Page 38 of Risky Game

It took me a moment to realize he was talking about Amelia tumbling and not if Ruby liked her lips on mine.

“Um.” I scratched the back of my neck. “Yeah, or she used to anyway. She’s been a bit… moody… since she’s been here.”

“Understandable, though, right?”

“It is. Doesn’t mean I like it.”

His answering smile was full of understanding. “That’s because you’re a good dad and you care. But Ruby’s doing okay? Has she said anything at all about Portland or anything?”

“No. Why?”

“Just a feeling I get.” His gaze stalled on a half-dozen defensive players heading to the field. “She was dating this guy, and he called looking for her the other day. Said he couldn’t get ahold of her, but I don’t know, didn’t sit well with me at all. She mention anything about that? Anything about Paulie to you?”

I was already shaking my head. Even if she had, if she wanted to talk to her brother, she would have. I was learning Ruby didn’t keep a lot of things to herself. She’d insinuated being hurt or something, but I wasn’t spilling her business if she hadn’t done so already. “Never heard of him.”

Which wasn’t a lie, but now I knew who hurt her. Paulie.

“All right.” He turned back to the field. “All right. Thanks.”

“Not a problem. Go get warmed up.”

“Aye aye, Coach.” He gave me a two-finger salute from his temple and jogged off.

Perfect timing because the guy I needed to see the most was walking toward me, helmet in his hand held loosely at his side, red jersey on.

I glanced down.

Cole’s ankle was still wrapped, beneath his shoe and over and around the top, but I heard from the trainer this week it was healing well.

He hadn’t fully dressed all week, and stress from the first game of the season barreling down on us eased at the sight of him.

“How’s the ankle?”

He lifted his foot and rolled it in a circle. “Not bad. I’ll stay light today, but Morgan said I can practice if I feel like it.”

“Good. I’ll keep you as a backup to Damien, but we’ll make sure you get some reps in. You still working with him?”

Cole grinned. “Does getting him drunk playing cornhole last weekend count?”

“No,” I deadpanned. But at this point, I’d take whatever worked. “Anyone on the team having any get-togethers before the game next weekend?”

This team was always together. Hell, Cole lived next door to Davis Hall, our team’s best running back. Davis’s wife had a baby last spring, and Cole’s wife, Eden, was currently pregnant. Far as I knew, Davis and Cole usually rode in to practice together.

“Why? You want an invite?”

I wasn’t usually invited. I’d only been to one and that was mostly to get the team used to being around, but player get-togethers were just that, for them. “Not for me. Thought it might help Amelia get to know some of the kids, though.”

“She’s here? Since when?”

This was when I missed being a player. I’d always had fifty guys around me, knowing all my shit. But as a coach, that circle tightened and shrank. And frankly, the other coaches and I weren’t besties like the players tended to be. We were strictly coworkers who worked well together.

“Yeah.” I scratched my cheek. “Something came up with Vanessa, so I have her for the next few months.”

“Damn. Hard time for a change for her.”

“Exactly. I don’t need to come or anything, but if there’s something, if I could stop by, maybe drop her off for a little bit… I figured if she got to know some kids, it’d help make her go to the family room on game days easier or something.”

Ruby was working for me, but I didn’t expect her to come to the games and sit with Amelia if she didn’t want to. The woman had to want her own space and life at some point.

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