Completing the Pass by Jeanette Murray Read Free Book Online Page A

“A total and complete moron. I did my best, you know.”
    Realizing she wasn’t speaking to him, Josh kept his mouth shut.
    â€œDid what I could, got him the fatherly advice when he needed it, tried to be an example of how to treat a lady. And this?” She shouted it at the above-range microwave, as if the appliance would flash an understanding grimace in its shiny door face. “He takes her to Taco Bell!”
    â€œOkay, so . . . I’m gonna head back to my place.” He started to walk off but darted back and kissed her on the cheek. Quickly, of course, because he wasn’t a fool and wasn’t going to stick around to get his ass whooped on if his mother so chose.
    He wasn’t an idiot, despite his mother’s lamenting words. He knew when to cut and run.
    Pretty woman,
he scoffed, and struggled not to let Carri’s face fill his mind on the drive back to his apartment.
    ***
    Two days later, Josh sat in Pizza Dan’s with his two best friends, Tony and Derrick. He’d had two large slices of loaded thick-crust pizza and was debating a third—and the time it would cost him running on the treadmill in his apartment complex’s gym as penance.
    Derrick was obviously debating slice number five. Though he’d been on the high school football team with Josh and Tony, he’d let himself go just a little after senior year. He’d played two years at a junior college, decided he’d risked injury one too many times, and gave up the sport as a player to become a simple spectator. His wife found him a cuddly teddy bear, which Derrick liked to mention anytime Tony or Josh gave him hell for gaining a beer gut before thirty. He was, in a word, comfortable. Great wife, decent job, good friends . . . no real worries. Settled, Josh supposed. Settled and happy.
    Tony gave himself his own worries. Mostly of the female variety. He’d struggled through one semester of college before dropping out. Josh had been concerned about his best friend, but Tony had rebounded nicely, becoming the manager of a local grocery store and chasing skirts for a hobby.
    â€œHow’s the team setting up this year?” Derrick asked, taking a drink of soda and grabbing his fifth slice. The decision was over. “The draft picks coming into town yet?”
    â€œI actually met one yesterday. Setting up home base in my building. Decent guy. But, man, each year they keep getting younger and younger.”
    Michael Lambert, another Bobcat, had taken on the role of main mentor for the incoming rookies. He’d bug the returning vets until one of them would agree to take on a rookie for the season to keep the newbies out of trouble. The guy was seriously into helping the fellow athlete, or whatever. Thanks to living in the same building, Michael had cornered him more than once in the elevator to get him to agree to mentor some newbie. The guy was good and collected IOUs like they were plated with gold. If you needed something, Michael knew who could get the job done. Or he’d do it himself and happily pocket the favor for later.
    Meeting the seventh-round draft pick for a quick lunch and showing him around the areas by their apartment building had been like watching a baby brother enter the adult world for the first time. “It was a little shocking, how naive this one was. Probably a sign we’re getting older.”
    â€œI’m good with that.” Derrick smiled around the pizza slice hanging out of his mouth.
    â€œI’m not.” Tony tossed down his napkin. “You know what the new cashier told me the other day? I was sitting there, showing her how to log a canceled receipt, and just casually mentioned that bar I like to go to. You know the one.”
    â€œWe know,” Josh and Derrick said as one, both with resignation. Sin’s Inn, which often lived up to the name.
    â€œI keep telling you, the Inn is the best place to pick up chicks. But