Status Updates From Right as Raine (Aster Valle...

“Thankfully, you catch better than you throw,” Mikey teased. “Your contract would be worth about a buck fifty if you were a quarterback instead of wide receiver.”

as long as Eddie was in good hands with the right medical care, there was no reason to interrupt the game. Fretting at his bedside could wait. Those were his exact words. Mikey understands that. He understands there’s nothing Coach can do to help him in a hospital. He’s no doctor.

He was a hugger with a great big belly and strong arms. He smelled like fried onions mixed with coffee, and it was like getting a hug from the diner itself.

Sprinkle some nutmeg in your oatmeal. Helps with tissue damage.

I thought he muttered something about spending five years in a bath and only now realizing I was wet.

“That’s not how love works,” he said. “If you love someone, you don’t set them free like a damned butterfly. You chain them to your bed and use your mouth to convince them to stay.”

I felt the simple joy of being in the moment with him, of knowing we were each other’s everything right then regardless of what came before or after.

I loved football, but I didn’t love prioritizing it above everything else in my life.

I saw Tiller’s old pickup truck with its illustrated bumper sticker that featured an oddly sexual-looking pile of fresh veggies on it that read, “I feel good from my head tomatoes.”

Sliding into Tiller’s “backup” car was always a treat. It was smooth, buttery leather with a hundred percent less shitmobile ambiance than my ancient Volkswagen Golf.

He looks at me like I’m a piping hot supreme pizza and he’s spent days eating nothing but raw beetroot.

I often forgot he was getting paid since he was the one who did the paying. Mikey handled all of my bills, including his own payroll. It meant it had been easy for me to stop thinking of him as my employee.