I had wondered when something like this would happen. Pam had figured out what Peggy and I were up to when I’d helped Scarlet. I didn’t doubt that she’d gotten Peggy aside and made her talk. Frick. The universe was laughing at me right now—rolling-around-on-the-floor laughing.
There was no way that I would never turn her away, so I don’t understand why I hesitated. I guess I really did: I wasn’t over Brook yet.
For some reason, Pam was different from Peggy. I didn’t consider Peggy as someone I might end up with. We were just friends, right? Pam was different, somehow. The question was, why?
“Are you going to make me beg?” Pam asked as she crossed her arms and pouted.
I felt like a dick.
“You never have to beg,” I said and stepped over to her and pulled her into my arms. “I just want to make sure you do this with your eyes wide open. I love you to death, but I’m not looking for Brook’s replacement right now.”
She kissed me as her answer. Well, okay then. Let the sleepover begin.
◊◊◊ Monday January 30
My breath came in steady huffs as I ran along the path through the park. It was barely past dawn—my favorite time of day if I wanted to be alone—and I was out for my morning run. The park was quiet as I followed the path to the pond. The only noise I heard was the sound of my feet slapping on the pavement.
It was typical for a winter morning, the air cold and dry. I’d started to prepare in earnest for baseball, so I hadn’t brought Duke. It would be a distraction to worry about him keeping up if I pushed myself, and I didn’t want that. I’d worn my weighted vest and had brought my Bo staff to increase the difficulty. I felt good and soon dropped into my thinking zone.
This was the big week, the one everything football-related had been leading up to. I would officially announce I planned to play for Michigan. I’d promised Coach Haber that we would all make our announcement to help him with recruiting, even though we wouldn’t sign National Letters of Intent.
Several people had asked me why we weren’t signing if we were making a commitment. But once I explained, the reasoning was obvious—at least to us. Wolf, Tim, and I would not enroll at Michigan until the spring semester of next year because we’d be working on the
Instead, we would be doing what was called ‘gray-shirting’: postponing our enrollment until the second term of our freshman year. That meant we couldn’t take classes during the fall term. The university could use all their available scholarships on other incoming players.
The NCAA allowed college athletes five years to complete four years of eligibility after initial enrollment. We would get the whole time frame. That meant that if any of us needed to, we could redshirt if we suffered an injury or if we needed an extra year to develop our skills.
The downside to not being able to sign our National Letter of Intent was that technically, our recruitment hadn’t ended. The act of signing meant that a recruiting ban would go into effect, and we would be committed to Michigan. In my book, that would be a win for both the university and us. I didn’t need the Southwest Central State Universities of the world hounding me anymore.
Instead of signing our National Letters of Intent now, we would sign enrollment paperwork, including financial aid paperwork, right before classes started for the spring semester.
I recognized that if my classmates were confused by how all this worked, we would clearly need to explain it to the public. In particular, I wanted our plans made clear to the Michigan fan base so they didn’t have a meltdown.
I figured I should probably consult Frank Ingram, my public relations guy, to get the right words for the explanation. We also needed to organize an announcement event. That brought up a question. Who did I contact for that?
In the past, I would just call Caryn, and she would coordinate with everyone. The problem was that she no longer worked for me. Did I call Kent, who was technically my manager; Scarlet, who ran my remaining businesses; or Lexi, who had been my personal assistant and would be again when I started filming?
Suddenly, inspiration struck. If in doubt, dump it in my dad’s lap.
I picked up the pace for the last mile and sprinted the final two blocks. I probably shouldn’t have pushed so hard since I had my strength and conditioning PE class first period. There was no doubt in my mind that Ms. Marshall would kick my butt again today.
◊◊◊
I had Cassidy park the car in the lot, and once we’d parked, she played with the drone to make sure no one was trying to do me harm. When she gave me the all-clear, I got out of the car, put on my sunglasses, inserted my earbuds, and cranked today’s song for my entrance—
