Devil Town
002
“Since when did you own a bar, Dad?” Lyla Garrity asked her Father as she sat down at a quaint table in the middle of the bar with her Father still drinking on an expertly made tonic and gin. “Your Mother didn’t tell you? I opened it about a year ago now.”
“You know I talk to Mom about as often as I talk to you,” she stated in a somewhat flat sounding voice. “Which is hardly ever,” Buddy finished the sentence as he took a sip of his drink. Buddy Garrity and his daughter had never truly seen eye to eye. Lyla was the oldest and thus resented Buddy most for his infidelity against Lyla’s Mother. Even so, that had been years ago…salt was still being poured into fresh wounds.
“I heard lil’ Bud is living with you now,” Lyla started to look about the bar, half expecting to see her younger brother there with her Dad tonight with a drink in his own hands, but he was nowhere to be seen. “He’s a damn fine ball player these days,” Buddy told his eldest child. “He’s cleaned up his act, I’m real proud of him.” He informed her.
Lyla nodded her head, appreciative of that. The last thing she wanted to hear was her brother was doing horribly worse than he had been in California. Lyla only hoped now that her younger sister wasn’t going to suffer the same fate. Lyla had been that age before…she knew how easy it was to spiral out of control.
While Lyla had scanned over the bar for her younger brothers face—she had caught sight of another familiar one. She raised a brow at her Father. “Since when did Tim start working for you?” Perfect place for Riggins to work though, she thought to herself—a bar. How fitting.
“Since he got out of jail around eight months ago, he’s actually been a real hard worker. Surprised the hell out of me,” Buddy admitted and finished up his last drink of the night. After all, it was nearing one o’clock in the morning. When it dawned on him what time it was, he raised a brow at his eldest daughter.
“What brings you back to Dillon and why this late at night? You didn’t call ahead,” he thought back and the last time they’d spoken on the phone, she’d mentioned nothing of visiting.
“It’s summer break from school, Dad. Like hell was I going to California; Dillon is home.” Lyla admitted and stood up from the small table. “I’m going to go say something to Tim, then head to the hotel.” Buddy was going to stop her and ask about her staying in a hotel—but she was already walking swiftly up to the bar where Riggins stood drying off a couple freshly washed beer mugs.
It had nearly knocked Tim Riggins off of his feet to see Lyla Garrity walk through the door of Buddy’s bar that late at night—hell, at all. Sure, it was ‘summer break,’ but she hadn’t come last summer…why would she now? Now he was even more astounded that she was walking across the bar seemingly wanting to speak with him…she was walking with purpose and intent in her eyes.
“What are you doing here, Garrity?” Tim questioned his ex-girlfriend. It had been a while since he was able to refer to anyone as Garrity aside from Buddy and Buddy’s son, Buddy junior. It had been a while, since he’d even laid eyes on Lyla…too long, in fact.
“Why is everyone asking me that?” The doe-eyed girl asked as she took a seat on a bar stool, watching Tim as he dried some beer mugs and shot glasses. “Can’t a girl come home without there being a reason?”
“This is the first time you’ve came home in well over a year…so no.” Tim said rather flatly to which Lyla starkly replied, “you were in jail for ten months, how do you know?” Riggins had to admit—that one stung a slight bit.
“Because; had you actually been in town, you’d have come and visited me while I was in jail—if you’d have known about it.” Tim stated. It was the truth—the truth was something Lyla Garrity couldn’t deny. Indeed, had she known Tim had been in jail while in town, she’d have went and visited him but alas, she never did come to town…so that façade fell as quickly as it had rose.
“What’s with the third degree here, Tim?” Lyla asked in a softer toned voice. Tim shook his head, starting to put the glasses back up in the cabinets above the bar where they belonged. “I’m not meaning to give you a third degree,” he said honestly. “It’s just been a while…” his voice trailed off. Yes, it had been a while—not just for Tim but for Lyla as well.
“At least there’s something we can agree on,” Lyla stated. In her several year history of knowing Tim Riggins…there hadn’t always been a lot the two of them could agree on. In fact, their relationship had been based a lot on the old saying ‘opposites attract.’ The biggest thing Lyla and Tim ever shared in common was Jason Street and it had been several years since they shared that.
“I don’t want to argue, Garrity,” Tim said in an apologetic sounding voice. “It’s just been a long day here at work. Not to say I’m in a terrible mood… it was a good night, just long.” Which was the honest truth; it had been a good evening, but it had been long as they waited and waited for the official word from Coach.
“You’re closing up, I understand. I want to hear about why it was a long night,” she admitted and lent over the bar some. “I don’t really feel like staying with my Dad or staying in a hotel…” her voice trailed off. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out where Garrity was going with that and Tim Riggins couldn’t help but to flash his infamous smirk.
“I’m really going to miss this,” Luke said in a soft voice, not meaning to stir Becky awake if she had actually fallen asleep. Lucky for Cafferty, though, his girlfriend was still wide awake just very comfortable in his arms.
“You won’t be gone forever,” the seventeen year old reminded him and he nodded just slightly. Eight weeks of basic training was going to feel like forever to Luke, he knew that… “I wish you didn’t have to go at all,” Becky said in a very quiet voice, hoping she wouldn’t upset him by voicing that.
“I know. Part of me wishes I wouldn’t have signed up, but now it’s done and over with…I can’t take back my word. But it’s just the National Guard, Becks. I won’t have to go to Iraq. As soon as I’m back from basic, it’ll be quiet for me unless a natural disaster happens like a tornado.” Luke explained. He wasn’t absolutely sure it would pan out like that…part of him really hoped it would.
As much as Luke was trying to reassure Becky that all would be okay—it tore her heart even more to hear him talk about it. The girl rose up from their pile of blankets in the back of that rusted up old Ford and looked down at him, a blanket clinging to her body since she was naked out here in the dark Texas summer heat.
“I hope you’re right,” she said softly. “I just don’t know why you didn’t pursue football…Luke you’ve always been good enough. I’ve watched you play for two years…” Becky sighed, it was a hopeless argument. Luke was so determined after all that went down with scouters using him to get to Vince that…he wasn’t shit compared to his on and off again best friend, QB #1.
“I know. It’s something I’ll probably regret for the rest of my life, but I’ve got to move past it. I can’t dwell on that the rest of the summer before leaving for training,” he explained to his girlfriend who immediately knew he was right. There was no point in Luke’s last couple of months, if he had that, to be miserable ones.
A smile crept back onto Becky Sproles’ face as she lent in and kissed Luke’s lips gently; when Luke pulled back he couldn’t stop himself from smiling up at her. “There’s my girl,” he said, happiness clear in his voice as he pulled her back down to him and they continued to gaze up at the nearing two-thirty in the morning Texas sky.
Luke Cafferty had so many things running through his mind and right then, he knew Becky Sproles was the only woman who could have equaled how much was running through her own mind—and she was damn sure the only woman who could understand him and his situation.
The eighteen year old soon-to-be National Guardsman in training and his seventeen year old girlfriend fell asleep in the back of that Ford pick-up on the wide acreage that Tim Riggins had bought well over a year ago, fell asleep in one another’s arms with smiles upon their faces.
“How’s Vanderbilt University treating you, Garrity?” Tim asked Lyla after they’d got back to his place that he shared currently with his brother Billy and Billy’s wife Mindy. They had left the bar about ten minutes ago and only just arrived back at his place. They hadn’t talked a lot while Tim closed up the bar and locked up, not even a lot on the drive to his place.
Once they were in his bedroom though, Tim knew words would start to flow…they always did, if the actions didn’t speak louder that is. “It’s good. I’ve done my first two years; I’m ready to do my next two. I’m so ready to graduate though,” Lyla admitted as she sat down on Tim’s bed, watching him pull his shirt off and shove his jeans off, leaving him in only his boxers.
This wasn’t something Lyla hadn’t seen before, but she couldn’t stop herself from starting to blush just a slight bit. “Why’d you go to jail, Tim?” Lyla questioned her ex-boyfriend, she couldn’t stop the question from just falling out of her mouth…and after she’d said it, with those eyes of hers, she looked very much like a doe caught in the headlights of a large truck.
“Lay on down, Garrity,” Tim said with a slight chuckle, “because this is going to be a long story.” He laid himself down in the bed and pulled some covers up over himself. Lyla started to take her jewelry off and placed it in an empty money holder up on Tim’s dresser. She took off her bra, pulling it out from underneath her shirt, and then shoved her jeans off leaving her in only her tee and panties.
The twenty year old crawled into the bed with Tim, beneath the covers and curled up to him like she had so many times previously although it hadn’t been for quite some time that they’d been like this. Tim sighed softly before starting to inform Lyla of why he’d gone to jail. It wasn’t a story he particularly wanted to tell her but if anyone needed to really know: it was her. Lyla had missed far too much of Tim’s life in the last two years since going off to college…he needed to fill her in on everything. Well…maybe not everything.
“You’re sure about this, Eric?” The superintendent asked the about-to-be reinstated head football coach of the Dillon Panthers. Eric had been thinking long and hard on this for the last several months. It was Tuesday, June 7th, 2011; he had been thinking about this since long before Christmas—before the State Championship game that he and his East Dillon Lions had won.
“What about Tami and her job offer?” He questioned Coach Taylor, who simply put on a smile and chuckled. “Tami’s a little heartbroken, but she knows that this job is ultimately for the best. We’re going to take a few days and go up to Philadelphia together,” Eric told the superintendent and the other men in the room.
“Don’t have to worry about losing you to someone up there now, do we?” Mac, another football coach for the team said while chuckling. Eric laughed a bit; it was a slightly tense laugh. “No, no, we don’t have to worry about that now.”
Finally, after so many months of waiting, Eric Taylor put ink to paper and a moment later his John Hancock was upon the contract for five years with the Dillon Panthers as Head Coach of the Football team and Head Coordinator for all Sports Programs at the school. “Thank you, Coach Taylor. We appreciate you staying with us,” the superintendent started and Eric smiled, giving a cackle or two.
“Well, no, I want to thank you all for giving me another chance to coach the Panthers.” Eric definitely wasn’t going to go the whole morning without bringing up the past. It wasn’t that he was a spiteful man… he had learned something over at East Dillon and that was to be prideful and his pride was still hurt over what they’d done to him, choosing Joe McCoy over him.
“So where does that leave me, Coach?” Billy Riggins asked of Eric Taylor. Eric placed his hand on Billy’s shoulder and looked right at the superintendent and to the super’s right, was the Chairman of the Athletic Department. “Billy is a fine young man and I’ve never seen a young coach like him with so much enthusiasm for the game. Billy played football a lot growing up, his brother is Tim Riggins who in my personal opinion is the best damn running back we’ve ever had in Dillon,” to which everyone in the room agreed with him. “I believe this man here has a lot of potential. I’d like to see him do something more than just coach the special teams. He has a lot more skill than that,” Eric commented.
You could tell the superintendent was thinking it over, as was everyone else in the room. What was there truly for Billy Riggins to do aside from coach the special teams? “Right now we don’t have a quarterback coach for Vince Howard—if he’s going to be our number one quarterback,” one of the other gentlemen in the athletic department spoke up.
“I could do that. I know Timmy was a running back, but I was there for a lot of Jason Street’s practices with Coach Taylor here. I know that he could make me one hell of a quarterback coach, if he would help me, that is.” Billy said as he looked over to the Coach with almost pleading eyes. This was the job Billy Riggins desperately needed. It would give him a raise, even if it meant a few less hours at home.
“Well now, Billy, I think we could do that for you,” the Chairman of the Athletic Department said and the superintendent of the school systems agreed. “As long as Coach Taylor agrees to teach you everything he knows,” he added.
“Without a doubt, Coach will do that,” Billy said as he looked from the Superintendent and Chairman back over to Coach Taylor who gave a curt nod. “I think this meeting is adjourned then, fellas,” said the Chairman of the Athletic Department, reaching across the table to shake both Billy Riggins’ and Coach Taylor’s hand, as did the Superintendent.
As Eric and Billy were leaving the meeting and heading out to the parking lot, Billy stopped Coach Taylor and gave him one of the biggest smiles Eric had ever seen him smile in recent years—maybe aside from when Stevie was born two years ago.
“Thank you so much for this Coach, I won’t let you down.” Billy stated to which Eric gave him quite the heartwarming smile in return and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Oh, I know you won’t. You realize this is going to be a demanding job, son?” Eric questioned and Billy nodded.
“I know the twins are on their way but, I can do this. I know Mindy wants this for me, too,” he went on and Eric nodded. “You be sure to let me know when those twins come. I know I’ll want to be there, Tami will, too.”
“You’ve got it, Coach!” Billy said enthusiastically as he got into his pick-up truck and headed back home to hopefully a still sleeping wife. Eric on the other hands, he found himself getting into his vehicle and driving towards the football field. It had been a while since he had stepped foot properly onto Hermann Field, even longer since he’d been there as Coach.
It was drawing close to nine o’clock in the morning as Coach Taylor finally stepped foot on the football field. There were a lot of memories on this field for him. So many years coaching Jason Street and then watching as the most terrible thing could have ever happened—Jason was hurt in their first game of Jason’s senior year. They were vivid flashbacks that almost had Eric cringing as he remembered Street laying there, not being able to squeeze anyone’s hands or move his feet.
It was nearly a week after that when they got the word that Jason Street would be paralyzed and here it was six years later and was still paralyzed…that’s what killed Eric the most. But it made Eric proud knowing that even though Jason wasn’t the star quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys…he was a good football agent now, and he was making a name for himself even if it wasn’t the way he wanted to six years ago.
With the Street tragedy came something beautiful though: QB #2 Matt Saracen. Eric never thought that Matt would pull off becoming the star quarterback that he did and it was moments like this that Eric missed the days when Matt, Smash, and Tim Riggins were on a team together. They want to call the new Panthers slash Lions team a super group but to Coach Eric Taylor there would never be a more super-group than Matt Saracen, Smash Williams, and Tim Riggins playing with the same colors.
“You know I talk to Mom about as often as I talk to you,” she stated in a somewhat flat sounding voice. “Which is hardly ever,” Buddy finished the sentence as he took a sip of his drink. Buddy Garrity and his daughter had never truly seen eye to eye. Lyla was the oldest and thus resented Buddy most for his infidelity against Lyla’s Mother. Even so, that had been years ago…salt was still being poured into fresh wounds.
“I heard lil’ Bud is living with you now,” Lyla started to look about the bar, half expecting to see her younger brother there with her Dad tonight with a drink in his own hands, but he was nowhere to be seen. “He’s a damn fine ball player these days,” Buddy told his eldest child. “He’s cleaned up his act, I’m real proud of him.” He informed her.
Lyla nodded her head, appreciative of that. The last thing she wanted to hear was her brother was doing horribly worse than he had been in California. Lyla only hoped now that her younger sister wasn’t going to suffer the same fate. Lyla had been that age before…she knew how easy it was to spiral out of control.
While Lyla had scanned over the bar for her younger brothers face—she had caught sight of another familiar one. She raised a brow at her Father. “Since when did Tim start working for you?” Perfect place for Riggins to work though, she thought to herself—a bar. How fitting.
“Since he got out of jail around eight months ago, he’s actually been a real hard worker. Surprised the hell out of me,” Buddy admitted and finished up his last drink of the night. After all, it was nearing one o’clock in the morning. When it dawned on him what time it was, he raised a brow at his eldest daughter.
“What brings you back to Dillon and why this late at night? You didn’t call ahead,” he thought back and the last time they’d spoken on the phone, she’d mentioned nothing of visiting.
“It’s summer break from school, Dad. Like hell was I going to California; Dillon is home.” Lyla admitted and stood up from the small table. “I’m going to go say something to Tim, then head to the hotel.” Buddy was going to stop her and ask about her staying in a hotel—but she was already walking swiftly up to the bar where Riggins stood drying off a couple freshly washed beer mugs.
It had nearly knocked Tim Riggins off of his feet to see Lyla Garrity walk through the door of Buddy’s bar that late at night—hell, at all. Sure, it was ‘summer break,’ but she hadn’t come last summer…why would she now? Now he was even more astounded that she was walking across the bar seemingly wanting to speak with him…she was walking with purpose and intent in her eyes.
“What are you doing here, Garrity?” Tim questioned his ex-girlfriend. It had been a while since he was able to refer to anyone as Garrity aside from Buddy and Buddy’s son, Buddy junior. It had been a while, since he’d even laid eyes on Lyla…too long, in fact.
“Why is everyone asking me that?” The doe-eyed girl asked as she took a seat on a bar stool, watching Tim as he dried some beer mugs and shot glasses. “Can’t a girl come home without there being a reason?”
“This is the first time you’ve came home in well over a year…so no.” Tim said rather flatly to which Lyla starkly replied, “you were in jail for ten months, how do you know?” Riggins had to admit—that one stung a slight bit.
“Because; had you actually been in town, you’d have come and visited me while I was in jail—if you’d have known about it.” Tim stated. It was the truth—the truth was something Lyla Garrity couldn’t deny. Indeed, had she known Tim had been in jail while in town, she’d have went and visited him but alas, she never did come to town…so that façade fell as quickly as it had rose.
“What’s with the third degree here, Tim?” Lyla asked in a softer toned voice. Tim shook his head, starting to put the glasses back up in the cabinets above the bar where they belonged. “I’m not meaning to give you a third degree,” he said honestly. “It’s just been a while…” his voice trailed off. Yes, it had been a while—not just for Tim but for Lyla as well.
“At least there’s something we can agree on,” Lyla stated. In her several year history of knowing Tim Riggins…there hadn’t always been a lot the two of them could agree on. In fact, their relationship had been based a lot on the old saying ‘opposites attract.’ The biggest thing Lyla and Tim ever shared in common was Jason Street and it had been several years since they shared that.
“I don’t want to argue, Garrity,” Tim said in an apologetic sounding voice. “It’s just been a long day here at work. Not to say I’m in a terrible mood… it was a good night, just long.” Which was the honest truth; it had been a good evening, but it had been long as they waited and waited for the official word from Coach.
“You’re closing up, I understand. I want to hear about why it was a long night,” she admitted and lent over the bar some. “I don’t really feel like staying with my Dad or staying in a hotel…” her voice trailed off. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out where Garrity was going with that and Tim Riggins couldn’t help but to flash his infamous smirk.
“I’m really going to miss this,” Luke said in a soft voice, not meaning to stir Becky awake if she had actually fallen asleep. Lucky for Cafferty, though, his girlfriend was still wide awake just very comfortable in his arms.
“You won’t be gone forever,” the seventeen year old reminded him and he nodded just slightly. Eight weeks of basic training was going to feel like forever to Luke, he knew that… “I wish you didn’t have to go at all,” Becky said in a very quiet voice, hoping she wouldn’t upset him by voicing that.
“I know. Part of me wishes I wouldn’t have signed up, but now it’s done and over with…I can’t take back my word. But it’s just the National Guard, Becks. I won’t have to go to Iraq. As soon as I’m back from basic, it’ll be quiet for me unless a natural disaster happens like a tornado.” Luke explained. He wasn’t absolutely sure it would pan out like that…part of him really hoped it would.
As much as Luke was trying to reassure Becky that all would be okay—it tore her heart even more to hear him talk about it. The girl rose up from their pile of blankets in the back of that rusted up old Ford and looked down at him, a blanket clinging to her body since she was naked out here in the dark Texas summer heat.
“I hope you’re right,” she said softly. “I just don’t know why you didn’t pursue football…Luke you’ve always been good enough. I’ve watched you play for two years…” Becky sighed, it was a hopeless argument. Luke was so determined after all that went down with scouters using him to get to Vince that…he wasn’t shit compared to his on and off again best friend, QB #1.
“I know. It’s something I’ll probably regret for the rest of my life, but I’ve got to move past it. I can’t dwell on that the rest of the summer before leaving for training,” he explained to his girlfriend who immediately knew he was right. There was no point in Luke’s last couple of months, if he had that, to be miserable ones.
A smile crept back onto Becky Sproles’ face as she lent in and kissed Luke’s lips gently; when Luke pulled back he couldn’t stop himself from smiling up at her. “There’s my girl,” he said, happiness clear in his voice as he pulled her back down to him and they continued to gaze up at the nearing two-thirty in the morning Texas sky.
Luke Cafferty had so many things running through his mind and right then, he knew Becky Sproles was the only woman who could have equaled how much was running through her own mind—and she was damn sure the only woman who could understand him and his situation.
The eighteen year old soon-to-be National Guardsman in training and his seventeen year old girlfriend fell asleep in the back of that Ford pick-up on the wide acreage that Tim Riggins had bought well over a year ago, fell asleep in one another’s arms with smiles upon their faces.
“How’s Vanderbilt University treating you, Garrity?” Tim asked Lyla after they’d got back to his place that he shared currently with his brother Billy and Billy’s wife Mindy. They had left the bar about ten minutes ago and only just arrived back at his place. They hadn’t talked a lot while Tim closed up the bar and locked up, not even a lot on the drive to his place.
Once they were in his bedroom though, Tim knew words would start to flow…they always did, if the actions didn’t speak louder that is. “It’s good. I’ve done my first two years; I’m ready to do my next two. I’m so ready to graduate though,” Lyla admitted as she sat down on Tim’s bed, watching him pull his shirt off and shove his jeans off, leaving him in only his boxers.
This wasn’t something Lyla hadn’t seen before, but she couldn’t stop herself from starting to blush just a slight bit. “Why’d you go to jail, Tim?” Lyla questioned her ex-boyfriend, she couldn’t stop the question from just falling out of her mouth…and after she’d said it, with those eyes of hers, she looked very much like a doe caught in the headlights of a large truck.
“Lay on down, Garrity,” Tim said with a slight chuckle, “because this is going to be a long story.” He laid himself down in the bed and pulled some covers up over himself. Lyla started to take her jewelry off and placed it in an empty money holder up on Tim’s dresser. She took off her bra, pulling it out from underneath her shirt, and then shoved her jeans off leaving her in only her tee and panties.
The twenty year old crawled into the bed with Tim, beneath the covers and curled up to him like she had so many times previously although it hadn’t been for quite some time that they’d been like this. Tim sighed softly before starting to inform Lyla of why he’d gone to jail. It wasn’t a story he particularly wanted to tell her but if anyone needed to really know: it was her. Lyla had missed far too much of Tim’s life in the last two years since going off to college…he needed to fill her in on everything. Well…maybe not everything.
“You’re sure about this, Eric?” The superintendent asked the about-to-be reinstated head football coach of the Dillon Panthers. Eric had been thinking long and hard on this for the last several months. It was Tuesday, June 7th, 2011; he had been thinking about this since long before Christmas—before the State Championship game that he and his East Dillon Lions had won.
“What about Tami and her job offer?” He questioned Coach Taylor, who simply put on a smile and chuckled. “Tami’s a little heartbroken, but she knows that this job is ultimately for the best. We’re going to take a few days and go up to Philadelphia together,” Eric told the superintendent and the other men in the room.
“Don’t have to worry about losing you to someone up there now, do we?” Mac, another football coach for the team said while chuckling. Eric laughed a bit; it was a slightly tense laugh. “No, no, we don’t have to worry about that now.”
Finally, after so many months of waiting, Eric Taylor put ink to paper and a moment later his John Hancock was upon the contract for five years with the Dillon Panthers as Head Coach of the Football team and Head Coordinator for all Sports Programs at the school. “Thank you, Coach Taylor. We appreciate you staying with us,” the superintendent started and Eric smiled, giving a cackle or two.
“Well, no, I want to thank you all for giving me another chance to coach the Panthers.” Eric definitely wasn’t going to go the whole morning without bringing up the past. It wasn’t that he was a spiteful man… he had learned something over at East Dillon and that was to be prideful and his pride was still hurt over what they’d done to him, choosing Joe McCoy over him.
“So where does that leave me, Coach?” Billy Riggins asked of Eric Taylor. Eric placed his hand on Billy’s shoulder and looked right at the superintendent and to the super’s right, was the Chairman of the Athletic Department. “Billy is a fine young man and I’ve never seen a young coach like him with so much enthusiasm for the game. Billy played football a lot growing up, his brother is Tim Riggins who in my personal opinion is the best damn running back we’ve ever had in Dillon,” to which everyone in the room agreed with him. “I believe this man here has a lot of potential. I’d like to see him do something more than just coach the special teams. He has a lot more skill than that,” Eric commented.
You could tell the superintendent was thinking it over, as was everyone else in the room. What was there truly for Billy Riggins to do aside from coach the special teams? “Right now we don’t have a quarterback coach for Vince Howard—if he’s going to be our number one quarterback,” one of the other gentlemen in the athletic department spoke up.
“I could do that. I know Timmy was a running back, but I was there for a lot of Jason Street’s practices with Coach Taylor here. I know that he could make me one hell of a quarterback coach, if he would help me, that is.” Billy said as he looked over to the Coach with almost pleading eyes. This was the job Billy Riggins desperately needed. It would give him a raise, even if it meant a few less hours at home.
“Well now, Billy, I think we could do that for you,” the Chairman of the Athletic Department said and the superintendent of the school systems agreed. “As long as Coach Taylor agrees to teach you everything he knows,” he added.
“Without a doubt, Coach will do that,” Billy said as he looked from the Superintendent and Chairman back over to Coach Taylor who gave a curt nod. “I think this meeting is adjourned then, fellas,” said the Chairman of the Athletic Department, reaching across the table to shake both Billy Riggins’ and Coach Taylor’s hand, as did the Superintendent.
As Eric and Billy were leaving the meeting and heading out to the parking lot, Billy stopped Coach Taylor and gave him one of the biggest smiles Eric had ever seen him smile in recent years—maybe aside from when Stevie was born two years ago.
“Thank you so much for this Coach, I won’t let you down.” Billy stated to which Eric gave him quite the heartwarming smile in return and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Oh, I know you won’t. You realize this is going to be a demanding job, son?” Eric questioned and Billy nodded.
“I know the twins are on their way but, I can do this. I know Mindy wants this for me, too,” he went on and Eric nodded. “You be sure to let me know when those twins come. I know I’ll want to be there, Tami will, too.”
“You’ve got it, Coach!” Billy said enthusiastically as he got into his pick-up truck and headed back home to hopefully a still sleeping wife. Eric on the other hands, he found himself getting into his vehicle and driving towards the football field. It had been a while since he had stepped foot properly onto Hermann Field, even longer since he’d been there as Coach.
It was drawing close to nine o’clock in the morning as Coach Taylor finally stepped foot on the football field. There were a lot of memories on this field for him. So many years coaching Jason Street and then watching as the most terrible thing could have ever happened—Jason was hurt in their first game of Jason’s senior year. They were vivid flashbacks that almost had Eric cringing as he remembered Street laying there, not being able to squeeze anyone’s hands or move his feet.
It was nearly a week after that when they got the word that Jason Street would be paralyzed and here it was six years later and was still paralyzed…that’s what killed Eric the most. But it made Eric proud knowing that even though Jason wasn’t the star quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys…he was a good football agent now, and he was making a name for himself even if it wasn’t the way he wanted to six years ago.
With the Street tragedy came something beautiful though: QB #2 Matt Saracen. Eric never thought that Matt would pull off becoming the star quarterback that he did and it was moments like this that Eric missed the days when Matt, Smash, and Tim Riggins were on a team together. They want to call the new Panthers slash Lions team a super group but to Coach Eric Taylor there would never be a more super-group than Matt Saracen, Smash Williams, and Tim Riggins playing with the same colors.
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Word Count: 3,031