Page 32 of Fighting Spirit

My hands are still shaking from the near miss as I knock on Fitz’s door. Jonah Fitzpatrick has been head coach of Beaufort Football for the last thirteen years. I’ve been in this office more times than I can count, and next year, we’ll work together. But I still get a shiver of nerves every time I get called into a meeting.

His gruff voice summons me in and I push the door open. I don’t think this man’s ever fully shut it in his time here.

He doesn’t look up from his desk, shuffling around papers and scribbling something in his desk planner. The planner is covered in daisies, a joke from his wife after he nearly missed their anniversary, but that he now uses religiously. Nothing related to the football program happens without it going through the daisy diary. “Take a seat.”

He finally looks up at me, frowning as he takes in what must be a slightly frantic version of my usually composed self.

“Got a call from someone over at Allbreck.” His tone is level, but my stomach drops out. “Anything you want to tell me?”

Oh fuck. I don’t know what to say. I’m guessing he’s heard about what happened, and if he heard it from Allbreck, then it must have come from Ruth, right? If she’s reported it then I’ll back her up, but what if I’m wrong? What if this is about something else, and I drop the team in a load of shit without realizing it?

What they did was fucked up, and I’m not going to let it slide, but I can deal with it myself. Besides, if the Beaufort administration gets involved, they’re more likely to try and sweep the whole thing under the rug.

I must take too long mulling it over because Fitz clears his throat. “Apparently there was some incident involving a frog?”

“It’s a toad,” I mumble before thinking more about it.

“Is it now?”

Shit. He knows he’s got me backed into a corner. His gaze is hard and before I know it, the whole story has spilled out.

I know that the guys are going to hate me for this, especially Jed, who’ll probably face some serious consequences in the light of his track record. But honestly, the more I think about it, the less I care. She seemed fine the last time I saw her, but if Ruth’s called up the Allbreck staff, then she’s probably more upset than she let on. Who am I to do anything except support her?

I feel a little ill as I think about her face that night. If I could go back and undo it all, I would, even if it meant never meeting her; I wouldn’t want her to have to go through all that.

Fitz’s jaw is tight as he listens, his face as inscrutable as ever.

“And she was okay?” he asks.

“She seemed to be, I don’t know, we haven’t talked about it.”

He frowns, looking a little confused. “You’ve seen her?”

“I-um-yeah, I guess so.” I flounder. “I had to drop something off.”

“And that’s it?”

“We might have texted a little.”

If it had been anyone else, I’d have kept my cards closer to my chest, I hate it when people get in my personal business, but it isn’t like that with Fitz. Ever since I’d been a high school senior, he’d seen something in me; maybe he could sense how much I needed someone like him. He’s been one of the only positive role models I’ve had, I know I can come to him with anything and he’ll have my back. Even if having my back means chewing me out a little.

It’s kind of a relief when he tells me I’m a dumbass. With him, I don’t have to have it all together or have a solution to every problem. I can just be a guy on a college team with no clue what I’m doing. As much as it sucked going against my dad and coming to Beaufort, I’m happy every day that the choice brought me to Fitz.

“Just make sure you’re being careful, son.” His face gives nothing away.

“There’s nothing going on.”

He leans forward, trapping me with one of his patented stares. “You know why we can’t have anything fishy going on.”

“This isn’t the same.”

He raises an eyebrow and I squirm in my seat. Nobody else has the power to make me this nervous. “The reputation of this program is hanging by a thread. We can’t handle anyone looking at us the wrong way. You’re telling me there’s nothing going on and I’m gonna choose to believe you, but I’m telling you to tread real gentle, Rowan.”

I take in his stern expression, the lines of tension at his jaw and the corner of his eyes. He’s been fending off arrows from all sides since Coach Simmons left the team, burning everything to the ground on his way out. I don’t know how Fitz is keeping it all standing.

When the Assistant Coach for a D1 team runs out on his wife and toddler to take up with a nineteen-year-old cheerleader, it’s news. When everything blew up, Beaufort suddenly had all eyes on us. It’s a lot of the reason Allbreck were able to lure away half our recruits this season, nobody wanted to be associated with ‘that school’.

I know the trust it’s taking for Fitz to give me a chance on the staff and I don’t take it lightly.

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