“They’d definitely be surprised,” their wide receiver said, rubbing first one calf muscle and then the other.
“Sanders, I’m going to hand the ball off to you, and you’ll go off toward the right. Don’t step out of bounds, and don’t stop running or fall down until you’re in the end zone.”
“You’re a great coach,” Chase said. “Really. Your plays are so sophisticated, I think you missed out on your true calling.”
“I’d go back to washing cow manure off the walls of a barn before I coach football. You want to end this game with a zero on the board?”
“Hell, no.” Chase stood and twisted from side to side, stretching his back. “Run and don’t stop. Got it.”
“And don’t drop the ball.”
They were halfway through the fourth and thankfully final quarter before whatever conditions Sam was waiting for came together. They were close enough to the end zone that Chase probably wouldn’t have a heart attack and die ten yards short. The teenagers were pretty much goofing off and had let their guard down many plays before.
As they lined up, Sam took his position for the snap and said, “I really wish I was back in Texas.”
As soon as the ball was released, Briscoe took off running and Chase almost missed his mark because he was so impressed by his speed. Startled, the boys realized one of the old guys was actually making a break for it, and they all took off after him like an entire peewee baseball team chasing down a ground ball.
Chase tucked the football and started running. He could hear the crowd going nuts, but he wasn’t sure if they were cheering him on or trying to alert the boys to his escape. Keeping the chalk line in his peripheral vision, he focused on the end zone and tried to pretend he was seventeen again.
The first hand grabbed at his shirt right around the five-yard line, and Chase dug for a burst of speed. They’d won the first championship for Stewart Mills, dammit, and they weren’t going down in a shutout.
Arms wrapped around him and he tripped, falling to the ground in a tangle with the kid who’d tackled him. The ground was hard and he was going to feel it in the morning, but he rolled, looking for the white line and whether or not the ball had broken the plane.
Then Don Jones from O’Rourke’s, who was acting as a referee, blew his whistle and threw his hands in the air to signal the touchdown.
Chase pushed himself to his feet, feeling an adrenaline rush he hadn’t felt in years. His teammates swarmed him, patting his back and slapping him in the side of the head as the people in the stands roared their approval.
He saw Kelly on the sideline, laughing and cheering with everybody else. Her cheeks were red with excitement and she looked so beautiful he couldn’t resist. He jogged over to her and, before she could see it coming, kissed her.
Her hands pushed against his chest at the very second he became aware of the shift in the crowd’s reaction. Whistles and catcalls joined the cheers, echoing through the stadium, and he knew he’d screwed up big-time as Kelly backed away from him.
Not only had he just kissed her in front of the entire town, but she was on duty, too. Even though she was in the more casual version of her uniform, it didn’t change the fact that she was at the game in a professional as well as a personal capacity, and he’d just made a huge mess of things.
“I’m sorry,” he mouthed, but she just gave him a flat look and waved back toward the field as a whistle blew.
“Smooth,” Sam said as they lined up in defensive positions they still had no clue how to play.
He glanced over at the sideline and saw Coach watching him with a blank expression, arms folded across his chest.
Yeah. Real freaking smooth.
—
Kelly couldn’t count all the times she’d sat under the lights on a Friday night, watching her dad’s teams play football. She’d practically grown up on the Eagles sidelines. But this was the first time she’d ever felt as if the lights were shining on her like spotlights.
“That was . . . something,” Jen said.
“Yeah.” It was something, all right. Something exciting and scary and very, very public.
Because of the alumni team’s rally—which put them down by only five touchdowns with a few minutes left on the clock—and the kiss, the crowd’s flagging attention had rallied, too. They were loud, yelling and whistling and stomping their feet on the bleachers, which made it too blessedly loud for further conversation.
She didn’t know what to make of the kiss. It was obviously a heat-of-the-moment thing, but the look on his face when their eyes met had made her heart rate quicken. In that triumphant moment, he’d looked for her and, when he found her, that sparkle in his eye and grin had become just for her. Then he’d been there, kissing her, and she hadn’t known what to do.
Now she adopted her cop stance—as her friends and family called it—with her feet slightly spread and her arms crossed. It was like armor, she supposed, keeping personal conversation at bay while they watched the clock tick down on the alumni exhibition game.
When it was over, the high school football team—buoyed by their decisive win and the news they’d play another season—did some showboating on the field, much to the amusement of the spectators.
Kelly chose to get a head start on the cleaning up, and that’s how she ended up being as close to alone as was possible by the watercooler. Plastic cups littered the ground, and she was bent over to pick them up when Chase found her. She looked at his sneakers for a few seconds before taking a deep breath and standing up straight.
“I got carried away. I shouldn’t have done that.” He definitely looked contrite, which was both nice of him and also slightly disappointing. So he’d been carried away by the moment, not making a public declaration of his feelings for her. Part of her almost wished he’d done it deliberately, with forethought.
She forced herself to laugh. “It’s not that big a deal, Chase, so don’t beat yourself up about it.”
“Your reputation’s taken enough hits this week without me planting a kiss on you in front of everybody.”
“My reputation can handle a little fling. Once you leave, everybody’ll forget and it’ll be behind me.”
His forehead furrowed for a few seconds, and he nodded. “That’ll be good, then. Like it never happened.”
For the rest of Stewart Mills, maybe, but not for her. She had a feeling she was going to miss having Chase around for a good, long time. “Yeah.”
“I should go. The guys are heading for the locker room, and Coach will probably head in there and say a few words.”
“Sure. And nice touchdown.”
He laughed, a self-deprecating sound without a lot of humor behind it. “At least it wasn’t a shutout.”
Once he was gone, Kelly went back to cleaning up around the bench, not really caring what anybody else was doing. She was exhausted and now that the intense drive to make Eagles Fest a success was over, she felt drained. There was still the parade to do, but they’d managed to time everything to take advantage of the town’s Fourth of July parade, so most of the prep work was already done.
She was surprised to see her dad walking toward her, and she held up her hands as if in question. “What are you doing? You should be with the guys.”
“And miss a chance to thank my best girl?” Once he was close enough, he held open his arms and she stepped into his hug. “What you did for me and my boys is pretty amazing. I know it wasn’t easy, but you didn’t give up. None of you did.”
“You don’t give up when it comes to people you love,” she said, pressing her cheek to his chest.
“I love you, too, pumpkin.” He pulled back so he could press a kiss to her forehead. “I guess I should go do a tour of the locker rooms. I have a feeling my alumni are just sprawled on the benches, groaning, but I should make sure the kids don’t get too carried away.”
“I’ll be cleaning up for a while. I know it’s late and Mom’ll be waiting for you, so if I don’t see you again tonight, I’ll see you at the parade tomorrow. Did Mom get the candy for the boys to toss? I was going to, but she said she had some coupons.”
“Yeah.” He smiled. “She got candy and, yes, she had coupons. She has coupons for stuff we don’t even use.”
“I guess it’s like you and your shed full of tools you don’t use. What is it you say? You never know what you might need.”
“Just like your mother,” he said. “Good thing I love you both so much. And I’ll see you tomorrow if not before.”
She watched him walk away, liking the way his head was held high and the spring in his step. It made all the work they’d done worth it. But the work wasn’t done, so she went looking for garbage bags. And for Gretchen and Jen, because there was no way she’d let them weasel out of helping.
And she wondered about Chase. She wouldn’t see him tonight. If he did anything besides fall into bed, it would probably involve a hot bath and a muscle rub cream. But she didn’t like the awkwardness between them as he’d walked away tonight. Something had changed when he kissed her, and she wasn’t sure if it was her or him.
—
Once the chaos died down to a dull roar, Chase started walking. He was exhausted. Besides the physical toll the game had taken, his mind was tired of worrying over Kelly McDonnell and her dad.
He’d been so caught up in the fun atmosphere and the high of making a great play, he hadn’t even thought twice about what he was going to do. Kelly had been right there on the sideline, laughing and cheering, and he’d had the urge to kiss her.
What he should have done was consider the fact that Edna Beecher and various selectmen would probably be in the stands, and that particular fire didn’t need any more fuel. He could have remembered she preferred to keep her private life private, because it was hard enough to get people to respect her. Instead he’d given in to his first instinct and kissed her in front of most of Stewart Mills. And her parents.
By the time he got back to Eagles Lane, he wasn’t surprised to see Coach sitting on the porch, waiting for him. It was obvious he had something on his mind, and Chase was about to get a talking-to. It was a look he’d seen before, on the rare occasion he screwed up at school after making the football team.
Rather than pretend he didn’t know it was coming, Chase crossed to Mrs. McDonnell’s rocker and sat down. “I guess I’ve disappointed you.”
“It’s not me I’m worried about. And you outgrew having to worry about disappointing me a long time ago.”
“Not really.”
Coach rocked slowly, the old wood creaking. “You plan on staying in Stewart Mills, son?”
“It hadn’t really crossed my mind, to be honest. My business—such as it is—is in New Jersey and so is my family. There’s nothing for me here.”
“No, I guess there isn’t.”
Too late, Chase saw the flashing neon danger sign. If he hadn’t been so exhausted, he would have detoured into a change of subject or at least navigated through the conversational hazard a little better.
Coach McDonnell had been asking his intentions toward Kelly and, even though they’d been skirting the issue, Chase hadn’t seen the connection until the crash. There’s nothing for me here.
Chase cleared his throat. “Coach, Kelly and I . . . we’re not . . . I’m going back to New Jersey.”
“The sooner, the better, from the looks of it,” the man said, and his words sliced through Chase’s heart.
“I know I caused her some embarrassment at work,” he said. “And kissing her in front of everybody means people won’t forget as fast, but once I’m gone, it’ll blow over.”
Coach turned to look at him. “You think I give a damn about her job or Edna Beecher or that Faring woman?”
Chase wasn’t sure what to say, because he wasn’t totally sure what the other man was getting at. “I don’t understand.”
“All that matters to me is Kelly’s happiness. Maybe there was a time when I would have been happy to see you and my daughter together, but that was before I saw what a broken heart does to her. When she came home after leaving that bastard and got out of the car, her shoulders were drooped and her head was hung low. I’d never seen her like that, so I went out to meet her and she fell apart. I sat in my goddamn dooryard for a half hour holding my baby girl while she cried for a man who didn’t deserve her.”
“I would never cheat on any woman.”
“It wasn’t just the cheating. He didn’t know what he wanted in life and neither do you. What I want for Kelly is a man who has his shit together and knows exactly what he wants. And it better be her.”
Chase wanted to explain the situation, such as the fact that Kelly knew exactly what she wanted, too, and it wasn’t Chase. But he couldn’t think of a way to tell a man he loved and respected that his daughter was having sex just for fun—with no plans for a future—that didn’t sound crude somehow, so he didn’t even try.
“I thought I had my shit together,” he said quietly. “But all I had was a business partner who stole from me, a diamond ring I never got around to giving my girlfriend before she left me for another guy, and a whole lot of people who are disappointed in me, so . . . what the hell do I know, right?”
“When you get knocked down, you get back up.”
Great. It was inspirational-quotes time. “Or maybe when you get knocked down, you make sure you don’t drag anybody else with you.”
“That’s a sad way of looking at things, son.”
A car pulled up to the curb, horn honking, and Chase turned to see Sam leaning out the passenger window of Alex’s rental car while Briscoe waved from the backseat. “Sanders, let’s go!”
“Not in the mood, guys.”
“Bullshit,” Alex yelled from the driver’s seat. “Get in the car. Owner of the pizza place said there’s a pizza and a pitcher of beer waiting for us, on the house. All we have to do is pay for the four other pizzas and two pitchers of beer it’ll take to feed us all.”
“That’s a helluva bargain.” Now that they mentioned it, a beer would hit the spot right about now. And he hadn’t had any supper. While he wasn’t really hungry, he should probably force something down. “Coach, you mind?”
He shook his head. “Go have a good time. But do me—and yourself—a favor and don’t do anything that’ll drag my daughter any further into your mess.”
There was no chance of that, he thought as he shoved Briscoe over so he could get in the backseat. He’d already dragged Kelly down far enough.
18
Kelly shoved a soda can into the half-full garbage bag she was dragging around and cursed when some of the sticky fluid ran over her hand. The school administration had agreed to the exhibition game, but not to paying staff to clean up the inevitable mess afterward. In order to make it happen, they’d volunteered to take care of it.
She’d thought the bench area was a mess, but the stands were ten times worse. It’s a good thing she wasn’t handing out tickets for littering tonight, or they would have had to host another fund-raising festival so the good sloppy folks of Stewart Mills could pay their fines.
As far as Kelly was concerned, they should all get trophies when it was over, although Jen’s should probably be the biggest. The town had pulled together and dug as deep in their pockets as they could—and it had made up the bulk of the fund—but they wouldn’t have made it without Jen’s tireless pursuit of gifts and donations from outside Stewart Mills.
Screw trophies, she thought. Maybe her mom would bake them a cake. A big chocolate cake with not a speck of blue, white or gold to be seen.
“Hey, Kel, take a break,” Gretchen said, patting the spot on the bleacher next to her when Kelly got close enough to hear her. “Talk to me for a few minutes.”
Kelly didn’t want to talk about that kiss anymore, so if that’s what Gretchen was after, she might as well keep picking up garbage. Half the town had asked her about it or commented on it as they made their way out of the stands. She’d even gotten a few congratulations, as if his kissing her in public meant they were engaged.
“I just want to be done with this.”
“I have a question, and now seems like a good time to ask it, since we’re alone.”
With a weary sigh, Kelly surrendered to the inevitable and sat down. “If it’s about Chase, the answer is I don’t know.”
“It’s not about Chase, but we can circle back to him and that kiss afterward.” She glanced sideways and caught Kelly’s expression. “Or maybe not. But I wanted to talk to you about the farm.”
That sounded serious, and Kelly set the garbage bag down next to her feet. “Is everything okay?”
“As okay as ever, I guess.” Which meant on the verge of losing everything, but never quite hitting rock bottom. “But Gram’s medicines are starting to add up, and there are more doctor appointments. Even with her assistance, her medical costs are going to nickel-and-dime us out of house and home. So I was thinking about renting out a room.”
“Renting it out to who?”
“Anybody who needs a room.” Gretchen shrugged. “I’d advertise it. But I wanted to ask you if there’s a way to do . . . like a background check or something on people? I don’t know what you’re allowed to do as favors for people. Or if there’s an organization that does it for a small—very small—fee, maybe you could point me to it.”
“The chief really liked your grandfather—hell, he even worked on the farm for a while when he was a teenager, if I remember right—so I’m sure he could help you a little, but are you sure you want to do that? How does Gram feel about having a stranger in the house? She’s not a woman who takes well to change.”
“It wouldn’t necessarily be a stranger, though. There are a lot of people losing their homes right in our town, never mind surrounding ones.”
Under the Lights Page 20
