Page 64 of Under the Lights
“Oh, no you don’t. Everything we’ve done has been leading up to this night. Jen did all the details for the game, and I don’t know if she shared with me or I forgot, but what time are you supposed to be there?”
She felt him shift and assumed he was looking at her alarm clock. “Sooner than I want to be there, that’s for damn sure.”
“Damn.” With a sigh, she disentangled herself from his arms and the sheet. “If you cut it too close, everybody walking to the high school to get the best bleacher seats will see you sneaking out of my apartment.”
“Don’t want anybody knowing your dirty little secret?”
She gave him an arched eyebrow. “As secrets go, you’re not little, but you’re probably a little dirty.”
“Complaining?”
She wrapped her hand around the back of his neck and pulled him down for a kiss. “Definitely not.”
“You have to let me go, or I’ll be so weak Coach will bench me. And since I don’t know if we even have enough guys in the first place, it’ll be pretty noticeable if I don’t play.”
“Fine.” She let him go and watched him get dressed. “I have to shower and put my uniform on, anyway.”
“I’ll see you there.” He leaned down and gave her a quick kiss, wisely not lingering long enough to let her get her hands on him again.
“I’ll be the blonde with the handcuffs,” she said, and he was laughing when she heard the door close behind him.
17
Chase stood in the middle of the football field, looking up at the blur of faces as the last bars of the national anthem echoed through the stands.
For a moment, he felt seventeen again, geared up and under the lights and ready to do the only thing he thought he was good at back then. The thing that made him feel strong and confident and in control. And the one thing that had brought Coach into his life and given him the guys who’d been like brothers to him. Football had made him who he was today.
But he certainly wasn’t seventeen anymore, since all the standing around before the game was getting to his back. And they weren’t exactly geared up. After much discussion with Coach and an equipment count, they were playing a slightly modified game. It wouldn’t be flag football, but it wouldn’t be full contact, either, and they’d play shortened quarters. They were all in practice jerseys, blue for the team and white for the alumni, and they’d basically be playing a glorified version of backyard football.
It was still going to hurt.
The crowd sat, but then Jen walked out onto the field with a microphone, and Chase groaned. He should have brought one of those collapsible camp chairs, because he was seriously getting too old for this shit. Through the corner of his eye, he saw Alex shifting his weight from one foot to the other and knew he wasn’t alone in wishing they could get on with it.
Then Gretchen and Kelly joined her and he didn’t mind so much. Kelly was technically on duty, but she was wearing cargo pants and a SMPD T-shirt instead of her full uniform, with her ponytail pulled through the matching ball cap.
“Hey, Eagles fans!” Jen yelled. Whatever she said next—even with the microphone—was swallowed up by the cheers, so she paused until the noise subsided. “The Eagles Fest committee wants to take a minute to thank everybody who’s given time or services or donated goods to the fund-raiser. As you know, saving Stewart Mills football means every single dollar counts. Actually, I can honestly say every single quarter counts.”
She stopped talking and the crowd quieted, as if every person in the stands was holding his or her breath at that moment. Chase did, too, even though he was certain good news was coming. He couldn’t imagine the women would interrupt the pregame to announce they’d failed and there would be no more Eagles football in Stewart Mills.
Jen turned to Coach and held out the microphone. He shook his head slightly, but she just smiled and kept it extended until he finally took it. The microphone picked up his throat clearing, and Chase got nervous. Coach didn’t often get emotional.
“It seems like forever ago and yesterday at the same time that I stood on a field like this one and watched my team win the championship for the first time.” He paused, clearing his throat again. “Not many people thought it could happen. But I believed. And those boys believed. And now they’re men and they’re standing here with me today to help me keep teaching boys to believe in themselves.”
He turned to face them. “I want to thank every one of you who came back to help us out. It means the world to me and to this town and to Eagles football.”
The crowd added their thanks in the form of applause and whistles, which Coach waited out before speaking again. “To the boys playing for me now: on Saturday, the eighth of August, at nineA.M.sharp, I want you on this field, ready to play some football.”
It took a few seconds for his words to sink in, and then the crowd erupted. The people of Stewart Mills were on their feet in the stands, but Chase turned a little so he could see the teenagers. They were overjoyed, jumping up and down like little kids and screaming. Watching them lifted Chase’s spirits and made him thankful that, back when he’d been having one of the worst days of his life, he’d answered the call from the 603 area code.
The energy in the stands was infectious so, when everybody but the players had left the field, Chase was revved up and ready to play some football.
By halftime, he never wanted to play football again.
“I’m not getting shut out,” Sam said, once they’d reached the visitors’ locker room for a short break.
Alex snorted. “Unless you’re playing for some other team, yeah, you’re getting shut out.”
“Right now we are, but I mean that I’m not going to let this gameendwith us being shut out. Even Coach McDonnell doesn’t have a speech that’ll inspire us into a win here, but we’re going to put some damn points on that scoreboard if it kills me. Or you.”
