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The girl was beginning to look worried, and Ladonna didn’t want this conversation to make an impression on her and create a memory to be brought back up at a later time. So she forced out a fake laugh. “Oh, you know what? I’m probably thinking of student council. Senior moment.”
Asia smiled and looked relieved.
“Anyway, good luck tonight,” Ladonna said cheerfully. She turned and walked toward the parking lot, stunned and confused.
Of all the luck. Of all the freaking luck. What are the odds that you spirit away to have an affair at the same hotel where your child’s school is holding an event?
Ladonna didn’t have time to dwell on that, though, because there was the more pressing matter of Bria’s whereabouts.
What the hell was that girl up to?
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
BakarisatinCoachBryant’s office and flexed his wrist. It was still sore from the game, and his shoulder was still feeling a bit out of sorts, but the pain was far from his mind at that moment.
Coach’s office was a junkyard mess. Trophies here, boxes there, helmets, balls, newspapers, magazines, laptops, speakers, and an old fashioned TV on a cart. There was even a five-foot cardboard cutout of the school mascot.
“Coach, when you gon’ have somebody come in here and organize this office? This is like Hoarders: Athletic Edition.”
Coach grinned. Bakari always imagined him as some long lost member of the Temptations or Earth, Wind, and Fire. He had one of those thick black mustaches and an air of smoothness—old man smoothness, but still—about him that Bakari only saw in men in music videos from the 70s. He had probably been a player back in the day. That was the consensus with the guys, anyway, who called him Coach Pimpin’ behind his back.
“I have a system,” Coach said. “It makes sense to me.”
“Has Ms. Jocelyn seen it?”
Coach’s wife came to every game, rain, sleet, or shine. She rode the bus sometimes, too, whenever they were short on chaperones. All the guys loved her, and Coach always met her at the fence and kissed her hand before every kickoff. He said she was his good luck charm.
“Oh, she cussed me out about it a long time ago. But we’re not here to talk about me. This is about you.”
Bakari took a deep breath. “Yes, sir?”
“What can I say, Bakari? You’ve been working your ass off, and it’s paying off. You’ve done everything I asked you to do. Good work, young man.”
Bakari wasn’t sure what he had been expecting, but it definitely wasn’t praise. He couldn’t help but show all his teeth. “Thank you.”
“Mm-hm. And I have it on good authority that Beau Tarver is sending a representative to check you out this week. Now that’s just between me and you.”
“TheBeau Tarver?” Bakari said, his eyes bulging. Coach Tarver was on staff at Penn State, and he was sending someone to see him.Him, out of all the players in the entire nation. Bakari beamed, and Coach Bryant beamed right along with him.
“TheBeau Tarver. And listen, this is just the beginning for you. There’s plenty more where he came from.”
“That’s crazy. I’m…I don’t even know what to say.”
“Just take it all in and be proud. You’re almost at the finish line.”
Bakari nodded and tried to stop smiling.
“I wanted to ask you something else, too,” Coach said, his voice lower now. “How are you feeling about everything? I know you’ve had some…challenges.”
“I’m feeling good." Bakari swallowed hard. "I’ve been kinda down lately with…you know. But this really means a lot. I feel like things are looking up for me. Finally.”
“I feel the same.”
“And thanks for checking on me. I appreciate it.”
Coach nodded. “I gotta make sure you're good. I coach the whole person, not just the athlete.”
“All this good stuff that’s happening to me…I owe a lot of that to you. All of it, really.”
