Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 60933 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 305(@200wpm)___ 244(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60933 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 305(@200wpm)___ 244(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
Five years after the Lawton High football team last took the field, everyone is gathering for a special event back home in Alabama. But coming back together brings up memories from the past. Special ones. Painful ones. Unforgettable ones. And for some, the reunion introduces an opportunity to confront unresolved issues.
Can Asa and Ezmita continue to run away from what their hearts truly want? What about Nash and Tallulah—will their natural attraction to each other last when trust concerns rise to the surface? For West and Maggie, five years later means taking the next step—if they have the courage to face it. And a joyous celebration waits for Brady and Riley and their beautiful family. But family may be the point of contention when it comes to Gunner and Willa and their upcoming plans. Finally, there are Ryker and Aurora, who must continue to fight their way through insecurity and temptation.
All these couples find themselves face-to-face with not only the past but a possible future worth celebrating. So as we catch up with the members of the Lawton High football team, the future still remains unknown. Will everyone get their happy endings? Or will they leave it all on the field as they step forward toward the days ahead?
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
“You didn’t completely walk away from
Asa Griffith’s truck that day.”
CHAPTER ONE
ASA
I slid the last box into the back of my truck. I was leaving Mississippi with a hell of a lot more than I had arrived with five years ago. Choosing to redshirt my freshman year due to Covid had given me more than just one more year of eligibility to play. It had given me more time to build a life here. Glancing back toward the building that had been home for the past three years, I smiled thinking of all the memories that had been made here. Dex and Joe had been not only my roommates but my teammates as well. They were the first two friends I had made my first year at Ole Miss. Dex had been my roommate in the dorms freshman year. We had been together the longest.
Dex was already gone. He had been a top pick in the NFL draft and would be playing defense for the Patriots. Joe and I were the only ones left to move out today. He was going back to Texas to work on his family ranch. It was what he had always known he would do. Like me, football had been a way to pay for his education. I had known after my first year I wouldn’t be NFL-bound.
Deciding on a degree and what I wanted to do with my life hadn’t been easy. I had changed my mind a few times. In the end, I had chosen to major in Spanish. Teaching Spanish in high school while also coaching high school football was my goal. My advisor had suggested I major in history, since that was where my strengths were.
In the end, I had chosen Spanish because it made me feel closer to her. Over the past five years, I had spoken to Ezmita twice in person while we were both in Lawton for the holidays. It was never for as long as I wanted, but then she was never alone. Facing the fact she had moved on was one of the hardest things I’d done.
“Yo! Griffith! You want this toaster?” Joe called out from the door of our first-floor apartment.
I shook my head. “No.”
Joe held it in his massive hands, turning it over and looking at it a moment. “It’s beat to shit, ain’t it?” he then added.
I nodded in agreement. He shrugged and walked back inside with it. Knowing Joe, he would take it anyway. He rarely threw anything in the trash.
Unlike Joe, I wasn’t positive where I would be in the fall. I had two options, and I knew I was real damn lucky. Not everyone was leaving with two job offers. Choosing Spanish as my major had been one of the smartest things I’d done while I was in college. Seems that high schools are looking for Spanish teachers that can also coach football teams. Starting with Lawton High School. However, neither school was offering me a head coach position, and I didn’t expect one. Just because I had played for an SEC team didn’t mean I was ready to take on a high school team.
Lawton was offering me a special teams coaching position along with a Spanish 1 and 2 teaching position, which came with a very good salary. I would be coaching with Nash, and that would be awesome. However, as many good memories as I had at Lawton and on that field, there were bad ones too. As dark as you could fucking get.
Then there was a 5A high school just outside Atlanta offering me an offensive coaching position along with the Spanish 1 teaching position. The salary was higher, but so was the cost of living in that area. However, looking at it as an outsider, the Georgia offer seemed like the obvious choice, and I was leaning that way.
I still had two more weeks before I had to make a decision, and during those two weeks I would be able to find my closure in Lawton. The fear that I would choose it for the wrong reasons weighed on my mind. The timing of things was perfect. In two weeks, the field owned by the Lees would be named in memory of our former friend and teammate Hunter Maclay.
Maclay Field would no longer be a field in the woods where the teenagers went to party. Those days were over. They had been for the past few years. The parties ended with us. It was time to make the place that had played such a big part in our lives something important. Nash and Ryker Lee were doing just that. Maclay Field would host football camps all summer with former SEC players and NFL players as special coaches throughout the summer sessions. I was signed on to do two weeks in July.