Fourth Down and Dirty: A Bad Boy Sports Romance Read Free

started was issue empty threats, blow up
momentarily, and then go right back to sympathizing with me.

 
    “College is an
important part of the formula,” I echoed. It sounded as if I was agreeing with
my father, but it was really just another one of my tricks. In reality, all I
wanted was to smooth things over with him to end the call.

 
    “Right-o! You know
how proud of you we are, especially me, what with your accomplishments in
football. But you’ve got to –“

 
    “Stay the course,”
I interrupted.

 
    My dad was
practically reciting things now and if I completed his sentences it really
seemed like I was taking his words to heart. I wasn’t foolish enough to think I didn’t need to graduate from college
to earn that degree, I just didn’t see why I had to work hard for it… or,
really, work for it at all.

 
    My future was in
football so the degree was more of a formality for me. If I could see that,
everyone should. So I couldn’t understand why my free pass was no longer
working. I brought enough status to Haywood University with my stellar plays on
the field to merit being able to coast through the academic portion of college.

 
    “I’ll talk to the
tutor,” I finally conceded with a smirk. I wasn’t thinking about apologizing or
working out a plan. I was thinking of setting the tutor straight.

 
    “That’s what I
like to hear, son,” my dad muttered. I could hear papers being shuffled on the
other end and I knew I was already losing my dad’s attention. “I’m proud of
you. I’m proud of your stats on the field and now I’m proud of you stepping up
like this. You’re growing to be a fine young man.”

 
    I resisted the
urge to snort. My dad always chose to be so oblivious. “I’ll talk to the tutor
today, in fact.”

 
    There was a pause
and I noticed even the sound of papers shuffling had stopped. I could just
picture my dad looking up at the clock hanging in his home office with pride in
his eyes, looking like he won in an effort to teach his son a valuable lesson.

 
    “That’s a plan
worth following through on,” he finally responded. The paper shuffling picked
back up and I heard the stapler fire off a few times. “I’ve been looking over a
couple proposals and finally settled on one. Getting the paperwork together
now. One of my own juniors came up with the winner, if you can believe it.”

 
    I grinned as I
took certain devious pleasure in responding with, “Of course I can believe it.
The junior learned from you .”

 
    “You make me
proud, son,” he mentioned again with a chuckle.

 
    Much as I enjoyed
being showered with praise from my father, I liked not being on the phone with
him a whole hell of a lot more. Under the pretense of getting ready to seek out
the tutor, I ended the call with him and sat up in bed. I’d been smiling but now,
as I looked out the window from where I sat, the smile drained from my face.

 
    I really was going
to seek out the tutor, but it wasn’t to smooth things over. I was going to chew
that son of a bitch out for ratting on me to my father. Sure, I knew my dad
couldn’t stay angry with me for long, but it was the principle of the matter.
Not only did I have to deal with the phone call, now I had to go down to the
tutoring center and let the tutor know who was in charge. I had to get this
person straightened out. If my charm worked on past professors then, surely, it
would be a breeze to placate some student tutor.

 
    I lazily pulled on
a plain white T-shirt and a pair of blue jeans before looking over at my
dresser and deciding it was a better idea to wear a T-shirt with Haywood
University’s emblem and its Lions football team logo. I smirked, threw on some
socks and tennis shoes, and strolled downstairs and right to the house’s front
door.

 
    “Where ya goin ’?” Cruz called out,
tearing his eyes away from the television after hitting pause on his football
game. My other teammate, Marcus,