Page 66 of Under the Lights
“Yeah.” It was something, all right. Something exciting and scary and very, very public.
Because of the alumni team’s rally—which put them down by only five touchdowns with a few minutes left on the clock—and the kiss, the crowd’s flagging attention had rallied, too. They were loud, yelling and whistling and stomping their feet on the bleachers, which made it too blessedly loud for further conversation.
She didn’t know what to make of the kiss. It was obviously a heat-of-the-moment thing, but the look on his face when their eyes met had made her heart rate quicken. In that triumphant moment, he’d looked for her and, when he found her, that sparkle in his eye and grin had become just for her. Then he’d been there, kissing her, and she hadn’t known what to do.
Now she adopted her cop stance—as her friends and family called it—with her feet slightly spread and her arms crossed. It was like armor, she supposed, keeping personal conversation at bay while they watched the clock tick down on the alumni exhibition game.
When it was over, the high school football team—buoyed by their decisive win and the news they’d play another season—did some showboating on the field, much to the amusement of the spectators.
Kelly chose to get a head start on the cleaning up, and that’s how she ended up being as close to alone as was possible by the watercooler. Plastic cups littered the ground, and she was bent over to pick them up when Chase found her. She looked at his sneakers for a few seconds before taking a deep breath and standing up straight.
“I got carried away. I shouldn’t have done that.” He definitely looked contrite, which was both nice of him and also slightly disappointing. So he’d been carried away by the moment, not making a public declaration of his feelings for her. Part of her almost wished he’d done it deliberately, with forethought.
She forced herself to laugh. “It’s notthatbig a deal, Chase, so don’t beat yourself up about it.”
“Your reputation’s taken enough hits this week without me planting a kiss on you in front of everybody.”
“My reputation can handle a little fling. Once you leave, everybody’ll forget and it’ll be behind me.”
His forehead furrowed for a few seconds, and he nodded. “That’ll be good, then. Like it never happened.”
For the rest of Stewart Mills, maybe, but not for her. She had a feeling she was going to miss having Chase around for a good, long time. “Yeah.”
“I should go. The guys are heading for the locker room, and Coach will probably head in there and say a few words.”
“Sure. And nice touchdown.”
He laughed, a self-deprecating sound without a lot of humor behind it. “At least it wasn’t a shutout.”
Once he was gone, Kelly went back to cleaning up around the bench, not really caring what anybody else was doing. She was exhausted and now that the intense drive to make Eagles Fest a success was over, she felt drained. There was still the parade to do, but they’d managed to time everything to take advantage of the town’s Fourth of July parade, so most of the prep work was already done.
She was surprised to see her dad walking toward her, and she held up her hands as if in question. “What are you doing? You should be with the guys.”
“And miss a chance to thank my best girl?” Once he was close enough, he held open his arms and she stepped into his hug. “What you did for me and my boys is pretty amazing. I know it wasn’t easy, but you didn’t give up. None of you did.”
“You don’t give up when it comes to people you love,” she said, pressing her cheek to his chest.
“I love you, too, pumpkin.” He pulled back so he could press a kiss to her forehead. “I guess I should go do a tour of the locker rooms. I have a feeling my alumni are just sprawled on the benches, groaning, but I should make sure the kids don’t get too carried away.”
“I’ll be cleaning up for a while. I know it’s late and Mom’ll be waiting for you, so if I don’t see you again tonight, I’ll see you at the parade tomorrow. Did Mom get the candy for the boys to toss? I was going to, but she said she had some coupons.”
“Yeah.” He smiled. “She got candy and, yes, she had coupons. She has coupons for stuff we don’t even use.”
“I guess it’s like you and your shed full of tools you don’t use. What is it you say? You never know what you might need.”
“Just like your mother,” he said. “Good thing I love you both so much. And I’ll see you tomorrow if not before.”
She watched him walk away, liking the way his head was held high and the spring in his step. It made all the work they’d done worth it. But the work wasn’t done, so she went looking for garbage bags. And for Gretchen and Jen, because there was no way she’d let them weasel out of helping.
And she wondered about Chase. She wouldn’t see him tonight. If he did anything besides fall into bed, it would probably involve a hot bath and a muscle rub cream. But she didn’t like the awkwardness between them as he’d walked away tonight. Something had changed when he kissed her, and she wasn’t sure if it was her or him.
—
Once the chaos died down to a dull roar, Chase started walking. He was exhausted. Besides the physical toll the game had taken, his mind was tired of worrying over Kelly McDonnell and her dad.
He’d been so caught up in the fun atmosphere and the high of making a great play, he hadn’t even thought twice about what he was going to do. Kelly had been right there on the sideline, laughing and cheering, and he’d had the urge to kiss her.
What he should have done was consider the fact that Edna Beecher and various selectmen would probably be in the stands, and that particular fire didn’t need any more fuel. He could have remembered she preferred to keep her private life private, because it was hard enough to get people to respect her. Instead he’d given in to his first instinct and kissed her in front of most of Stewart Mills. And her parents.
