“Please tell me you’re not an Art History major,” I said as I crossed my fingers.
“I have my degree in management. I’d like to work somewhere where I could take night classes and get my MBA.”
“We can work something out, I’m sure. You also said you need money, at least until you turn twenty-five,” I prodded.
“Anything you could do would be a help. I’m not asking for a handout. If I could work for it, I’d be much happier,” Scarlet said, surprising me.
Mom made both Dad and I pull out cash to give her.
“I know it’s asking a lot, but could Carol and I come home with you?”
My mom told Dad and me to take a walk. That last question made her want to talk to Scarlet alone.
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When we came out, Fritz told us that Cassidy had taken Brook and Ashley to the store. Then he got a concerned look on his face.
“I just got a call from Paul. There was an incident at your home. The police took Peggy’s date into custody.”
I thought my mom had warned her about that guy. Fritz’s background check hadn’t turned up any information on him. That was why we’d upped our security. Chuck had drawn the short straw and watched Peggy and the little ones.
“Is everyone okay?” I asked.
“Yes. The boys and Duke were at Pam and Lacy’s place. Chuck was watching over them,” Fritz said.
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Chapter 31 – He Doesn’t Exist Sunday October 23
While I got ready for the day, I reflected on last night. Fritz didn’t have much information on what happened with Peggy and Lucas Marks, her date. From what I gathered, they’d come back to the house so she could change. He’d accidentally spilled a drink on her, resulting in the need for a wardrobe change. While she was upstairs, he tried to hack into our home-office computer. What Lucas wasn’t aware of was that Fritz’s team had protected our computers with anti-tampering software that alerted his LA office if someone tried anything.
They’d contacted Paul, who was outside. He came in and found Lucas with a thumb drive plugged into the back of the PC. Peggy was in shock when she came down and found Lucas face down on the office floor with his hands secured behind his back with zip ties. Paul called the police, and they took Lucas into custody. Fritz said that Lucas probably would have been let out of jail last night, but the police couldn’t identify him either. They fingerprinted him and planned to run his prints through the system to see if they could get a hit.
Brook and I had gone to the party that Tim and Wolf were at with Jim and had a good time. When we left, Mom was still talking to Scarlet. I didn’t have a clue what that was all about.
I’d just turned on the TV to watch a football wrap-up show when I heard my door chirp and open. Brook and Cassidy came in, pulling their bags.
“You ready to go?” Brook asked.
“Yeppers.”
All the recruits and their families had been invited to Coach Wilson’s house for breakfast. Before we left, we took our bags to be checked. We would pick them up on the way to the airport. I needed to come back anyway to take the paternity test. We were the last ones to arrive downstairs, so the bus left as soon as we boarded.
When we arrived at Coach Wilson’s home, we were greeted by his wife, Ms. Ruby. She was the daughter of a Pennsylvania coal miner, and it was clear that her down-home nickname undersold her savvy. Ms. Ruby stepped right up to my mom to introduce herself. She recognized that my mother was the one who eventually would need to be sold on wherever I went to play ball. She even called Brook by name. The woman had done her homework.
Ms. Ruby was Alabama’s secret weapon when it came to recruiting. You would have never guessed from her humble beginnings that she would become such a poised, elegant, skilled conversationalist, actually recruiting you. She had such a deft touch that you felt like you’d known her forever and that you were one of her favorite grandkids. By the time she was done with us, we all wanted her to adopt us. Dad and I both took mental notes on how she worked the room. Someday, I wanted to be as effective as she was at gaining people’s trust. You could see people wanted to please her. She made it clear nothing would please her more than if each recruit became a part of her family.
I was about to learn how much work Alabama had put to in my recruitment. Coach Wilson and his staff had done their homework. I would later find out that they’d talked to just about everyone around me, Wolf, and Tim. They wanted to ascertain our character, what motivated us, and whether we would be a good fit for Alabama football.
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