Football Hero (2008) Read Online Free

to look like something they’re not. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes they’re exactly what they look like, but you always have to wait to find out. It’s what’s inside that counts.
    “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”
     
    From the pocket of his enormous jeans, the cook removed a switchblade knife, flicking it open and turning the point so that it glinted at Ty. Mike’s grin proved to be missing the front teeth. On the knuckles of his hand were the letters “K-I-L-L.” Ty stepped back, bumping into Charlotte, who shoved him so that he tripped and stumbled halfway into the tiny kitchen.

CHAPTER SIX
    INSTEAD OF IMPALING TY , the colossal cook dipped his blade into the boiling vat and removed two golden brown miniature donuts. He let them slide from the knife into a paper bag, which he shook, producing little puffs of white smoke. Then the knife went back into the bag and Mike held the powdery donuts out for Ty with a grunt, nodding his head until Ty removed them and handed one to Charlotte.
    “Thanks,” Ty said. He took a small bite, then devoured the rest, the dough and sugar melting together into his watering mouth.
    The door at the end of the little hallway banged open, and Uncle Gus reappeared, wiping his bushy gray mustache on a sleeve. Uncle Gus’s watery eyes left Ty thinking that he’d had a drink. He had the lookof a Saturday afternoon when he’d sit watching ball games in his chair, drinking beer after beer. Uncle Gus glared as Ty licked clean the remaining powder from his lips.
    “Hey,” Mike said in a loud rumble from the kitchen.
    “Gus.”
    Uncle Gus’s scowl brightened instantly at the sign of Mike. He stepped into the kitchen and looked up at the cook, wringing his hands and telling him how much it meant to the kids that he would give them a snack.
    “It’s not every day a middle-school kid gets a donut made by a former NFL lineman,” Uncle Gus said.
    “Wait there,” Mike said in a deep, rumbling voice. He stuck the cigarette into the corner of his mouth and turned to his stove.
    Uncle Gus spun around at Ty and made sneering faces while Mike removed another donut from the vat. Ty looked past his uncle to see the big man stick a finger into his nose and remove a bloody booger with a half-inch tail of quavering snot. Mike winked at Ty, then smeared the mess onto the donut before popping it into the bag of sugar. Ty curled his lower lip into his mouth and clamped down hard.
    “You think something is funny?” Uncle Gus asked, his face going red.
    Uncle Gus calmed down, though, when Mike nudged him and removed the donut from the bag withhis switchblade. Uncle Gus took it, forcing a smile, and Mike sucked on his cigarette. Mike gave a thumbs-up and squinted at Uncle Gus until he popped the entire donut into his mouth, chewing so that his big mustache danced up and down on his face. Mike smiled and nodded, laughing so deep that the cigarette tumbled from his lips and Uncle Gus joined him. Ty stole a look at Charlotte’s blank face and thought he saw a twinkle in her eye. Laughter burst from him, and Uncle Gus looked at him uncertainly, swallowing in the nick of time. Mike walloped him so hard on the back that Uncle Gus stumbled out into the hallway.
    “Well,” Uncle Gus said, grinning up at the ex-player, “back to work. That was delicious.”
    “I bet it was,” Mike said.
    Uncle Gus turned on Ty and Charlotte, flicked his fingers to shoo them down the hall, and said, “Hurry up.”
    “He’s big,” Ty said in a low voice.
    “Six-seven, four hundred pounds these days,” Uncle Gus said. “Seventh-round draft pick by the Giants in 1986. Blew out his knee halfway through his rookie season, put a hundred pounds on during rehab, and never got back onto the field. Let’s go.”
    Uncle Gus jumped ahead of them and held open the swinging door, waving them into the main bar.
    Ty and Charlotte carried in the equipment andsupplies. Lucy’s was a dingy place with battered wooden chairs