Page 67 of Under the Lights
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.
