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the Hutchinson
problem back in his brain, so he worried at it and picked at it -- dog with
a bone , he could hear his Meemaw say -- like he could somehow figure out
the solution. Like it was within him to make Ryan Hutchinson, who hated
his guts, rise up and come into his own. Become the star player Erick knew he
could be. And in doing that, what? Kill his own chances at QB1? Why couldn’t
Ryan just play up to his potential so Erick didn’t have to worry about it
anymore?
    Back in September, Erick had been
interested in finding out Lowell Menacker’s take on Hutchinson; he had heard
that Lowell knew Ryan from a recruits’ weekend and had hoped to find an ally in
untangling the problem. But while Lowell didn’t dismiss Ryan the way so many
others did, he’d never seen Ryan play the way Erick had. No ally there. The
only people who could possibly share Erick’s frustration with Ryan were the
coaches, and that was a boundary Erick wasn’t going to cross.
    He’d been walking uphill for a good
ten minutes when he met his sisters coming down. Rather than continue to the
crest, he turned and fell into step with them.
    Janine blew out a frosty breath. “You
look like you just killed someone and hid the body. Mama bring up Crocker?”
    Erick rolled his eyes in response.
    “Her favorite subject,” Trisha
said.
    “I can’t talk to her about it,” Erick
said. “It’s impossible. She won’t listen. She knows everything. Hell, if she
was going to be like this about it, why’d she agree to let me go there?”
    “Daddy talked her into it,” said
Janine. Trisha expanded, “Daddy said it had to be your decision. But he wanted
you to go to Crocker. He said it would be the best match.”
    Erick, back in Texas with his
grandmother at the time, hadn’t been aware of any of this. Crocker the best
match? “Hm,” he said. “Where did Mama want me to go?”
    “Oklahoma State. But she said she’d
settle for Oklahoma.” Janine nudged him with her elbow.
    Of course. His mother had attended
Oklahoma State. No matter that their starting QB had three years of play ahead
of him.
    Erick huffed out an angry sigh. “So
I’m just a huge disappointment to her, I guess! I’ve already ruined my life!”
    Trisha gave him a soft slap on the
back of his head. “Oh, don’t be a big baby about it. Yes, in this one decision,
Mama’s darling little boy went against her wishes, and she’s adjusting to it by
letting you know just how inadequate poor Crocker is for her doll baby. Don’t
worry, give it a year and you’ll be beating USC single-handed, and she’ll get
over it.”
    Erick hated when Trisha ranted at
him for being “the darling little boy” -- was it his fault he was the youngest
and his parents hadn’t had another son? He cut back at her with, “If it’s no
big deal, why did you two run away and leave me to face her alone?”
    Trisha looked smug. “One thing
about being a woman, you earn the right to get the hell away from your mother
when you know she’s about to drive you batshit insane. Baby boy, you don’t have
that luxury.”
    Erick wondered if he’d earned the
luxury of pushing his sister down a hill, and Janine, sensing danger, deflected
obviously by saying, “What is with that beard, by the way? You going for
hillbilly chic? Because you’ve got the hillbilly part but I’m not so sure about
the chic.”
    Erick rubbed his chin. “I was too
busy to shave and it grew in this way. I thought I’d see how I liked it.”
    Janine raised her eyebrows at him. “And
you like it?”
    Erick shrugged. “I don’t know. I
like not shaving twice a day.”
    “I’m surprised they let you keep
it,” Trisha commented. “I would’ve thought even Crocker had standards.” But she
said it good-naturedly, and Erick, who knew the beard looked a little scraggly
at the moment, laughed it off with, “You can say that because you haven’t met
the guys. I’m the prettiest one on the team.”
    Janine made gagging noises,