Linebacker's Second Chance (Bad Boy Ballers)

by Imani King

  CONTENTS

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

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  Copyright

  Linebacker’s Second Chance

  Bad Boy Ballers

  By Imani King

  © 2016 Imani King

  All Rights Reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locations is purely coincidental. The characters are all productions of the author’s imagination.

  Please note that this work is intended only for adults over the age of 18 and all characters represented as 18 or over.

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  CHAPTER ONE

  “Renata Young,” I say to my cousin, Wingate. I’m sitting on the brick wall in front of the dorm at Brooks University. Football has started up, which is fine by me. It gave me a full scholarship, and it’s something I love to do. But I could have played football at a hundred universities in the United States. I had offers from every place I applied—and some I didn’t. My whole career has been planned out for me—college football, then the NFL. And after that, a cushy retirement in a big house somewhere with a great view. Yeah, it didn’t matter where I went to school. So I chose Brooks—because Renata did.

  “I thought you were over trying to convince her to go out with you, Mack?” Wingate is lying back on the wall, one leg crossed over the other, dark sunglasses covering his eyes. He’s already burned twice from being out here in California, so there’s a big dollop of sunscreen on his nose. “She went with you to prom, but that was all she did. Said we were all best friends, and that was enough for her.” Still lying down, Wingate shrugs. “It probably freaks her out that you followed her here.”

  “She’s going to be my wife and my manager. Or else I don’t have a single chance of succeeding in the NFL. Renata is my reason, man.”

  “You keep telling yourself that, cuzzo. I’ll get you to the NFL if it’s the last thing I do. You just have to survive four years of college and not go insane on all the women chasing you.”

  “I don’t notice them much,” I mumble. There are plenty of girls. Older ones, freshmen like us, girls in my dorm, girls at parties. They’re chasing after me at all times, asking me for a date, to go to sorority formals, to take them out to the bars even though I’m only nineteen. It helps that I’m tall, and Renata did say once that my face made me look like a male model. I didn’t take it as a compliment at the time, but right now, I’m getting the picture. Not only am I on the college team, I’m the best damn linebacker they’ve seen in a generation. I’m also pretty.

  But it doesn’t matter.

  “She won’t say yes, Mack. It’s not that she doesn’t like you. She just doesn’t want to fool with you because you’re a prima donna football star, and she doesn’t have time for that. She’s in the business school, and she’s got a lot of shit going on at home with her family. Apparently her dad has roped your dad into doing something with the farms. Call me crazy, but I think they’re both insane. And I think Renata’s insane for caring about any of that farm stuff. If she wasn’t making straight As on everything, I’d have a sit down with her and tell her not to pay any attention to what’s going on at—” Wingate stops and looks up at me, tilting his dark sunglasses down. I can’t help but grin as he looks up at me. “What’s that look on your face?” he asks.

  “She finally said yes,” I tell him, kicking my heels against the brick. One of the freshmen girls from my hall passes by and waves at me flirtatiously. I give her a thrill and wave back, but she’s not my type. There’s only one woman who is.

  “Yes to what? Yes to going steady with you or—whatever y’all say?” Wingate still has his sunglasses tilted down on the end of his nose.

  “It’s not the 1950s, Wing. No one is going steady with anyone, anymore. She said yes to a date. One date. I’m taking her out to Michael’s for dinner, and then we’re going to meet up with Kaden and whichever girl he’s seeing right now. He’s been seeing a lot of women recently and you know, I feel bad for him because he keeps mentioning this girl from back home and—well the girl I want is right here.”

  “You feel sorry for him? I don’t understand straight people. And I don’t understand football people. Y’all in those fancy dorms and shit, with women falling all over you. Seems like you’d get the idea to live the big life, but I keep meeting these fake players like you. All you really want to do is settle down and have like a zillion kids with your high school sweetheart.”

  “High school sweetheart isn’t quite right. Renata is more like—”

  “The girl who never wanted to take it farther than friendship, yet somehow you’ve got her convinced that it’s a grand old idea to try for something more now that you’re king of the campus and have like sixty women following you wherever you go?” Wingate pulls his sunglasses back down over his eyes and crosses his arms. “I don’t know man. Doesn’t sound like a good idea. She’s serious about her life. About her job. About everything.”

  “You’re saying I’m not?” I wave at several freshmen girls as they walk by. It does make my head a little big that I’ve got women staring at me everywhere I go. It makes it worse that I live in the best dorm on campus, while Renata lives in a triple dorm room with two other people watching her every move. Seems like my single room and the catered food and all the attention could go to better use. Even though I want to punch my cousin in his pretty face, I get what he’s saying and why he’s saying it. I get it instinctively. This is a career path, yes. But it’s not serious, not like marketing or public relations or the MBA Ren is planning on getting at Berkeley after this four-year stint is over. I’m just planning on playing ball and living in a big house.

  The thing is, Wingate doesn’t get one other thing, not like I do. There is one thing I’m serious about, one thing I’ve always been serious about. It’s Renata Young. It’s keeping her close to me each and every day of her life. It’s growing old alongside her and having at least three kids running around that big house. It’s sharing my career with her and listening to her advice, because I know she’ll have plenty.

&n
bsp; It’s every man’s dream—or at least it should be—when he meets a woman who’s smarter and savvier and more ruthless than he’ll ever be. And beautiful. My God, so beautiful. She’s got the full, red lips of an angel—and the body of a sinner. Somehow she always manages to look professional, even when she’s wearing jeans and flip flops. That’s most everyone’s uniform in California, all year round. But she pulls it off with a swagger that I find unbelievable. It’s like she’s not even human with how good she looks in a simple t-shirt and jeans.

  And I can’t wait until I have enough money to spoil her, to buy her whatever she wants and dress her in all the finer things. Not that I know anything about that stuff, but I know her clothes are mostly from Walmart—because mine are too. What other options do two people from Tick Bite, North Carolina have?

  I guess Wingate is letting it stand, shrugging off the possibility that I’ll ever make it with Renata Young. She’s been our best friend for years, but she’s never wanted to mess with a football player. I caught her in a moment of weakness, though, and I intend to take advantage. I’ll pull out all the charm, make sure she knows how I feel, now and forever. And I’ll always be there, no matter what.

  The clock chimes one, and I know both of us need to be getting to class. After that, I’m back to my dorm, getting ready for the date I’ve been wanting for years. Tonight is the night that I start the rest of my life with Renata, and I don't intend to ever let go.

  I just have to get through this night—and hell, through the next three years and some—without messing anything up.

  Then, on our last night of school, we’ll be engaged.

  And God willing, I’ll prove to her each and every day of our lives that I was the right choice, that getting away from our trifling parents and their farm was the right thing to do, and that spending our lives together as we take off in our careers was the very thing both of us needed most.

  I walk to class with a saunter—because I know this is the first day of the rest of my life.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Three Years Later…

  I said yes. Macklin Pride just got a contract with the NFL, and I said yes. We’re getting married. Doesn’t matter when. Doesn’t matter where. But we’re getting married.

  I’m standing by the little diner in my home town, home from Brooks University. And finally, I’m done with school, graduated and ready to start my life. There’s no better feeling. After four years of scrimping and saving to pay for my textbooks and my rent, I’m done with it. There’s a lead on a job out in California, and Mack Pride is coming with me.

  And tonight—well, tonight is extra special.

  My hair is freshly done, curled at the ends like Mack likes it. Normally I don’t give a single hot damn about what a man thinks looks good on me, but tonight is different. Tonight, we’re going out, we’re making plans, and we’re talking about the when and the where. The job in Cali and the house we’re eventually going to build together, where we’ll have all of our children and raise them to be good people—and football fans. We’re finally going to be together—for real. For the first time ever.

  My former roommate Dianna thinks I’m crazy for holding out this long. Three years of dating the hottest guy on the football team, and we held out. I haven’t told Dianna exactly what we have done, but the answer is absolutely everything else. Just not sex. We were waiting. Both of us. Maybe it was some romantic ideal. Maybe it was the town we grew up in and the way everyone always knows what everyone else is doing, even when you’re away at college all the way across the country. If we’d had sex, I always thought, I’d certainly get pregnant right away, and then my Mama and every one of her gossiping friends would know exactly what I was up to with that no good Macklin Pride.

  And besides, he was big. Big. People always called him Big Mack back home, and the name stuck once he got here. It was his brother Jared who started it, mostly to make fun of Mack for his size. But I know a part of Mack that’s even bigger than anyone realizes. And maybe… Maybe that made me a little nervous. Now though, with all of this engagement stuff on the table, I’m more excited to go for it than I ever thought could be real.

  I pace and look at my watch.

  7:08 PM.

  Macklin Pride is never late. A shiver runs down my spine. He was supposed to pick me up at my parents’ house eight minutes ago. And knowing him, I’d expected to see him right around 6:45, holding a bouquet of pink tulips like the ones he brought to me on our very first date. I shiver again. Something is wrong.

  My mother pokes her head through the door, frazzled as ever. She’s been dealing with hassle from some of the credit card people and she couldn’t care less what I’m doing with my day. “Why’re you still standing out here, Renata? You waiting on somebody?”

  I shrug and sit down on the short stone wall in front of our house. The cows are mooing in the distance, sun hanging low in the sky. “Just Mack. We’re engaged, remember?”

  “Oh yeah, that. Well, he doesn’t have any money, does he? Like I said last night, do you really think all this is a good idea?”

  I grow cold and keep looking ahead down the dirt road. Mack’s been talking to several NFL teams, and there are several more probably interested. He’s juggling them right now, trying to see who will give him the best salary. And me? I was the top of my class in the business school at Brooks. I might not have a job now, but as soon as someone looks at my resume, they’ll figure out that they can’t live without me. The money is coming. Unfortunately, a lot of it will go toward maintaining our family’s farms and paying off the years of debt that they owe to every lender in a twenty-mile area. But the money is coming. I’m sure of it. We were raised poor kids, and we’re doing everything we can to change that.

  “Mack’s talking to Carolina tomorrow, Mom. He’s not a poor kid anymore. He’ll get a major deal with the NFL.”

  “Talk is cheap, Ren. He’s bound to screw it all up and be right back where he started. Just like his daddy, just like his mama. Just like that good-for-nothing entire damn family, including him and his brother.”

  I hear my father yelling at her from inside the house, something about letting me figure it out myself. It’s not like they’ve kept their opinions a secret. Ever since I started dating Mack for real in college, they’ve had something to say about it every Christmas—the only time I come home for the year. He’s worthless. He’s poor. He’s not good enough for someone like me.

  They don’t know the Macklin Pride that I know. The Mack I know worked his ass off for the football team at Brooks, taking them further than any other linebacker ever has. He shone brighter than any other player in his year. And for all four years at college, he made better grades than anyone else on the team and excelled in his classes. He was just as serious about his economics degree as he was about football. He didn’t do quite as well as I did—and I gave him plenty of crap about it. I smile at the memory. He told me that if it weren’t for me, he wouldn’t be half the man he was. Well, that’s good. Because I’ll always be there, right by his side.

  The door bangs shut behind my mother. I turn and watch her—she has her hands in the air, and she says something scathing to my father, no doubt about Mack and me. I suppress the feeling of anger that rises up in my gut. There is nothing that either of them can do to ruin this. Even if Mack is late, I know that our relationship will last the rest of our lives. That’s what he told me the night before we left college. That’s what he’s told me since the day we were first together.

  Nothing can stop the excitement I feel inside right now. Nothing can keep me from this man or the experience we’ve both been waiting so long for.

  I try to let the feeling of anticipation build again, the sensations I felt before my mother came and rained on my parade. Before Mack ended up being egregiously late to pick me up. I stop my mind from going to tragedy.

  What if he’s deathly ill? In the emergency room? Got into a car crash?

  I shake my head, the warm summer air
playing through my hair.

  No, there’s none of that. There’s no accident. It’s something normal. Something I wouldn’t even think of—so mundane that I’d never expect it. His watch ran out of batteries, or he forgot to charge his phone, couldn’t find his keys.

  I tap my feet against the stone wall, trying to convince myself that everything is okay. Then, there’s a distant sound at the end of the dusty road, a rumbling that could only be Mack’s big-ass truck, the old white Ford that barely works and rumbles over every nook and cranny in the asphalt, that bounces angrily over the gravel and dirt on these Carolina back roads. Through the dust, the truck appears like a great white specter, surrounded by billowing clouds of dust and spitting gravel. The body behind the wheel is massive and muscular, but something doesn’t sit right with me. Still, I assure myself that everything is as it should be, that Mack is sitting there, ready to take me away from this place for good. Jumping down from the wall, I start running towards the car.

  “Mack!” I yell, hoping my mother will hear, hoping she’ll hear the sense of fulfillment in my voice. The voice that says, I am here, and I am ready to spend the rest of my life with you. “Mack!” I shout his name again, but as the truck pulls closer, I already know that it’s not Mack sitting behind the wheel. “Macklin…” My voice trails off, hoarse. Instead of Mack Pride, my fiancé, it’s Jared, Mack’s brother. Equally broad and muscular but with a scrunched up, angry face and not even half the personality and smarts of his brother. My heart sinks. There must have been an accident. Even in my white summer dress, I fall down to my knees as Jared parks the car, gets out, and walks toward me. The movements of his body are eerily like Mack’s, but somehow colder and more distant.

  “There’s been a new development, Renata.” His voice is cool and formal, like he’s talking to an insurance representative on the phone. “I don’t think you’re going to like it. We all know you’ve been trying to cling to Macklin while he gets his life together and goes out for the NFL. But it looks like he’s figured out what kind of woman you are.”