Page 260 of His Hungry Wolf

The other team chased him. Each time Nero would dance around them or spin by them. The crowd stood as he got close to the line. I stood with them. And when Nero dove into the air to escape the last person attacking him, he crossed the line. The crowd exploded. I didn’t care about football, but not even I could escape being swept away as 20,000 people roared.

“Does that always happen?” I asked leaning over to Quin.

“No, it never does. He ran 90 yards for a touchdown on the first play.”

“I guess he has his head in the game,” Nero’s brother confirmed. “I wonder what inspired that?” He said looking at Quin. Both of them then turned to me. I knew what they were implying, but I wasn’t going to acknowledge it.

At the same time, the thought that I had anything to do with what Nero had just done, sent my body awash in tingles.

“Everyone says that Nero is really good,” I said prodding them for more.

His brother replied looking proud. “It’s early in the season but so far he leads the division in yards run.”

“That’s good?” I asked Quin hoping for a translation.

“He’s doing it as a freshman. With stats like that, he could probably go pro… if he wanted.”

“That’s if he can keep his head on straight,” Cage added. “You’re supposed to be helping him with that, aren’t you? How’s that going?”

They both looked at me.

“He ran 90 yards on the first play of the game. You tell me,” I said suddenly caring whether they wanted Nero and me to be together.

Cage laughed. “Yeah, maybe you’ll be good for him. Nero could use a few more good things in his life.”

I didn’t know what that meant, but I made a mental note to find out.

I had to admit that watching the game wasn’t as terrible as I thought it would be. As I understood it, Nero scored three more touchdowns, which was very good. And Quin turned out to be someone I could really relate to. He was a great guy. Both of my hosts were.

I couldn’t get myself to warm up to an ex-football player entirely. But the fact that he was with someone like Quin, who had to have gone through what I had in high school, made me think that he wasn’t all bad. Maybe not every football player was a complete jerk.

“We’re going to meet up with Nero and grab something to eat. Would you like to join us?” Quin asked.

I hesitated. There was no question that I wanted to see Nero. If nothing else, I wanted to congratulate him on the game. But, wouldn’t the professional thing be for me to go? I didn’t want to make Nero think that something could happen between us. As good as that was starting to sound, it couldn’t.

“Join us,” Quin insisted. “I’m sure he would love to see you.”

“Okay,” I said without thinking.

“Great!” Quin said with a smile.

“So, you’re from Tennessee?” Quin asked as we made our way through the stadium.

“Nashville. And you?”

“New York.”

“Oh wow! What was that like?”

Quin exchanged a knowing look with Cage. “Unique.”

“How so?”

Quin exchanged a long look with Cage as if he were asking him what to do.

“It’s up to you,” Cage said empathetically.

Quin shifted his eyes to the ground.