Chapter 20 #2
The other team takes over after the kickoff, only to march down the field and get stopped at the goal line. They have to settle for a field goal. Points are points and they add up as long as you continue to score.
It’s the second quarter and Josie points out Tristin, Teagan’s son.
I quickly glance around for her and find her standing at the fence.
She’s got the principal’s job tonight, which is half hosting and half crowd control, shaking hands with parents, running middle-schoolers out from under the bleachers, all while trying to watch her son play.
And every time I go looking for her, she’s drifted a little closer to the sideline.
The part of the sideline she keeps drifting toward has Nick standing on it.
“Yes,” I say under my breath and pump my fist.
“What are you going on about?”
I nod toward the sideline. “It’s working.”
“Nothing’s working,” Josie says. “Teagan came in the café today and Trudy overheard her asking if there were any social clubs.”
“What the fuck is a social club?”
Josie lifts her shoulder. “A place to meet people, I guess? I don’t know. Katelyn will be here soon; we’ll include her in something.”
“What if Teagan doesn’t want to hang out with a mom from school?”
“I’m the President of the PTA. She can meet me for coffee and if my bestie happens to be there, so be it.”
I nod, liking this idea, but then it hits me. “What if they’re not compatible?”
What if Nick is secretly pining for Josie?
I’ll kill him.
Josie looks at me. “I’ve seen her look at him during fundraiser meetings. Girl has stars in her eyes. It’s only a matter of the right interference. You need to do your part.”
“I tried!”
“Try harder.”
I look at her oddly. Why is Nick finding love so important to her? “Something’s fishy.”
She’s still looking at me and makes sure I can see her roll her eyes. Not once, but twice. “Whether you admit it or not, Nick’s your friend. You should want your friend to be happy.”
I stare at her for a long time and nod. She’s right. But friend is pushing it. He’ll never be more than my frenemy.
Tristin comes in and catches a short one over the middle and takes a hit that has Teagan on alert. She begins pacing the sideline, mirroring Nick’s steps. Josie’s right, it seems they’re just orbiting each other, and neither know how to make the first move.
At halftime Amelie and I go for hot chocolate. A man ahead of me needs to tell me about his knee, how the cold really bothers him, but he can’t miss a game and hasn’t in forty years.
“My Uncle Liam played then,” Amelie says. I bite the inside of my cheek and remember age is nothing but a number to her. I’m older, but not there yet.
“Yes, I remember him back in the day.”
Back in the day. That stings.
When we get to the counter, Amelie orders a hot dog, pretzel, a bag of chips, cotton candy, popcorn, and eight hot chocolates.
“Feeding the whole section?” the lady jokes.
“No that’s for me,” Amelie says proudly. Nick’s going to kill me if his kid comes home with a sugar high.
“Are you sure you don’t want some candy? I think we left some behind.”
Amelie shakes her head. “No, this is enough.”
A couple of girls come up to Amelie and ask her to come sit on the wall with them. She tells them no, that she’s not allowed, and they tease her for it. I shake my head and pull her close.
“Don’t listen to them. Mack will like knowing you were in the stands cheering for him.”
“They go over there and try to kiss boys. It’s so gross.”
“Tell me about it.”
Hanging out on the wall in middle school was something I wasn’t allowed to do. If I was at a football game, my dad was with me, and I was expected to watch and learn.
The woman taking cash tells me she never misses the show, then tells me all about her sister’s divorce right there in the line, hot dog in my hand. “Well, thanks for listening.” I’m not about to give out advice while standing in the concession line.
When we get back to our seats and distribute the junk food to everyone, my phone chimes with a text from Bex. Someone posted a clip of me and my foam fingers, and all the comments are about how Beaumont can’t cover a fade route.
I know I shouldn’t, but I comment with the score, which is currently twenty-one to three and say the route’s been covered.
In the third quarter, a kid goes down and stays down, and the whole stadium goes quiet at once. It isn’t Mack or Tristin. Nick switches from coach to doctor quickly and rushes out to the player. Noah’s hot on his heels with Nick’s medical bag, and Teagan’s following.
When the boy sits up, the stadium lets out a collective sigh. Nick and Noah help the youngster to the sideline and onto the cart where the trainer takes him back to the locker room. The whistle blows and it’s back to the game.
Beaumont seals a victory on a last drive from Mack to Tristin on a fade in the corner of the end zone, the hometown kid and the new kid getting the job done. The stands empty, with all the high schoolers rushing onto the field.
When some of the melee has died down, Noah finds us in the stands. Still wearing his headset, he leans over the rail to hug his mother and points up at me. “You see that route?”
“Yep, looked familiar.” Because I ran it. He ran it. Nick remembered.
After making sure every woman in my life has made it to their cars safely, I walk toward mine and even though I know the water tower is closed, I head there. This is tradition and it breaks my heart that someone had to do what they did.
I open the gate and pull my truck through and stop. I don’t have any beer or any glass to throw from the top, but I climb up anyway and look out over the town. The lights from the football field are still on, and I see a line of cars leaving the school.
When the gravel crunches, I have no choice but to wait and see who has followed me here.
“Westbury, you up there?”
Ashford.
I sigh heavily. “Yeah, just reminiscing.”
He climbs up and sets a bag down between us. “I had a feeling you’d be here.” He opens the bag and hands me a cold one.
“Sometimes it’s hard to let go of the past. Watching Mack, it’s like watching Noah and then remembering the way we used to play.”
“I’d give my left nut to have a running back like Mason. I can barely get the kids into the weight room these days.”
“That was such a different time.”
Nick nods. “Mack’s been talking a lot about college ball. He wants to know if you think he’s got a real shot.” He doesn’t look at me. “I told him to ask you himself.”
“Mack knows he can talk to me about anything. Does he still want to be a photographer?”
Nick nods. “I know I’m not supposed to change his mind about a career, but I don’t see how he makes any money doing that. I need to do my own research.”
“Did you know he and Paige talk about going to UNLV?”
“No, I didn’t know that.”
“Las Vegas.”
“Yeah, probably not a great place for kids who grew up in a small town.”
“I’m not allowed to meddle,” I tell him.
“I am.” Nick laughs.
We sit in silence, only speaking when some kids try to park and start a bonfire. Nick takes a lot of pleasure in telling his players to go home.
“I’m going to find out who tagged the water tower,” he says. “And then I’m going to knock heads. Paige is more than Mack’s girlfriend to me, she’s family. I’m not letting this one go.”
I tap my beer to his. “Thanks, that means a lot.”
We finish his six-pack and climb down. As we walk to our respective trucks, I say, “Do you ever think back and wonder how things could’ve been different?”
Nick nods. “All the time, but then where would we be now?”
That’s what I don’t know, and I need to stop wondering. My life is the way it is because of the decisions I made.