the Big Time (2010) Read online

  The Big Time

  A Football Genius Novel

  Tim Green

  For my brother, Kenny, because you're big time

  Contents

  Chapter One

  ALL HIS LIFE, TROY dreamed of meeting the father he...

  Chapter Two

  "HE BELONGS TO ME," Troy's mom said, "the one who...

  Chapter Three

  TROY'S MOM'S GLARE FADED. She hung her head and quietly...

  Chapter Four

  "MY GOD," TROY'S MOM said under her breath.

  Chapter Five

  "WHAT, MOM?" TROY ASKED, his voice dull.

  Chapter Six

  FROM THE MIDDLE OF the woods, Troy thought of something...

  Chapter Seven

  "WHOA," SHE SAID. "I know you took some shots in...

  Chapter Eight

  "MOM, WHAT ARE YOU doing!" Troy yelled, the blast of...

  Chapter Nine

  "HEY, MISTER," HIS MOM said, raising her voice and banging...

  Chapter Ten

  "THERE ARE LAWS," GRAMPS said, "that give your father some...

  Chapter Eleven

  "SO," TROY SAID, EYEING her hand, "we don't do anything,...

  Chapter Twelve

  "WE LEFT SO FAST last night," Troy's mom said. "I...

  Chapter Thirteen

  THE DOORS TO THE dome had been opened, and fans...

  Chapter Fourteen

  TROY APPROACHED THE YELLOW rope, his heart swelling with pride.

  Chapter Fifteen

  "I TOLD YOU," TROY'S mom said to Drew, her face...

  Chapter Sixteen

  "IF YOU DON'T WORK with me here, I'm going to...

  Chapter Seventeen

  "WHAT SAME THING ARE you two thinking?" Tate asked.

  Chapter Eighteen

  BEFORE SETH'S FINGERTIPS EVEN touched the ball, Troy felt a...

  Chapter Nineteen

  SETH CALLED COACH MORA'S defenses from that point on, that...

  Chapter Twenty

  TROY FELT A MIXTURE of anxiety, frustration, and regret.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  GRIFFIN LENGYEL WAS BIGGER, faster, and stronger than Seth.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  TROY LOOKED UP AT his mom. She inclined her head...

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  AS SETH PREDICTED, TROY'S mom did understand when Troy explained...

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  THE TREES ABOVE SHIFTED restlessly in a steady wind that...

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  "YOU LOST, KID?" THE security guard asked, scowling.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  "BUT," TROY SAID, HIS voice barely rising above the muted...

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  TROY SHOWED HIS FATHER how he and Tate sat, with...

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  "I DOUBT YOUR MOTHER will let me help," Drew said.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  TROY LAY COMFORTABLY IN his dream on a sandy beach...

  Chapter Thirty

  TROY LEANED TOWARD THE screen, afraid that what he saw...

  Chapter Thirty-One

  IT WASN'T HIS FATHER'S orange Porsche but Seth's yellow H2...

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  "SURE," JOHN SAID. "I lost my own dad when I...

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  "YOU ARE TESSA WHITE?" the man asked again, nodding to...

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  TROY CLUTCHED HIS ROLLED-UP bathing suit and pulled back the...

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  "I TOLD YOU G Money has the keys to this...

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  THE MASSIVE FISH VEERED off and swam away.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  THEY PULLED UP INTO the dirt patch in front of...

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  TROY AND HIS FATHER sped down not the interstate that...

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  FROM INSIDE THE TERMINAL, Troy eyed the flailing mob through...

  Chapter Forty

  SETH COLE SAT DOWN so that Troy was seated between...

  Chapter Forty-One

  "SETH," TROY'S FATHER SAID. "Wait! You can't."

  Chapter Forty-Two

  "I KNOW LETTERMAN ISN'T locked in, but you don't really...

  Chapter Forty-Three

  TROY'S MOM SLAMMED THE door and turned to him with...

  Chapter Forty-Four

  TROY'S MOUTH FELL OPEN in disbelief. His cheeks burned with...

  Chapter Forty-Five

  TROY SAW HIS MOM making a beeline from her seat...

  Chapter Forty-Six

  TROY HUNG HIS HEAD.

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  TROY DIDN'T SPEAK TO his mother the next morning, and...

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  BOB McDONOUGH STOOD TALL and slender, with close-cropped, graying hair...

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  "YOUR FATHER IS MILLIONS of dollars in debt, Troy," Bob...

  Chapter Fifty

  TROY BOLTED UP OUT of the chair, tipping it over...

  Chapter Fifty-One

  TROY SAW HIS GRAMPS'S pickup in the dirt patch along...

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  "WHEN WE SAW YOU at G Money's the other night,"...

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  "HE'S YOUR LAWYER," BOB McDonough said with a solemn face.

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  TROY'S MOM WHIPPED UP macaroni and cheese for him and...

  Chapter Fifty-Five

  TROY KICKED AND THRASHED, but the hand held tight.

  Chapter Fifty-Six

  THE SECURITY GUARDS AT the gate to G Money's driveway...

  Chapter Fifty-Seven

  TROY SLIPPED HIS FINGERS into the pocket.

  Chapter Fifty-Eight

  LUTHER'S PINK GRIN APPEARED in the midst of his beard,...

  Chapter Fifty-Nine

  TATE POINTED AT THE floor, and the men's eyes all...

  Chapter Sixty

  TATE'S EYES FLASHED IN the direction of the bar. She...

  Chapter Sixty-One

  THE SMILE FLASHED BACK onto his father's face instantly.

  Chapter Sixty-Two

  TROY TOOK A RIGHT at the next stop sign and...

  Chapter Sixty-Three

  TROY NEVER LOOKED BACK; he bolted up the ladder, spun,...

  Chapter Sixty-Four

  "TROY, HONEY," HIS MOM said, rushing to him and hugging...

  Chapter Sixty-Five

  TROY COULDN'T SPEAK.

  Chapter Sixty-Six

  WHEN TROY REACHED THE edge of the bridge, he could...

  Chapter Sixty-Seven

  THEY RODE FOR TEN minutes in Seth's H2 before Troy...

  Chapter Sixty-Eight

  TROY AND THE GEORGIA team were down by six and...

  About the Author

  Other Books by Tim Green

  Credits

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  CHAPTER ONE

  ALL HIS LIFE, TROY dreamed of meeting the father he never knew. Never once did he imagine it would turn into a nightmare. Still, the rage oozing from his mother's voice when she saw his father's face wasn't a complete surprise. But when her hateful glare scorched Troy, too? That was a shocker.

  She acted as if Troy had invited the man to show up on Seth Halloway's front steps when, in fact, the appearance of his missing father shook Troy to the core.

  "We don't want you here," Troy's mom said.

  Seth, the Falcons' star linebacker, appeared behind her and stepped onto the front porch of his stone mansion as if to protect Troy and his friends, Tate and Nathan, from the intruder. Noise from the party by the pool out back filtered up over the slate roof and into the n
ight sky. The entire Duluth Tigers football team--which Seth had coached as a favor to Troy--and the players' parents were celebrating the team's victory in the Georgia Junior League Football State Championship.

  "Can I help you?" Seth asked, the cords in his muscular neck now dancing in the porch light.

  Troy's father stood an inch or two over six feet--as tall as Seth--with a handsome face worn from weather and worry. He laughed a soft, friendly laugh, and he stuck out a big hand with a slim gold watch on his wrist.

  "I'm Drew Edinger; I'm staying with a client who lives a few streets away," Troy's dad said, extending his hand even farther until Seth had no choice but to shake it. "I know who you are. I admire the way you play."

  "I said we don't want you here," Troy's mom said, crossing her arms and jutting out her jaw.

  "I'm the boy's father."

  "You're not his father," Troy's mom said.

  Drew looked at Troy, gave him a sly wink, and said, "You're saying he belongs to someone else?"

  CHAPTER TWO

  "HE BELONGS TO ME," Troy's mom said, "the one who changed his diapers and bathed him and cooked for him and helped him with his homework and took care of him when he was sick. Just because he's got half your genes doesn't make you a father."

  Drew turned his attention back to her, shook his head, and said, "You haven't changed a bit, have you, Tessa? Still beautiful. Still full of vinegar."

  Troy's mom pointed a finger toward the street. "Go."

  "You think this boy doesn't deserve to know his father?" Drew asked, his heavy eyebrows settling in on his brow. "At least a little bit? What do you think, Troy?"

  Troy felt his mouth sag open, but no words spilled out. He looked at Tate. She had good sense, better than he and Nathan. Her big brown eyes widened, but she only shrugged her shoulders in confusion.

  "You're twelve years too late, Drew," Troy's mom said. "Don't make us call the police."

  "Police?" Drew said, raising his eyebrows.

  "Tessa," Seth said, speaking quietly. "Let's not go crazy here."

  "I didn't even know Troy existed until I saw you and him on TV with Larry King," Drew said, his hands splayed open, his voice nearly begging. "I knew then. He looks just like me."

  "I told you," Troy's mom said.

  "You never told me anything," Drew said. "We fought about getting married and having kids, something you wanted and I didn't. Back then, with my injury and hoping I could make a comeback, my whole life was a mess. I never knew we had a son. You think I wouldn't have seen him all this time? You think I wouldn't have helped pay for things? I've done well, Tessa, even without football."

  "I'm not going back in time to do this all over again," Troy's mom said. "I've moved on. We're fine."

  "But you never told me," Drew said. "He deserves to know the truth, Tessa. I can't imagine what he must think."

  "He thinks what he thinks," Troy's mom said.

  "You need to tell him," Drew said.

  Troy felt dizzy. "Mom?"

  "He knew," she said, raising her voice and stabbing her finger at Drew. "Maybe I didn't throw myself at his feet and beg him to stay, but he knew."

  "In law school they teach you to ask if innocence is possible," Drew said.

  "I'm not a lawyer," she said.

  "I am," he said, winking quickly at Troy again. "It's called presumption of innocence. It's what separates us from Attila the Hun. Think about it. Isn't it possible--given what I was going through at the time--that I didn't put two and two together?"

  "You were a math major," she said. "Adding two and two was something you shouldn't have missed."

  "Maybe I shouldn't have," Drew said, nodding. "Okay, I agree; but I'm asking you if it's possible that I did. Isn't it? Couldn't me not being around for Troy all this time be a big mistake?"

  Troy looked at his mom. Her lower lip disappeared beneath her top teeth as she studied Drew Edinger.

  "Tessa, if you tell me no," Drew said, pointing down the stone path toward the driveway and the Porsche convertible in which he'd pulled up, "then I'll walk away, go back to Chicago, and neither of you will ever see me again."

  Troy held his breath.

  CHAPTER THREE

  TROY'S MOM'S GLARE FADED. She hung her head and quietly said, "You were always clever, Drew. I bet you're some lawyer."

  "That means you agree," Troy's father said, pushing back the flaps of his leather blazer so he could plant his hands on the waist of his jeans.

  "No," she said, shaking her head so that the sheets of her long brown hair fell in a curtain about her face. She looked up with burning eyes. "I won't agree. I'd still like you to leave now. We're having a celebration, and you weren't invited. You're not part of my life, and you're not part of Troy's. You missed your chance. Go."

  Drew's face fell. He dropped his hands and shifted his cowboy boots so that they scuffed the grit on the stone stoop. "You can't just--"

  Seth stepped forward and held his hand up like a traffic cop, almost touching Drew's chest. "No. She asked you to leave, so you need to do that."

  Troy saw the flicker of anger in his father's eyes. His jaws were working side to side, and his hands curled into fists.

  Troy stood paralyzed by it all--unable to move, unable to think, barely able to breathe.

  "Don't do this," Seth said, quiet and almost friendly.

  Then the fire went out. Troy's father cast a sad, almost desperate look at Troy before he turned and retreated down the stone walkway. The orange Porsche's lights blazed and the engine revved, then the car shot out backward into the road. The tires yelped, and the Porsche surged up the street to be swallowed by the night.

  Troy descended the steps, moving in the car's direction until he stood alone on the edge of the light where it met the shadows of the front lawn's towering trees.

  "Dad?" he said.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  "MY GOD," TROY'S MOM said under her breath.

  Troy looked up at her as she turned and disappeared into Seth's house before reappearing to say "Troy, get your things. You've got a big day tomorrow."

  Troy looked at his friends. Seth frowned and followed Troy's mother back inside. Nathan scowled in confusion. Tate tilted her head to one side, looking into Troy's eyes as if she could read his feelings. Her eyes glistened with sadness and concern.

  Tate descended the steps and touched his arm. Speaking quietly, she asked, "Troy, are you okay?"

  "I--I don't know," he said, taking a deep breath and letting it go. Troy felt suddenly tired and sore. The finger he'd dislocated during the championship game throbbed, and the thrill of winning sputtered under the storm of feelings about his father.

  His mom reappeared on the front steps with her purse. Seth followed, and she kissed him good-bye, all business.

  "Okay, Troy," she said, coming down the steps and past him on the walkway toward where her pale green VW bug waited in the driveway.

  Troy wanted to go back to the party and reclaim the joy of the victory celebration. He opened his mouth to protest going home. His mom stopped where the stone walk met the driveway and turned as if she sensed his resistance. The look she gave him changed his mind. He said good night and thanked Seth for coaching the team to victory.

  "Don't worry," Tate said, "we're going home now, too."

  Troy hustled after his mom, his face hot with shame from some unknown source.

  They rode in silence, exiting the Cotton Wood Country Club through massive gates and essentially circling a huge block of county highways to their own home down a winding dirt road. Their house, a single-story saltbox not much bigger than a cabin, sat amid a cluster of pines just the other side of the train tracks and a ten-foot concrete wall surrounding the exclusive development where Seth lived. When they pulled up into the red dirt patch just off their front porch, Troy's mom hopped out and went directly inside.

  Troy didn't move.

  It had been a wild week for them all. Seth had been suspected of illegal steroid use. Troy h
ad been accused of being a pawn in the Falcons' scheme to steal the signals from opposing NFL teams. And both of them had to be cleared so that they could help the Falcons continue their march to the playoffs. At first the media frenzy worked against them, but ultimately Troy used an interview with Larry King to set things right.

  Tomorrow they'd be back at it, Troy calling the plays so that Seth could adjust the Falcons' defense, making the team virtually unstoppable in much the same way as their junior league football team had been unstoppable in its own championship game.

  But that didn't seem possible now.

  Seeing his father, even for those brief minutes outside Seth's house, changed things for Troy. Suddenly none of it seemed to matter. Troy knew that wasn't true. He knew how deep and strong his dream of being a part of an NFL team now--and one day playing on a team himself--really was. He knew that in his head; but his heart, swollen and aching for the father he never knew, made even his lifelong dreams fade into the background.

  Troy didn't know how long he sat there in the dark with the pine trees whispering overhead before the front door cracked open and a band of orange light fell out onto the porch. Without closing the door behind her, his mom shuffled down the steps and rapped her knuckle on the car's passenger side window.

  Troy opened the door but didn't get out.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  "WHAT, MOM?" TROY ASKED, his voice dull.

  "You've got a big day tomorrow," his mom said. "The Falcons need you. I've got about a hundred emails with media requests that we've got to make some decisions on. You need to come inside and get some sleep. How's that finger?"

  Troy shrugged.

  "Can I see it?" his mom asked.

  Troy held out his throwing hand, wincing even though she held it gently, and clucked her tongue.

  "Come inside, Troy," she said. "We need to put some ice on this, and you need to get to sleep."

  "You said that already," Troy said.

  His mom squatted down so that her eyes were level with his. She gently let go of his hand and touched his shoulder. She spoke in a soft whisper. "You have to forget him, Troy. He's not part of our lives. I'm sorry."

  Troy's eyes brimmed with tears, and he shook his head. "All this time you said he didn't care, Mom. You said he wasn't a father, but he didn't know."