Page 51 of Full Coverage (Boys of Fall)

“Want some coffee?” Jackson asked.

“That’d be great.”

Randi lifted her head then thumped it against Nolan’s chest again. They were going to sit around and have coffee? And then Jackson had some work to do? She and Nolan could be stuck in here all night.

She heard them moving around, water running and then coffee mugs clinking.

It was really dark in the newspaper office, which was, technically, a converted storage office. It was also hot. It was a small space in which they’d worked up some major body heat and it didn’t have any ventilation except for the crack under the door. Randi stepped back from Nolan slightly, thinking that would help.

Twenty minutes later, she had her boots off, her shirt off and was sitting on the edge of the desk in her skirt and bra, fanning herself with a folder she’d found on the desk.

Nolan had stripped his shirt off too and was sitting on the floor next to the desk.

Randi would have given a kidney for a glass of water.

And Jackson and Carter continued to chit-chat and drink coffee right outside the door. Jackson was the guidance counselor, so he had a big comfy couch in his office, to make students more comfortable while they got guidance and counseling, and she imagined Carter lounging on the sofa, his feet up, drinking coffee and waiting for someone to commit a crime.

That could be a very long wait.

“So Nolan and Randi, huh?” Carter asked. “That’s great.”

Randi perked up and stopped fanning with the folder. She heard Nolan shift on the floor as well.

“Yep, Annabelle says Randi’s crazy about him,” Jackson said.

Randi frowned. She had not told Annabelle that. She hadn’t told anyone that. Though she could admit that it might be obvious to her friend. Annabelle knew her well.

She jumped slightly as she felt Nolan’s hand wrap around her ankle. Yeah, okay, she was crazy about him.

“No kidding? Well, that’s awesome. Nolan’s a great guy, Randi’s a great girl. I’m happy for them,” Carter said.

“Randi is great,” Jackson agreed. “We went out in high school.”

Randi rolled her eyes. They’d gone out for maybe two months a lifetime ago. It had been high school. It had meant nothing. She didn’t want Nolan to have the wrong idea. She’d have to tell him later that it had been nothing with Jackson.

She felt his thumb rub up and down the front of her ankle and foot. She wasn’t sure if he meant it to be reassuring, but it was. He didn’t care that she’d gone out with Jackson a couple of time.

“I dated her too,” Carter said.

Randi rolled her eyes again. Barely. She and Carter had had three dates and she wasn’t sure one really counted, since all they’d done was talk about the upcoming football game against their rivals, Riverbend.

Nolan’s thumb kept moving, slow and steady, and she breathed in and out. Her past boyfriends didn’t matter. Jackson and Carter certainly didn’t. They hadn’t been boyfriends. They’d been guys she’d had a meal or two with.

“Because Coach asked her to go over the game film with you,” Jackson said.

“He asked her to go over game film with a lot of people,” Carter pointed out.

That was all true. When there was something Coach really wanted the guys to take note of, he often had Randi talk them through it. He said they tuned him out. Randi had since suspected that it had actually been because Coach knew how much she loved going over film and that it had made her feel important. Coach hadn’t only been influential with the guys on the team. Anyone who crossed paths with him felt better about themselves, and when he noticed someone needed something, he provided it. Subtly. Often without that person even knowing it. But Randi had always suspected he had her number, and he specifically found ways of making her a part of the team as much as he could.

“She never went over film with me,” Jackson said, sounding smug.

Again, Randi couldn’t protest. Jackson had been a natural. He’d been a running back and his ability to read a defense was amazing. It wasn’t something that could be taught. She’d loved watching him play. She knew that was why she’d said yes when he asked her out. But they’d fizzled out quickly. Probably because her main attraction to him was how he could pluck an impossible catch out of the air and take it in for six. But their two months of dating had been fun.

“Did she help you with some of your moves, though?” Carter asked.

“We talkin’ football?” Jackson asked.

“Nope.”

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