Page 65 of Under the Lights
“The golden boys of fall,” Chase said with a chuckle. “Determined to get our asses kicked with as much dignity as possible.”
“I think I lost my dignity in the second quarter,” Deck said.
Alex nodded. “I’m pretty sure having to use a time-out because you were laughing so hard you fell down and couldn’t get back up will make the highlight reel.Theirhighlight reel.”
“I’m sorry, but that was the worst kick I’ve ever seen.”
Philly threw a towel at him. “My foot slipped.”
“Okay, here’s what we’re going to do,” Sam said. “At some point I’m going to say the wordTexas. When I do that, you take off running to the left and deep, Briscoe. Make it look like you’re going for a burst of speed to surprise them.”
“They’d definitely be surprised,” their wide receiver said, rubbing first one calf muscle and then the other.
“Sanders, I’m going to hand the ball off to you, and you’ll go off toward the right. Don’t step out of bounds, and don’t stop running or fall down until you’re in the end zone.”
“You’re a great coach,” Chase said. “Really. Your plays are so sophisticated, I think you missed out on your true calling.”
“I’d go back to washing cow manure off the walls of a barn before I coach football. You want to end this game with a zero on the board?”
“Hell, no.” Chase stood and twisted from side to side, stretching his back. “Run and don’t stop. Got it.”
“And don’t drop the ball.”
They were halfway through the fourth and thankfully final quarter before whatever conditions Sam was waiting for came together. They were close enough to the end zone that Chase probably wouldn’t have a heart attack and die ten yards short. The teenagers were pretty much goofing off and had let their guard down many plays before.
As they lined up, Sam took his position for the snap and said, “I really wish I was back in Texas.”
As soon as the ball was released, Briscoe took off running and Chase almost missed his mark because he was so impressed by his speed. Startled, the boys realized one of the old guys was actually making a break for it, and they all took off after him like an entire peewee baseball team chasing down a ground ball.
Chase tucked the football and started running. He could hear the crowd going nuts, but he wasn’t sure if they were cheering him on or trying to alert the boys to his escape. Keeping the chalk line in his peripheral vision, he focused on the end zone and tried to pretend he was seventeen again.
The first hand grabbed at his shirt right around the five-yard line, and Chase dug for a burst of speed. They’d won the first championship for Stewart Mills, dammit, and they weren’t going down in a shutout.
Arms wrapped around him and he tripped, falling to the ground in a tangle with the kid who’d tackled him. The ground was hard and he was going to feel it in the morning, but he rolled, looking for the white line and whether or not the ball had broken the plane.
Then Don Jones from O’Rourke’s, who was acting as a referee, blew his whistle and threw his hands in the air to signal the touchdown.
Chase pushed himself to his feet, feeling an adrenaline rush he hadn’t felt in years. His teammates swarmed him, patting his back and slapping him in the side of the head as the people in the stands roared their approval.
He saw Kelly on the sideline, laughing and cheering with everybody else. Her cheeks were red with excitement and she looked so beautiful he couldn’t resist. He jogged over to her and, before she could see it coming, kissed her.
Her hands pushed against his chest at the very second he became aware of the shift in the crowd’s reaction. Whistles and catcalls joined the cheers, echoing through the stadium, and he knew he’d screwed up big-time as Kelly backed away from him.
Not only had he just kissed her in front of the entire town, but she was on duty, too. Even though she was in the more casual version of her uniform, it didn’t change the fact that she was at the game in a professional as well as a personal capacity, and he’d just made a huge mess of things.
“I’m sorry,” he mouthed, but she just gave him a flat look and waved back toward the field as a whistle blew.
“Smooth,” Sam said as they lined up in defensive positions they still had no clue how to play.
He glanced over at the sideline and saw Coach watching him with a blank expression, arms folded across his chest.
Yeah. Real freaking smooth.
—
Kelly couldn’t count all the times she’d sat under the lights on a Friday night, watching her dad’s teams play football. She’d practically grown up on the Eagles sidelines. But this was the first time she’d ever felt as if the lights were shining on her like spotlights.
“That was... something,” Jen said.
