Chapter One
The present, mid-August
He started with an introductory pep talk. It went pretty well, he thought. The kids were eager and engaged. No horsing around, no attitude, everybody ready to listen and learn.
He was just about to move on to warm-ups when he glanced toward the stands and spotted Kenzie on the sidelines talking to the water boy. For a moment, he wondered if he’d maybe lost his mind.
But no. It was Kenzie. She was really there. She had that blond hair pinned back in a neat bun, and she wore blue scrub pants and an oversize scrub top printed with footballs. A wheeled black medical bag waited at her side.
About then, he put it together. The team had no doctor or training staff. Kenzie had stepped up to handle first aid on the field.
The water boy, whose name was Oscar Abernathy, said something to her. She grinned wide and nodded. Just then, a gust of wind tried to free her hair from that tidy little bun and plastered the football-printed scrub top to her body.
“Okay,” Finn said, still looking where he shouldn’t be.
“A few stretches and then we’ll…” Words deserted him as he noticed that Kenzie had put on a few pounds—mostly around the middle.
The sight of that newly rounded belly of hers told him everything.
“It’s important to…” His voice trailed off again as he noted that her breasts were fuller, too.
Barrett Deroy Jr. stood several yards away. Finn signaled him close.
Barrett jogged over. “What do you need, Coach?”
“Take over for a minute or two, would you? Get them going on the warm-ups?”
“You got it.” Barrett faced the squad. “Okay, guys. Spread out. We’ll start nice and easy with marching in place…”
Finn didn’t hear what Barrett said next. By then, he’d tuned everything out but the school nurse in her football-themed scrub top as he jogged to the sidelines, where Kenzie was still chatting with Oscar.
Their eyes met. “Nurse Osborne, I need a minute.”
She gave him a cordial smile. If he hadn’t been hopelessly in love with her once, he would have had no clue that smile was forced. “Of course, Coach.”
He turned to the water boy. “Hey, Oscar.”
“Hi, Coach!”
“I’m through giving speeches. You ready to keep the team hydrated?”
“I’m on it, Coach.” Oscar grabbed his water carrier full of squeeze bottles from the first row of the bleachers and jogged onto the field.
Now, it was just Finn and Kenzie—and he needed to say something casual and innocuous. So how are you doing? Or maybe, ’Preciate you helping out like this.
But the way she was looking at him said she knew exactly what he was really thinking and there was no point in pretending he didn’t.
So he just put it right out there. “How pregnant are you?”
She answered with a weary shrug. “Twenty-four weeks tomorrow.” They stared at each other.
After several awkward seconds, she added, “And, no, Finn. That day at the Grizzly, I had no idea I was having my ex’s baby.
I didn’t even think about it as a possibility until a few days later.
So I took a test and saw my doctor. By the time you called, everything had changed for me. ”
“I get it.” He studied her beautiful face. “And I wasn’t asking you to explain all that.”
She lifted her chin in defiance. “But you wanted to know.”
He gave her the truth. “Yeah. I did. How are you feeling? Are you and the baby alright?”
She looked so proud, standing there with her head high and the wind tugging at her pinned-back hair. He ached to comfort her somehow, though it was obvious she had no desire to take comfort from him right now.
The past—their past—felt so close at the moment, pressing in on them. He asked again, “Are you okay?”
“Please. I’m pregnant, not ill.” She dared a step closer and lowered her voice even more. “This isn’t then. I’m fine, Finn. I really am.” She rested her hand on her belly. “I’ve had two ultrasounds. It’s a girl and she’s doing great.”
His eyes teared up. Must be the wind. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. And I’m happy,” she whispered. “I want a family. And now, I’m going to have one.”
“Well, then. That’s good. Real good…” He tried to think of something thoughtful and understanding to say. Finally, he offered, “If you need anything, if there’s anything I can do, you give me a call.”
She looked at him levelly. “I meant what I just said. I am okay, honestly. But thank you for offering.”
“Your husband…?”
“Ex-husband,” she corrected him. “And nothing’s changed on that front.”
He should keep his damn mouth shut. But he asked, anyway. “Does he know?”
She nodded. “I called him. He said the same thing he said when he asked for a divorce. He doesn’t want marriage and he definitely doesn’t want children.” She swiped a windblown lock of hair away from her soft lips. “Tate is totally out of the picture.”
“Good, then. Great…” He almost groaned at his own words. Great? Her ex-husband had decided to walk away from her and their baby. And he called it great?
Tipping her head toward the field, where Barrett had the team doing arm circles, she suggested, “They’re waiting on you.”
“I have to ask…”
She sighed. “Of course, you do. What?”
“Did you know you were pregnant when I finally called you last spring?”
“I did, yes.”
“And is the baby the real reason you turned me down that day?”
She made a thoughtful little sound. “Yeah—but it didn’t help that you took so long to call.”
He winced. “Got it.” He shook his head. “I had no idea you would be helping out on the field.”
“I love football.” She actually smiled.
“I remember.” He said the words quietly. They stared at each other, the past a living thing between them. Their junior and senior years, she’d been head cheerleader and she’d never missed a game.
“I try to pitch in where I’m needed,” she added.
“Well, and that’s great. That you’re here to help out.
Thank you, I mean that. And I’m really glad that things are going well for you…
” He kind of ran out of words. “Well.” He coughed to clear the sudden lump in his throat.
“I’d better get back to the team.” At her slow nod, he turned and jogged away.
Through the rest of that first practice, Finn’s thoughts strayed more than once to the bleachers where Kenzie sat with her medical bag at her feet. He kept wondering, how was she, really? She said she was happy to be having a child. And he believed her.
But still, it couldn’t be easy being on her own. Having a baby should be a team effort, shouldn’t it? Helping a child go from diapers to adulthood was a big job. A woman needed a real partner for that.
But then he thought of his own mom and dad, who, along with his younger brothers, Eric and Dan, had relocated to Florida years ago. His mother was a good woman. She was always there anytime her boys needed her.
His dad, though? Finn Monahan Sr. saw the world as purely transactional. He “loved” the people who made his life better, the people who served him, the people he could use to get ahead…and the people who made him look good.
When Finn had been an up-and-coming football star, Finn Sr. was always checking in. But when Finn left the game behind and started selling real estate, his father had stopped calling.
Finn’s mom kept in touch, though. And when she did, she inevitably made excuses for his dad.
But Finn knew the score. Finn Sr. was an important man with a busy schedule. He’d never been the kind of father who had a lot of time for his sons. Essentially, his mom had raised her boys alone, same as Kenzie said she planned to do.
Again, he found himself hoping that she really was okay with being a single parent. True, women raised their kids on their own all the time. But it really did seem like a lot for a woman with a full-time job to take on.
No doubt her friends would step up when needed, and her folks were good people. He was sure they’d be there to help when the baby was born.
Hell. He would help if she’d only let him…
That thought gave him pause.
Because as it turned out, they were going to be seeing a lot of each other right here on the football field all through the season. And maybe, over time, she might reconsider the idea of the two of them becoming friends.
Yeah, she’d made it painfully clear that they would never be a couple again. But hey. If he played his cards right she just might end up deciding that she could always use a friend.
* * *
That night was the beginning of team-bonding weekend. The squad and the coaching staff slept right there at the high school. Community boosters provided meals and cots. The players and staff brought their own sleeping bags. Only Kenzie went home for the night.
But she was back first thing Saturday morning to have breakfast with the rest of them. Finn admired her team spirit. And he couldn’t stop thinking about her, wondering how she was doing, hoping she really was feeling fine about having her baby on her own.
More than once, he found himself staring at her, hoping that despite everything, they might end up being friends. And kind of wanting to kick his own ass for messing up and waiting so long to reach out to her last spring.
And Kenzie wasn’t the only one Finn couldn’t stop wondering about. He also wanted to know more about Oscar Abernathy. The kid was laser-focused on his job, always ready with a water bottle whenever a player, Barrett or Finn signaled the need for one.
Oscar also seemed to know a lot about football.
The boy was a fountain of football stats, which he frequently offered under his breath to no one in particular.
And he seemed very…self-contained, even a bit withdrawn somehow, kind of off in his own world.
He had no close friends—at least not any of the players on the team.
Finn wanted to know more about him and kept meaning to quiz Barrett, but the opportunity to discuss the water boy never presented itself.
Saturday was packed with activities. Finn had no time to focus on anything but getting a head start on crafting a program that would coax the most out of every member of the team.