Page 120 of Perfect Storm
It had been a really good week, but every single time Levi saw Mo, saw them look at each other with all that shared history, he experienced a jolt he couldn’t quite tamp down completely.
He kept hoping that with time he could. That in a week or a month or by the end of the season, he’d like Mo and appreciate his long friendship with Aidan with no strings and no jolts to be found.
“Let’s show them what we’ve got,” Aidan said, meeting every player’s eyes in the huddle. Levi swore his gaze snagged on Levi a second longer than anyone else, but he couldn’t be sure, no matter how much he wanted to be.
Aidan called out the play then—a crossing route pass—and then Leviknew,no question in his mind, Aidan met his eyes again. Levi nodded, his acknowledgment of what Aidan was asking for. He knew what they needed. He knew the kind of protection Aidan had to have, and he was going to do everything in his power to deliver.
Preseason was one thing, but playing in a regular game was always different. More real, like every movement you made mattered. And it wasn’t only him that felt that way—everyoneon the field felt the same.
What it really meant was that even though Levi thought he had a good handle on whatrealdefensive pressure felt like, coming at him in a rush, it was still tougher than he’d anticipated to plant his feet and work the guy back, one step at a time.
Levi did it, barely managing to turn the linebacker away from Aidan’s pocket at the last moment, shoving him to the ground in enough time to watch as Aidan let the ball fly, soaring over their heads.
And Mo missed it by an inch.
Had the pass been too high or had Mo misjudged it? Hard to say.
Aidan muttered a sharpfuckbehind him.
Mo had been mostly open, and that wasn’t something that happened all the time—considering how often he was double- and sometimes triple-teamed by the defense’s backfield. But none of that mattered because that was a pass Aidan wasn’t going to get back.
“Shake it off,” Aidan ordered when they huddled back up. Turned to Levi after he’d called Jaden’s number for a running play. “You good?”
Levi had donehisjob, so he wasn’t sure why Aidan was checking in. Shouldn’t he be saying that to Mo, who was still half glowering on the opposite side of the huddle?
He gave Aidan a sharp nod.
It wasn’t the greatest drive Levi had ever been a part of, or the smoothest either—which made sense, they’d barely played together in the preseason, and then there was the new arrival of Morris, who was still getting up to speed on the playbook—but they pushed deep-ish into the opposing team’s territory, and when Trevor came up a yard short on a third and five, Coach sent Dawson out to kick a field goal.
Before the last season, that would’ve been a no-brainer. Even fifty-yarders had consistently been in Dawson Hall’swheelhouse. He didn’tevermiss but it was rare enough that he’d been considered one of the best kickers in the NFL.
No longer.
He had something to prove, after a disastrous final season. A chip on his shoulder that Levi could see a mile away.
Levi thought that if youdidn’tknow, didn’t know Dawson, like he’d begun to, maybe he wouldn’t have noticed.
But there was an undeniable tenseness to his shoulders, even under his pads, as he jogged out with the rest of the kicking unit, including his new holder, the rookie punter, Cam.
“Hey,” Aidan said, coming up to where Levi was standing to the side. He always stood for kicks. Extra points and field goals both. He’d join Griff and Acker and the rest of his line on the bench in a minute, but only after Dawson was done.
“Good drive,” Levi said.
Aidan made a face. “Felt like we were behind from the moment I missed Mo on the opening pass.”
“You guys are still getting your chemistry back,” Levi said.
Dawson lined up, Cam kneeling less than a dozen yards in front of him.
“Should be easier,” Aidan said. He wasn’t complaining, exactly, but Levi could hear the confusion in his tone. Like he’d expected it to be easier, even though it had been three years since he and Mo had played together.
“A lot of things should be easier,” Levi pointed out dryly.
“You handled the pass rush well,” Aidan said. “Was a little shaky on that first pass.”
“Yeah.”
Aidan didn’t say that was maybe why the ball had floated a little high—had he rushed the throw because he hadn’t been entirely sure the pocket wouldn’t collapse onto him?
