by Gregg Stutts
The Cowboys took the kick-off 8 yards deep in the end zone and returned it to their 27-yard line.
Max continued to caress her neck and then her ears and her face. She closed her eyes and laid her head back on the sofa as the Cowboys threw incomplete on third down, which brought up fourth and six from their own 31-yard line. They sent the punt team onto the field with 2:12 on the game clock. The play clock showed 11 seconds, so they’d have to punt before the two-minute warning.
They got off a high, spiraling punt that the Redskins fielded at their own 17-yard line. The returner made a great move to his left toward the Cowboy sideline then stopped and reversed field. He put a move on two guys who then ran into each other, broke a tackle and took the ball out to their own 48-yard line. It was looking like another fourth quarter collapse for the Cowboys.
At the two-minute warning, Max pulled Michelle back against his chest as he gently caressed her face and played with her hair. “Feels so good,” she said.
As the Redskins offense took the field, Max caressed her lips and chin and then the front of her neck. On first down, Washington ran the ball right up the middle for a gain of seven yards. It brought up second down and 3 from the Dallas 45-yard line. The clock was running with 1:47 left in the game and Dallas up by a field goal.
On second down, the Redskins threw a quick pass to the flat that gained eight yards. It was enough for a first down. The clock stopped with 1:40 remaining. Max unbuttoned Michelle’s shirt. On first down, Washington ran a draw play that gained nine yards to the Dallas 28-yard line. Now they were in field goal range.
He kissed Michelle’s ear as Washington ran a quick toss to the tailback who ran wide and gained five yards. He stayed in bounds, which kept the clock running. Michelle was only partially focused on the game. “Where’s the Dallas defense?” she said as Max kissed her neck.
The Redskins lined up for second and five with 1:12 left. They handed the ball to the tailback running left, but he was hit three yards in the backfield. He fought for another yard, but still lost two yards on the play, bringing up third and seven with 0:49 on the clock. “Shouldn’t somebody call timeout?” Michelle asked.
On third down, Washington threw a quick pass to the tight end over the middle that gained six yards. It brought up fourth down and at the Dallas 24-yard line. The Redskins called timeout with 0:39 seconds remaining.
“They stopped playing, but it doesn’t mean we have to,” Michelle said.
Chapter 81
“So you don’t want to see the end of the game?” Max said.
“I’m just saying while they’re in a timeout…we don’t have to be.” She took his face in her hands and teasingly kissed his lips. When she felt him responding, she bit his lower lip and said, “Hold that thought. Timeout’s over.”
Michelle sat on his lap as Washington came to the line of scrimmage with 0:39 seconds left and fourth down and 1 on the Cowboys 24. “Run or pass?” she said.
“Run,” he said.
“Okay, I’ll go with pass,” she said.
“What does the winner get?” he asked.
“Oh, you’re wanting to make it interesting?” she said. Michelle grabbed the remote and paused the game. “If it’s a pass, I want a foot massage.”
“Okay,” he said.
“And if it’s a run, what do you want?” she asked. “No wait, let me guess.” She studied him for a moment, then leaned close and grazed her lips over his ear and whispered it to him. Then she pulled back and smiled. “Am I right?”
“That’s exactly what I want,” he said with a smile.
Michelle hit the play button and Max said, “Run it!”
The ball was snapped and the quarterback handed the ball to the fullback who ran behind their big right tackle and tight end. He gained just over a yard, which was enough for a first down. The ball was on the 23-yard line with 0:31 remaining. Washington called their second timeout.
“Well, it looks like I won, Shelle. So when would you like to pay up?” Max couldn’t help the grin that spread across his face.
She paused the game again and said, “Well, I could pay up right now if you’d like…or if you’re feeling lucky, we could go double or nothing on another play.” Then she added, “Unless you’re afraid.”
“I don’t know,” he said. “I did win the bet. Maybe I should just quit while I’m ahead.”
“Or, I could sweeten the pot,” she said.
“And what are you proposing?” he asked.
She thought for a moment while her hands grazed over him. “Do you remember what we did on your birthday last year when we rented the lake house?”
“Do I remember? I’ll never forget it,” he said. “That may have been the best night of sex we ever had.”
“Okay then, I’ll do that again and what you’ve already won,” she said. “And if I win, I get the foot massage and you give me a pedicure, too.”
“You’re on,” he said. “So what play are we betting on?”
“Before we place any bets, give me your phone,” she said.
“My phone? What for?” he said.
“Am I stupid?” she said. “There’s no way I’m letting you get any ESPN alerts now that we’ve paused the game.”
Max put his phone on the coffee table and said, “Okay, there’s my phone.” He looked at the screen that was still paused, thought for a moment and said, “Washington has the ball on the 23-yard line. They’ve got a first down with 31 seconds left and have one timeout left. And they trail by 3 points.”
“Got it so far,” she said.
“So here’s the bet…does Washington score a touchdown and win the game or do they kick the field goal and go to overtime?” he said. “You can pick whichever one you want. I’ll take the other.”
“Hmmm, so I pick first, huh?” She thought for a moment and said, “I think the Cowboy defense will rise up here. I’ll go with the field goal that sends it to overtime. Oh, and just so you know how good I am, Dallas will win the game in overtime.”
“You’re a big talker,” he said. “Go ahead and hit play.”
Chapter 82
Tuesday, November 5th
He swallowed what was left of the cold, bitter coffee then crumpled the cup and tossed it in the backseat with the others. He unlocked his phone and checked the temperature. 23 degrees. He shoved his hands inside his coat and wiggled his toes to get some blood flowing.
A moment later, the porch light came on. He watched as Max Henry stepped outside for his morning walk. The windows were fogged over, but he slid down in his seat just to be safe. He’d gone to way too much trouble to wreck his plan now. Max had his head down as he walked into a brisk wind and never even glanced across the street at the black SUV.
He used his sleeve to wipe the condensation off the window and watched in the side view mirror as Max moved up the hill away from his house. When he turned the corner and was out of sight, the man started the vehicle and slowly drove past the house he’d been observing for days. He wanted to be out of the neighborhood before the sun came up.
He’d be back though.
Chapter 83
Max awoke early on Tuesday morning and slipped out of bed. He found a yellow legal pad and set it on the table. Then went to the garage, pulled a box off the shelf and rummaged through it until he found what he was looking for. He went back inside, set his Bible on the table and poured a cup of coffee. He looked at the Bible for a moment, picked it up and went to the back door. He opened the door, held the Bible up and blew the dust off it.
It was only 5:00 a.m., but he had a lot running through his mind. First, he needed to meet with a few of his assistant coaches for breakfast. He also needed to run by the hospital to check on Rose and Willy. He hoped to hear from his attorney that the charges were being dropped, although he wasn’t likely to hear until Thursday.
He thought about his night in jail, his conversation with his cellmate and the word he heard from God. He took a sip of coffee and opened his Bible t
o the passage he’d read in jail. It was one of the most powerful moments of his life. It wouldn’t have felt any more real if God had physically shown up in the cell and talked to him.
“The thought of my suffering and homelessness is bitter beyond words. I will never forget this awful time, as I grieve over my loss. Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The faithful love of the Lord never ends. His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.”
He copied the passage onto the legal paid and read it over several more times. The words described perfectly how he felt. He’d been living in the reality of the first two sentences for years, but not the three sentences that followed. He’d been stuck in the suffering and bitterness part and never moved on.
The more he read the passage, he saw it all hinged on the little word: Yet. This guy who lived thousands of years ago suffered and grieved but didn’t get stuck there. He kept going. He knew God was in the “yet.” There’s always a “yet.” Pain and sorrow are real. “Yet” acknowledges the pain and the suffering and the wounds. “Yet” doesn’t try to cover it all up with meaningless clichés like, “She’s in a better place” or “God must have needed her in heaven.”
“Yet” is real. “Yet” says, “Yeah, life can really suck sometimes and it hurts, but there’s more to the story.” He continued to read the passage and underline words that jumped out at him; he knew he needed to cement this passage in his heart.
“Lord, I don’t know what today or the rest of this week will bring. Please just help me to remember there’s always a ‘yet’.”
He made a few more notes, finished his coffee then slipped into the bedroom and got dressed to go for a walk. He checked the temperature and put on an extra sweatshirt. It was only 23 degrees. Colder than normal for this time of year.
He quietly closed the door behind him and stepped into the cold November air. The sun was up, but still behind the trees so it definitely felt like 23 degrees if not colder. At the end of the driveway, he turned right to head up the hill. He pulled his hood tight and kept his head down as he walked into the wind, moving quickly to try and warm up.
If his head wasn’t down, he might have noticed he was being watched.
Chapter 84
The house was still quiet when Max got back from his walk a few minutes after six o’clock. He went to the kitchen and poured a cup of coffee for Michelle. She was just starting to stir as he sat down next to her and said, “Ready for some coffee?”
“Mmmm, that sounds good,” she said.
“Shelle, I’ve got a meeting at 6:45 then I’ll head on to school.”
“I think I’ll go back to the hospital and sit with Rose,” she said.
“They said Willy should wake up today, right?” he said.
“That’s what they said, but I think with head injuries they’re never really sure,” she said. “I know their kids were ready to come, but Rose insisted everything was okay and they didn’t need to do that.”
“I’ll try to stop by around four o’clock unless I somehow get reinstated as coach today.”
He hadn’t considered the possibility that Willy wouldn’t wake up. Or that he wouldn’t be the same old Willy he’d gotten to know over the past few months. If not for Willy, Max didn’t know where he’d be. He knew it wouldn’t be good though.
He got in the shower and shut the door behind him. He didn’t have much time, but the hot water felt good after being outside in the cold. He stood there and let it run over him.
Suddenly, the door opened. “Mind if I join you?”
“Come on in,” he said.
“I thought I’d give you a down payment on what I owe you from the game last night,” she said.
Chapter 85
Michelle sent Max off to his meeting a very happy man. As she got ready to head to the hospital, she took a moment and prayed his faith would continue to grow. She was encouraged he was coming back to the Lord. She prayed for years that he would “come to his senses” like the prodigal son had. Her concern was how he might react when the next trial hit. She hoped his faith would be strong enough to handle a setback.
The charges against him in Donnie Black’s death still hadn’t been dropped. Willy wasn’t out of the woods yet. And even though he was committed to raising another man’s child, Chris could still cause a lot of headaches for them. The thought of sharing custody with Chris made her sick. Any one of those situations had the potential to send Max into a tailspin.
Everything Chris told her about his wife’s accident was consistent with all the stories she read. Only Chris never mentioned a $1.5 million life insurance policy he had on his wife. Just as troubling was the comment left by JerseyGirl97 in response to one of the articles. She claimed the brakes on Chris’ wife’s car had failed. But how would she even know that?
If a drunk driver hit her then there would have been no reason to check the brakes on his wife’s car. Why would they? The drunk driver would have been at fault, not her brakes. Maybe the police looked into her claims and found they were unsubstantiated.
Or maybe they never even investigated.
Chapter 86
Wednesday, November 6th
When the alarm went off at five o’clock, he was already wide awake. Max quietly slipped out of bed, trying not to wake Michelle. Maybe he’d slept for a couple hours, but not straight. Even a double dose of Benadryl didn’t help. His mind was going a hundred miles an hour asking questions for which he had no answers.
He made coffee and sat down at the table with his legal pad and Bible then got up and checked the thermostat. It was set to fifty-nine degrees, which was how he and Michelle liked it at night. He set it to seventy-two degrees. Outside, it was just twenty-one degrees. A Winter Storm Watch was in effect starting at noon the following day and continuing into Friday morning, the day of the Conway game.
The plan was to leave the field house at 7:00 a.m. on Thursday to avoid the worst of the storm. That would get them to Conway no later than 10:30 a.m. Fortunately, the booster club had funds available to pay for a night in a hotel for all the players and coaches. If Max wasn’t reinstated by the time the busses pulled out, then he’d drive down in his truck and watch from the stands like everyone else.
After thirty minutes or so of reading in the gospel of John, he poured a cup of coffee for Michelle. She was sitting on the edge of the bed holding her stomach when he offered her the mug. “Are you okay, Shelle?”
“I don’t think I can do coffee right now,” she said. “I kinda feel like…” That’s when she made a dash for the bathroom.
Max followed to help.
“Just a little nauseated, that’s all,” she said. “It’ll pass.”
He helped her back to the bedroom where they sat down on the bed together. He filled her in on the weather and the plan for getting to Conway if he wasn’t reinstated by the time the busses left.
“Would you mind if I didn’t go?” she said. “I really hate to miss the game, but the thought of being in the car for a few hours makes me feel like I’m going to throw up again.”
“Of course not,” he said. “You just stay home and relax.”
“I think I’ll go back to bed for a while, if you don’t mind,” she said.
Max tucked her in then got ready to go to the hospital to check on Rose before going to school. He wrote himself a note to call his attorney again to see about his case. He wanted to be on the sidelines for the Conway game the next night. For that to happen, the ridiculous charges against him would need to be thrown out.
An hour later, he walked into Willy’s room and immediately noticed how worn out Rose looked. Several nights in the hospital were taking a toll. It was easy to forget how old Willy and Rose were because when they were together they acted more like newlyweds than a couple in their eighties. Max felt helpless to do anything for them other than pray.
As he was getting ready to leave for school, the doctor came in and said he had results from Wi
lly’s latest scan. Max didn’t think he looked very encouraged.
Chapter 87
“Is this your son?” the doctor asked Rose.
“No, this is my dear friend, Max,” Rose said. “But he’s like a son.”
“I wanted to let you know I have the results of your husband’s latest scan,” the doctor said.
“Yes, we’ve been waiting,” Rose said. “Will we be able to go home today?”
The doctor looked at Max, then at Rose. Max could see he wasn’t going to deliver very good news.
“I wish I could say ‘yes’, but we’re just not seeing the progress we hoped for. In fact, the intracranial pressure is increasing, not decreasing. And that’s cause for concern.”