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Tackling the Fields

By Janet W. Ferguson

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Tackling the Fields

Southern Hearts Series
Book 3

Janet W. Ferguson


Chapter 1


Huge hands ripped at Cole Sanders’ shirt and yanked him away from Audrey Vaughn’s embrace. Adrenaline raged through Cole’s veins as he balled his fists and spun on the hot blacktop of the University’s Christian Student Union parking lot. Ole Miss lineman, Grant Vaughn, stood four inches taller and seventy pounds heavier, but the guy wouldn’t intimidate him. As a quarterback, Cole knew better.
“Back off, Grant.”
With three hundred pounds of muscle held by a six-foot-seven frame, Grant growled at Cole and tugged harder at his shirt. “I told you to stay away from my sister.”
Cole’s vision tunneled, and his palm connected with Grant’s chest. “Let. Go.”
Grant’s punch came from the left, and Cole’s reflexes took over. They exchanged more shoves and blows, but numbness sheltered Cole’s body, like in a football game. Fury thundered through him while his brain shut out everything else.
Until strong cage-like arms clamped around him, heaving him away. “Cole.” Coach McCoy’s voice broke through the haze. “You hear me, Cole? Get in my truck. Now.”
Other players pinned Grant against a car.
Still dazed, Cole trudged across the parking lot with Coach’s fingers digging into his bicep. Coach flung open the back door of his truck, and Cole slid onto the hot leather seat. The door slammed, and Coach moved to the front one and cranked the truck before stomping back to where Grant stood. Coach was ticked. No doubt he and Grant would pay for the fight with extra drills all next week. Maybe even all month.
Wavy lines of heat rose from the asphalt as the Mississippi summer raged full force outside the windows. Cole reached over the console and bumped the air up to high, then leaned back and closed his eyes. Why couldn’t Grant chill? The mission trip in Honduras had already been an emotional roller coaster.
Though he’d only gone to please Coach McCoy, once Cole’s feet touched the soil of the mountainous village, something shifted inside. And losing one of the children from the Vacation Bible School to dengue fever had left his heart in pieces. Audrey had helped put those pieces back together—to make sense of it all.
He’d felt something he’d never experienced before, both for her and for God.
Minutes passed before Coach McCoy and his wife, Sarah Beth, finally tossed their bags in the bed of the pickup and took their seats up front. The travel bus that had delivered them all from the Memphis airport to Oxford pulled away, along with the rest of the vehicles.
“Benjamin’s taking his mom’s van to the house.” Sarah Beth took Coach’s chin in her fingers and turned his face toward her. “Oh, we’re going to need to get ice on that eye.”
A bitter taste coated Cole’s tongue, and his stomach lurched. Had they hit Coach?
Had he hit Coach?
With a shrug, Coach McCoy waved off her concern. “Just a shiner.”
She released his chin. “I know you’re trying to make me feel better, but I was scared to death out there. Are you sure you’re okay?”
One side of Coach’s mouth cocked up. “Don’t worry. I’m still your trophy husband.”
A small snicker colored Sarah Beth’s words. “You better be, mister.” Her head rotated back to study Cole. “Are you hurt?”
“No, ma’am. Sorry about losing my temper.” But Grant had started the whole thing.
Though the truck’s engine still rumbled, Coach McCoy left the gear in park and gave Cole a hard look. The look that unsettled even the biggest college lineman. “Are you sure you’re okay? No injuries?”
Cole nodded. “Yes, sir.”
“I don’t understand.” Coach’s volume increased. “Our plane hit the ground one hour ago, here you are after a mission trip to Honduras, and you’re already punching a teammate?”
Cole’s throat thickened as he tried to come up with an answer. “I just hugged Audrey goodbye, and Grant went ballistic. I’ve seen overprotective brothers, but Grant borders on psycho. I mean, Audrey’s a nice girl. I like her. But I wasn’t about to attack her.” Cole huffed out an extended breath.
Coach’s glare still pinned Cole to his seat. “Trust me, I’ll have another powwow with Grant. But, y’all are college seniors—both of you are likely first or second round draft choices, and I expect my seniors to lead the team, not tear it apart. Especially my quarterback.” He swung one hand around to point at Cole. “You and Grant will learn to work together on and off the field. I’m not sure how that’s gonna go down yet, but know that you will lead together. Comprende?”
“Yes, sir.” On the field, he could agree to that. But off the field? No way. He’d have to find a way to be with Audrey without her brother finding out.
~~~
A shiver ran across Audrey Vaughn’s shoulders. And the cause wasn’t the air conditioner blasting in her brother’s truck. The fight shook her. Unleashed locked-away memories. Thank the Lord that Coach McCoy and the others stopped them before someone was seriously hurt. Why couldn’t Grant move past his guilt and anger? She gave him a minute to settle down and get on the road, and then she faced him. His jaw was still clenched, but too bad. Enough was enough.
“Cole isn’t Harrison. You’ve got to stop this.”
Grant shook his head. “They’re more alike than you think. And I knew Harrison all my life. I thought that warped jerk was my best friend, and what he did… I won’t make that mistake again. You shouldn’t either.”
Audrey’s muscles twitched as an image of Harrison came to mind. Dirty fingers grabbed at her, ripped at her soul, left her empty inside. The images that threatened to steal her peace. Again. And she was sick of fighting. Growing closer to Cole was like sinking a shovel into a yellow jackets’ nest for both her and her brother. It unearthed buried pain. But Cole had done nothing wrong.
“Cole’s different now. Honduras changed him. I saw it. God is changing him.” She shook her head and shrugged. “It’s like God’s been throwing me and Cole together for a year now, first with the academic tutoring the last two semesters and then again with the kids last week in Honduras. There has to be a reason. Maybe Cole needs to know the Lord, or maybe I have more healing that needs to happen. Maybe both.”
Grant answered with heavy silence as they drove through town until they hit the old highway toward their condos.
She’d give him time to chew on her words. Fresh rows of cotton lined the fields outside the truck window, reminding her that almost exactly three years had passed since that nightmarish graduation bonfire. The brutal mistake that left her with a damaged and leaking soul. Deep green cotton plants emerged from the muddy, dark soil. And she, too, was emerging, however slowly, from a muddy, dark place thanks to God’s continuing care.
After wheeling into the condo’s parking lot, Grant jerked the truck to a stop and turned to face her. “You don’t know Cole like I do. I’ve been in the locker room with the guy for three years, heard the way he talks about girls, and I won’t believe he’s changed until I see it with my own two eyes.” He flung open his door, but halted, glancing back. “You need to steer clear of that guy, Audrey. Before you get hurt.” He stomped toward his condo, which adjoined hers.
“Oh, Grant.” He wasn’t letting go any time soon. And she understood to a certain extent. Tutoring Cole last year, she’d only found arrogance in his brown eyes. But on the mission trip, sparks of kindness filled his gaze as he’d played with the children. Then when a sweet little boy died from dengue fever… She swallowed back the lump in her throat. After the death, Cole’s being seemed to shift. Almost like a child himself, he reached out to her for comfort. For answers about life in Christ.
But would he really change? Especially back in the small world where he reigned as king of the field? 

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