Page 111 of Alec’s Dream

“Hey, bud,” Alec greeted when Caleb came to a skidding halt.

“Are you gonna stay the whole practice?”

Christ, he hated Doug Spencer.

“Sure am.”

“Hey, Coach, would it be all right if you put me in a QB for a while? I wanna practice what Alec taught me.”

“Sure. We’re gonna scrimmage the first half of practice,” Lou told him and Caleb’s eyes lit. “Go tell the team to get ready.”

“Sure thing. And thanks.”

Caleb took off and Lou turned to Alec. “Since you’re gonna be here, I could use some help.”

“Then put me where you want me.”

“Did you know an alligator can’t stick his tongue out?” Rory asked from the back seat.

“Nope. I didn’t know that,” Alec chuckled. “How was school today?”

Football practice had gone well. Caleb was just as good as Lou had said. The man had also been correct about the kid’s focus. Which was something he’d keep an eye on and if in a few weeks he didn’t start to see a change, he’d have a word with Macy, then with Caleb.

“Boring,” Rory muttered.

“You always say that,” Caleb added.

“Yeah, well, because it is.”

“Before dinner, do you think you can help me with the passing drill? Coach said I need to work on my follow-through.”

“Depends on if your mom needs help. Your grandparents are coming over for dinner tonight.”

“They are? Yay!” Rory shouted from the backseat.

Caleb was silent, and out of the corner of Alec’s eye, he could see the boy’s mouth twisting. He wasn’t sure if he was worried about his grandparents coming over or if he thought Alec was denying him.

“So,” Alec continued as if Rory hadn’t interrupted, “if your mom’s got everything handled we’ll go out back. If she needs help or your grandparents want to visit, we’ll make time after they leave.”

“Okay,” Caleb mumbled and Alec decided to wait until Rory wasn’t around to suss out the issue.

When they pulled down the driveway, Alec could see Macy’s parents had already arrived. He also noticed Caleb was closing down. This was not how he wanted the first time he met the Hartleys to go, but it couldn’t be avoided.

Alec parked, shut off the SUV, then turned back to Rory.

“Sweetheart. Run on inside. Me and Caleb will be in in a few minutes.”

“Okay.”

A smiling, exuberant Aurora took off toward the porch. Alec waited until she flung the door open and bound inside before he turned to Caleb.

“What’s going on?”

“Nothing.”

There were a few ways Alec could handle the situation. One was to simply let it go and let Macy handle it. But that wasn’t going to help him and Caleb forge a relationship so Alec needed to wade in.

“You okay with me helping at practice? I didn’t expect Coach Lou to ask, I was planning on just watching.”