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“They’re older than you?”
“Jonas is a year older. And Fraser is a thousand years older. I used to call him the junior parent.”
He smiled at that. “What was he talking about in there?”
“It’s stupid.” She shook her head. “But he’s right. I was stupid.” She sighed. “There was this bully beating up Ned, and I was so mad at Jonas and Fraser because they made Ned stand up to him, and Ned got his backside handed to him—well, not really. He got a few licks in, but…I was so angry that I went and confronted the kid. And he…he didn’t care that I was a girl, and we got into a wicked fight.”
“Please tell me you won.”
“Technically? But I was in way over my head. He had me down and had picked up this rock, and I have no doubt he would have used it to do some permanent damage—and that’s when Fraser showed up. It was after school, but we’d drawn a crowd, and when I didn’t show up for the bus, Fraser got off, along with Jonas, and they came looking for me. They both stepped in, saved me from…well, I don’t know. But I was pretty mad. And they were pretty mad. And that’s when Fraser told me that girls didn’t do things like that.”
“Oh no.”
“Yeah. I’m pretty sure you can draw a direct line from that to my goal of officiating. But he’s not wrong. I am afraid.”
“Of what?” he said softly.
She took a breath. “I don’t like asking people for help.”
“Why?”
She looked at him. Then away.
“Iris?”
“Oh, Hud, there’s so much you don’t know about me. And I…” She looked at him. “I don’t want to wreck your career.”
He stilled. And it was right there—you already did. But he hadn’t thought that about her for a couple weeks, so why suddenly now? So, instead, “What do you mean? You’re not going to wreck my career.”
She looked away. “I already did, once.”
He stilled. What? “Iris, that wasn’t your fault.”
Her eyes rounded. “You know about it?”
He frowned.
“Shoot. Of course you do. Do all the guys know? Oh, I’m such an idiot. I—”
Do all the guys know? Yes, and about sixty-thousand fans, so,“Maybe we’re talking about two different things. Whose career did you wreck?”
She froze. “Darren Pike. He played quarterback for the—”
“Bobcats. Montana State. Went to the Senior Bowl. He was about three years older than me, but wow, he could throw a football.”
“He loved to throw the ball away under a blitz. Lots of intentional grounding, and he knew it.”
“I sort of remember that.”
“They had a playoff game with SDSU to play in a bowl game—the Celebration Bowl. They were in the end zone after a terrible punt, and Pike scrambled, fell, and eventually threw it away. I was playing ump back then, and I ruled it intentional grounding. Since they were in the end zone.”
“Safety.”
“They lost that game by two points.”
“And that’s your fault?”
She blew out a breath. “Pike and I…had…” She looked away. “Pike was from Minnesota. Grew up in Litchfield, a small town near me, and we dated.”
