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Nineteen
Holden
The last football game had been played. Our team won, but regardless of how we would’ve done, Stetson and I had planned a pizza party with the kids afterward.
Stetson was inside Rattler’s. He’d arranged the party with Shawn and Remington, and one of them had met Stetson inside. I was lingering by the hostess stand to direct kids and parents to the back section that had been cordoned off for us.
Landon hadn’t arrived yet, and I wasn’t sure he would.
I had pretended not to notice after the game when Landon had excitedly asked his dad if they could pretty please go. The way Henry had frowned and glared at Emery. She held her hands up. I wasn’t a lip reader, but it had seemed like she said something along the lines ofI told you about this.
I didn’t doubt that she had. I doubted that Henry had taken seriously the enthusiasm of a kid wanting to be included in a group he enjoyed being a part of.
A familiar Suburban pulled in, and my phone buzzed with a message from Emery.Henry and Jenni are bringing the kids, but Henry’s pissed. It’s probably best if I don’t go so he doesn’t think it’s a you-and-me thing. I want this party to be about football.
I swallowed my irritation. It wouldn’t be about football to Henry. I instinctively knew that about the guy. He didn’t like being told what to do. It was how he’d chosen his career. Emery had told me enough about her marriage. She’d been the compliant one. Henry wanted to go to med school, so it had been her job to work her career around his. Henry wanted to have more kids, so it was her job to figure out how to have more kids and still do what she wanted in life. Henry wanted to fuck around, so it had been her job to pick up the pieces for the kids.
But Emery wasn’t compliant anymore, and I would be at the party as a reminder that he didn’t hold sway over her.
Landon ran through the door ahead of the others. “Hey, Coach B!”
I high-fived him and pointed him to the crowd. “Go pick a booth for you and everyone else.”
Henry strode in, his nostrils flaring and his glare taking in Rattler’s open beam work and the tasteful modern western decor. It was like he got more pissed because he couldn’t find fault in the place.
Avery skirted around her dad. “How’s Poppy and Pittance?”
“He’s ornery as ever and she enjoys irritating him.”
Avery snickered. Pittance wasn’t an ornery horse, and she liked being in on the joke.
“Ho-den.” Riley held her arms out for me. I didn’t know what to do. This wasn’t my past freezing up when I was faced with holding a baby. She was with her dad, and I didn’t want to make things worse by making him feel like I was taking his kids. Even Jenni’s eyes were wide. I had to tread carefully.
“Hey, kiddo.” I double high-fived her chubby hands in a move that was just shy of awkward. “I heard you cheering at the game.” I booped her nose. She giggled and curled into her dad. Crisis averted.
Until I caught the dark look on Henry’s face.
Shit. I searched out Afton. She was holding Jenni’s hand.
“Or was that you cheering on your brother?” I asked. She grinned, showing a gap where her two front teeth used to be. I let out a fake gasp. “Someone stole your teeth.”
She giggled and jumped up and down. “I lost both of them last night and the tooth fairy gave me five bucks—for each tooth!”
Was that the going rate nowadays? All I’d gotten was aClean all that blood up, will ya?but I’d left a couple of quarters for Nora whenever she lost a tooth.
“So what I’m hearing is that you’re buying?” I laughed at her astonished look. “Nah, it’s on us. I think Landon picked your booth. Help yourself.”
Henry plowed through the restaurant, the kids in tow. Grateful he didn’t make a scene, I mingled with the players and their parents. I’d graduated with a couple of them. Stetson had gone to school with a few more. Other parents had moved to town, and the evening gave us a chance to chat a little. Normal small-town stuff. I gave Henry a wide berth until Landon flagged me over.
“Can you eat with us, Coach B?”
Were Jenni’s eyes perma-wide? Henry had one half-eaten slice of pizza in front of him. Shawn had lived in Chicago too long for that pizza to not be delicious. “I can’t, man. I’m the host.”
“Are you coming over Tuesdays and Thursdays now that practice is done?”
All eyes were on me—the kids and the parents. I squatted. Landon was on the edge of the bench seat, practically hanging out of the booth so he could visit with friends. There was no place for me to sit anyway.
“I’ll have to talk to your mom.”
