The guys laughed, but Blake found it hard to join in. He thought back to opening Natalie’s hope chest all those weeks earlier and finding her dress and their favorite wedding picture inside. Those memories were sweet, but now they felt tainted by everything that had followed. Their wedding had become something for them to get beyond. His hands clenched the clipboard.
“Maybe if you get your guys to run the drills right,” he said, “you can teach them the Electric Slide after practice.”
He’d meant it as a joke, but Hunter grinned. “Cool.”
Great. He couldn’t wait for that scene to make it onto YouTube.
They ran though the rest of his agenda and took a water break. The other coaches arrived, and he introduced everyone to their partners. Once that was finished, he left them alone to get acquainted. When he saw April cutting across the football field, dressed in his old Raiders jersey, the one he’d signed and given to her at her request, his chest tightened.
She pointed to her shirt. “I hope you don’t mind me wearing this. It’s one of my favorites, and I so rarely get to wear it.”
He kissed her cheek, and she hugged him tight. “It looks good with capri pants. Maybe I should have worn those instead of football pants.”
She punched him in the gut, something Natalie would do. “How are you and my daughter doing?” she asked with a knowing gleam in her eye.
Okay, so apparently her earlier silence on that subject was over. “We’re talking. Things are…good.”
“I’m so happy to hear it. Does this mean you’ll be coaching our high school team this fall?”
Lead filled his stomach at the talk of the future. “No. The position didn’t feel right for me.”
“I see,” she said, studying him intently. “Well. Thanks for catching me up. Why don’t you show me who I’m supposed to be mothering now?”
He led her around to everyone, grateful for the reprieve from her questions. Some of the guys hammed it up and lifted her off the ground, making her laugh. He let them get all the playful antics out of their systems. When things had finally settled, a hush fell over the field. He headed to the center and turned to face everyone on the sidelines.
“As you all know, this camp means the world to me, so I’ll keep this brief. I hereby officially open The Adam Cunningham Flag Football Camp.”
Everyone clapped. Tears popped into his eyes.
He wished Natalie had been there to hold his hand.
Chapter 27
Blake’s opener to the kids and their parents after registration wasn’t much more long-winded than the one he’d given to the coaches and volunteers the day before. He introduced Touchdown first, making everyone laugh, then April, and finally all the volunteers and coaches. He told everyone to have fun. And encouraged them to ask questions—nothing was too silly or stupid. After that, he told them the story about how he and his buddies had attended football camp together for years when they were younger, and they were still best friends all these years later. He encouraged the boys to make connections with each other. He didn’t talk much about football. They were here to play. Though he mentioned Adam only in passing—to do more would cost him too much—he told them his brother had possessed the heart of a champion.
After the kids had been split up into age groups, he joined his team. He had asked Sam to pair up with him and Frank, a volunteer from Denver, to guide the youngest age group. He’d chosen to work with them because they still crackled with the sheer joy of playing football. Whenever he’d hit a pocket of pressure in his career, Adam had always been there to remind him of why he played. Sure, he didn’t need the reminder anymore now that he’d retired, but he rather liked hearing the boys giggle on the field.
They ran the Run and Catch drill first to assess both running and hand-eye-coordination skills. He and Sam took turns in the quarterback box with Frank working the sidelines. The kid they were assessing would line up even with them, and when Blake blew the whistle, the boy would run out to one of the five catching spots marked on the field. If he caught the ball, he would sprint to the finish line. Each kid received a score, and the top three scorers would become the quarterbacks for the next drills on passing accuracy. While Sam passed the football, Blake worked with Frank to help the kids who were receiving the ball refine their catching technique.
There were high-fives, whistles, giggles, cries of frustration, and fists pumps as the morning progressed. At lunch, he, Sam, and Frank huddled to compare notes. They ranked the kids by skill level, something they would continue to do at the various breaks. Blake left Sam and Frank to continue their chat and grabbed a smoked turkey on wheat sandwich from the lunch station. The other guys were huddling as well, so he took a few minutes to check in with them.