husband it was real diamonds too.
“Go sit down with your brothers and sister, Destiny. Mommy will put money in your cuss jar when we get home.”
Destiny hesitated looking back at Jillana with narrowed eyes like she didn’t want to leave her mama alone with her. Billy gave her agirl didn’t you hear what I said?look. Before Destiny left she stuck her tongue out at Jillana before running back to her grandfather.
I had to put my hand over my mouth to stop from laughing but Rye didn’t care and was cracking up.
“You wanna tell me about being a mother but look how you’re doing.”
“Yeah imagine that. My child loves me so much she’d stand by me when stranger danger was around. I’m sure that type of devotion that wasn’t won by fear is foreign to you.”
Ouch. That hurt me, and I didn’t even have kids. From the way Jillana’s lips folded onto themselves, I could tell it struck a nerve with her too.
“We can walk over to the owner’s suite right now and I will happily tell them that you’ve been a danger and distraction to not one but two players and their partners. Who do you think they’re going to care more about? The absentee parent or the men that make this team run and the women that support them mentally and emotionally?” Rye was covering her husband from one of his greatest triggers while also checking the fuck out of his mother. I needed to learn her ways because it was obvious this woman wasn’t going to go away.
Instead of battling either of the women who had so happily put her in her place, she turned to me to feel like she could get the last word.
“You think that you’ve got Anthony but trust me, that’s my boy and he won’t stay with a bitch that disrespects his mother.”
I was a nice girl but one thing I wouldn’t do is let someone think they were going to bully me out of my position in Anthony’s life. If he wanted me to leave that was one thing, but having someone who hurt him think they held sway over him was a no-go.
“Thank goodness I’m not a bitch and you haven’t shown yourself to be worthy of the title of mother. Do you walk out of here on your own or do we call security to have them drag you out? The game is about to start and I’m not missing a minute of his playing dealing with you.”
“No need, I’ll walk her out.”
The fair-skinned man dressed in dual jerseys for both Anthony and Antwan walked up with his light eyes stormy. He’d been so happy talking about how much he loved his Gordie and Knuck but his face now was rage-filled. And it was all directed at Jill.
From the look on her face, she knew she’d crossed a line and she took a step back.
Looking spooked she backpedaled toward the door but not before lobbing out one final threat.
“Don’t worry, I’m going. But y’all are going to pay for turning my sons against me the way you have.”
ANTHONY
I’D BEEN CALLED in so the starters could rest in this opening game. I’d been focused on keeping my eyes off the Jumbotron and strictly on the field. I wanted to see my girl but I didn’t want to lose focus and miss something key. So far I’d had a few tackles but I hadn’t made the type of impact play I knew I was capable of. But I could feel it coming.
Whenever we played in New York the crowd was always just as full of our fans as it was with theirs. Having crowd noise simulated at practice helped me out more than I could say. Down here on the field, the sound echoed and concentrated. It’d been a minute since I’d been in the middle of game day noise like this and on that first play I can admit I struggled. The wideout got seven yards after catch and picked up the first down on me.
Unacceptable.
The formation was one I’d seen before even though the quarterback cadence was different. Film study had become muscle memory to where I could visualize the play better than the players on offense. When the ball was snapped Coby had done a good job of getting through the line to cause the fumble but the fullback got the ball in the air before one of our linemen could scoop it up. I watched the ball flutter in the air just out of the reach of everyone who jumped for it and raced full speed to make the tackle to prevent the wideout from gaining a yard. At the last second, I made a play for the ball instead of getting the tackle, a risk that could bite me in the ass if I missed since I was the last line of defense on the field. Blessedly, my hands, that had been my saving grace since I was a little kid, held a littlemore magic and I snatched the ball from the outstretched wide receiver’s hands.
The sound of the crowd was deafening but I could hear the wide out hit the ground behind me as I turned to head in the opposite direction. Immediately, the field was flipped and defense was throwing blocks to clear my path to the end zone. The linebacker opposite Coby on the field tackled the fuck out of a lineman that tried to grab me and I started to holler out the numbers of my teammates to let them know I was coming up behind them.
Bodies were flying around me but all I saw was the opening of grass in front of me. I still kept my eyes focused ahead, arms pumping but my forearm and bicep clenching the fuck out of this ball so no one could punch it out. I felt a presence creeping up on me and out of my peripheral I saw someone trying to reach out for me. I stutter-stepped, dipping my shoulder and shaking the wide receiver off as he tried to drag me down with him. It was the same one that I’d taken the ball from and I had to give this nigga credit because he was fast as shit.
All I could hear was the sound of my breathing and a line that ‘Twan spoke to me while we were in that tree:just imagine it and it’ll come true.
So that’s what I did. With my big brother’s voice in my head and the ball in my hands, I visualized myself in the end zone and knew nothing was going to stop me from getting to it. Every flash of purple that came toward me was taken down by a flash of black. The sound of my beating heart got louder and I saw that I still had at least forty yards to go before I was home. My body kicked into high gear drowning out all the noise except my breathing. I thought of getting into this end zone, of my girl up there losing her shit watching me ball. Of my brother falling all over himself with pride. The folks who wanted to talk shit about me shutting the fuck up, all because of one play.
Folks were trying to bottleneck me on the sideline but I shook off the tackle and spun out of the arms of the fullback while Jacoby blocked him into the opposing quarterback. The nickelback named Reeves was to my side and running next to me to ensure no one stopped my progression and I didn’t bother to look up or focus on anything else until I somersaulted into the end zone and stuck the landing. I made sure my Black ass was well within the lines before I let go of the ball because I’d seen arrogance get too many in my position caught up.
It was as if the noise of the stadium flooded my ears then. I could hear the screams of the sidelines, the fans and turned to see my brother losing his mind on the sideline. He was being restrained by the strength coach because he was too hyped and was going to get us a penalty. I was heaving because my ass was out of breath but I was too fucking hype.
