Page 59 of Base Block

I walked over to where Callum was talking to another of the rookies, one of the back-up tight ends. “I could. I definitely could,” the other guy was saying.

“No.” Callum shook his head. “Sorry, Mario, no.”

“Yeah,” the tight end argued. He pulled Demitrious over. “Dem, you know that I could block like a lineman.”

Demitrious started laughing, which signaled his opinion. He tried to speak but only laughed harder.

Callum put his arm around me and I leaned against him as I listened. “I couldn’t do your job, either,” he told the tight end. “Want to race? You’d see.”

“I knock down guys all the time,” he argued. “I can go one-on-one against any defender and I could block you.”

Demitrious started laughing again. “Let’s go see,” he suggested.

I spoke up. “No! No, you could injure him,” I said to Callum. “You can’t hurt a guy on your own team.”

That didn’t help to calm the situation but everyone was mostly laughing as we went out to the small, grassy area in the middle of our group of condos. Lights streamed from most of the windows where other people were celebrating the holiday with their families, so we could see enough. One of the women ran down to her car, where she kept a football in the trunk.

“Blocking isn’t just running into people like an animal,” Callum said.

“Bison,” Anara murmured. She had put Maverick on a leash and he sat at her side.

“We work as a unit, always thinking, always trying to stay ahead of the defense. We’re planning angles, we’re moving together, and yeah, we’re stopping them.”

“Show me instead,” I said. I really didn’t want him to hurt Mario, the mouthy tight end.

He smiled at me. “Ok, let’s do it.”

“He’ll kill her!” I heard Jenae shrill out, but I didn’t have any fear.

“Ready?” Demetrious called. Maverick barked but Anara immediately quieted him.

“This is a base block, just one-on-one, player versus player. It’s the foundation of the offensive line,” Callum told me. “Are you ready?”

“No,” I said, and he laughed.

“Down!” Demitrious yelled, and I got into position.

“Hey!” Callum suddenly boomed. “Watch your eyes.” He had said that to the person standing behind me, a punt returner, and he pointed at him. Had that guy been staring at my butt?

“Set!” Demitrious told us. I looked at the man across from me and thought about facing him for real when he was suited up. I almost did get scared and—

“Hut!”

He lunged up and before I had even reacted, he picked me up and took off running. “Hey!” I also yelled. “Give me a chance to fight you.”

“No,” he said, laughing. “You’re mine. This is how you start, with the basics. You learn the foundational crap and you build up strong from there.”

“You knocked me off my foundation, like an earthquake,” I complained. But he only laughed harder and circled around to return to our guests.

“I’m really shocked by this violence,” Jenae said loudly, but no one seemed to care. Anara even let Maverick romp around a little as we played more football, except for Jenae and her boyfriend. They left, which meant they missed the dessert that Tori and Zion had brought, two huge pies that were delicious.

“I ate too much,” I said later that night, as I sat in our chair. I felt exhausted, even though it wasn’t very late. “I ate so much that I don’t know if I can walk around to clean up.”

“We don’t have much to do, just the dishes,” Callum said. He was filling every inch of space in the dishwasher with those. “And probably, we should vacuum. And scrub down the bathroom, and wipe the counters, clean the oven…yeah, there’s a lot to do.” He jammed in the final plate and hit the start button, and I was happy to hear the appliance going. “We can do that tomorrow.”

“I don’t have work,” I agreed. It was Saturday but Beau hadn’t scheduled anything for us because he was off skiing somewhere with his friend, the one who owned the private plane that I’d seen before in his social media.

“I have work but I can jump in when I get home. Did you have fun?” He nudged me a little with his knee and I got up so we could both fit. There was room if I sat on his lap, which I did.