Coach Maddie and the Marine by Blaire Edens Read Free Book Online Page B

He could tell by their expressions how close they were. He could see now—using the photos as a frame of reference—just how stressed Maddie was. There was no trace of the easygoing smile that had shone in earlier photos. That smile had been replaced with dark circles and slumped shoulders.
    When he heard her coming toward the living room, he slid back into his seat on the sofa.
    “We’re all set,” Maddie said, placing the tray on the coffee table beside the treats. “Do you need any paper or pens or anything to begin the lesson?”
    “Nope. Do you still have those games recorded?”
    “Want me to play one?”
    He nodded. “Any game is fine.”
    She turned on the television and cued up a college game. She handed the remote to him, picked up her binder and sat down on the couch beside him.
    “All right, let’s start at the beginning. If you have any questions, just speak up and we’ll stop the game and discuss it. We’ll do the defense tonight.”
    As the announcers named each player, he paused the recording and explained the position. She wrote the name of each position and beside it she noted the primary responsibilities of the player.
    “Any questions before I start the game?” he asked.
    She shook her head. “No, I think I understand the positions on the defensive side of the ball. You’re a pretty good teacher.”
    “Thanks. Football was my life all through high school and college, so it’s second nature to me.”
    “Did you really have a chance to play professional football?”
    He nodded. “I was drafted in the second round. I would’ve played for the St. Louis Rams.” Bile rose in his throat, and his heart beat faster, the blood rushing through his veins. It was a familiar feeling: part red-hot anger, part bitter regret, part paralyzing sadness at the twists and turns his life had taken since the day of the draft. The rush of his boyhood dream realized. The terrifying free fall two days later.
    The bone-crushing grief that followed him like it was his own shadow.
    Just as he’d been packing his things to move to St. Louis, the phone rang and for the second time in less than a week, the voice on the other end had changed the whole trajectory of his life.
    The sounds of the boys’ laughter outside in the front yard floated into the room, filling the awkward silence.
    “But then my brother, Robert, who was a chaplain in the Corps, an unarmed chaplain, for God’s sake, was kidnapped by some militants in northwestern Afghanistan, up near the Pakistan border. At first we thought they’d try to get guns and money in exchange for his release but they didn’t. They killed him less than forty-eight hours after they took him. They tied his body to a jeep and drove him through the village. They captured it all on video, sent it to news organizations all over the world. Made my parents witness it.”
    “I’m so sorry.” She reached across the couch and put her hand on his arm. “You must have been devastated.”
    “One minute I was a twenty-two-year-old athlete on track to make hundreds of thousands of dollars fulfilling my boyhood dream, and the next minute I was standing in a recruiter’s office swearing loyalty to the United States and the Marine Corps.”
    “Why did you decide to join if your brother had already been killed? It seems like that would’ve been the last thing you wanted to do.”
    He glanced up at her soft words, noted the compassion in her eyes.
    “My brother and I were very close. Even though he was two years older than me, we did everything together. He had my back; I had his. The day we buried him I promised myself I would make sure the men responsible for his death would pay. I gave my word that I would put my life on hold until I made things right.”
    “Do you have other siblings?”
    “No, it was just the two of us. Robert’s death devastated my parents. They’ve never been the same.”
    She shook her head. “I can’t imagine their pain. Did you seek counseling