Page 6 of The Maverick's Homecoming

However, in the next several days he couldn’t stop thinking about her. He grabbed his phone to reach out to her more than once…and then stuck the damn thing back in his pocket without following through.

Because she got to him. She always had. And now, he’d seen her again and he had to admit that he wanted to see her some more. He was just too damn interested in the girl he left behind and that was probably unwise.

He decided not to call. Instead, he worked a lot. Over the next week and a half, he closed three sales—a couple of ranchettes not too far from town and a bigger spread about fifty miles west of Tenacity. Business was booming. No doubt about it.

He also got a call from Barrett Deroy Jr. who had coached the local high-school football team last fall. Barrett talked him into getting together for a drink at the Tenacity Social Club.

When they got there, another town booster, Brent Woodson, was waiting for them.

The two men informed him that they wanted him to coach Tenacity High’s varsity football team next season.

“I think this group of kids has real potential,” Barrett said. “And with you stepping in as coach, big things can happen. You will give those boys the inspiration and training they need to make this season better than last year.”

“Plus,” added Brent, before Finn could gently say no, “you’re in real estate, am I right?”

“Yes, I am. But I—”

“It matters that you’re helping out in the community,” said Barrett. “Your clients will love you for stepping up to coach the team.”

“I really don’t think so.”

“But you will consider it, won’t you?” asked Brent.

What could he say but, “Sure. Let me think about it…”

For a week, he triednotto think about it. Just like he tried not to think about Kenzie.

It didn’t work. He thought about Kenzie a lot. And he thought about coaching the Titans, too.

Five days after Brent and Barrett took him out for that drink, he called Barrett and said yes.

Barrett laughed, “I knew you’d come through.” They talked football for an hour, right there on the phone. Barrett agreed to be Finn’s assistant coach.

It took him two more days to admit that he was acting like a total ass about Kenzie. He wanted to see her a lot—enough that it scared him. He’d been thinking that staying away would make thoughts of her fade. But that didn’t happen. He wanted to see her again and the wanting was not going away.

He started to text her. But a text just seemed weak—not to mention, nothing short of insulting. The least he could do was give her a chance to let his overdue call go to voicemail.

She picked up on the first ring. “Hello, Finn.”

Two words,helloand his name. From those two words, he knew everything. She sounded a million miles away and she was not glad to hear from him.

He considered faking it, making small talk, playing it light and easy. But they had loved each other once, even if they were barely more than kids at the time. She deserved honesty from him.

“I know I should have called sooner,” he said. “I wanted to call. Maybe too much. Truth is, it kind of freaks me out, how much I want to see you again.”

“It’s okay, Finn.” Her voice was kind now. But it was distant, too. “You did nothing wrong.”

He couldn’t read her. And this was not going as he’d hoped. He had to do something, so he went for it. “Are you free tomorrow night? Or Friday night? I could do Thursday, too. We could—”

“Finn,” she said, cutting him off. “Listen. It was good to see you that day at the Grizzly. But since then, I’ve had to take a long, hard look at…things.”

No doubt about it. This was going nowhere good. “What things?”

“Well, I have to be realistic. I just got divorced. I can’t be getting anything started right now. I really can’t.”

“And that’s fine.” It wasn’t fine. Not in the least. But he understood why she was turning him down. They had a painful history together. That in itself would make a woman wary. And now he’d waffled like a fool and taken too long to call her after implying that he would be getting right back in touch. He didn’t blame her for not wanting to start in with him again. Still, he gave it one more shot. “I mean, we can be friends, right?”

She sighed then. “Oh, Finn. I don’t think so.”