Page 33 of Wrangling a Texas Hometown Hero

Coach Denny nodded sadly. “Yeah. It looks like we both have plenty of time for fishing now.”

Jace sat there for a good hour trying to cheer his coach up, but nothing seemed to work. Finally, he said his goodbyes and left. But once he was in his truck, he didn’t head out of town. He headed to the bank.

Mrs. Stokes was with a customer when he got there so he waited in the lobby until the receptionist said she was free. Jace hadn’t seen her since the night of the wedding when she’d overheard him and Hallie talking. He felt more than a little uncomfortable as he took a seat in front of her large desk.

“Good mornin’, Ms. Stokes.”

“Not mornin’ for long. And if I’d known I was going to be visited by a hot quarterback today, I would have worn my sexy red lipstick.”

Jace winked. “You’re still lookin’ mighty fine, Ms. Stokes—with or without red lipstick.”

“You always were a charmer, Jace Carson.” She rested her wrinkled hands on the desk. “So what can I do for you? You want to open an account? Get a loan? Ask a mighty fine-lookin’ woman on a date?”

“Actually, I want to talk about the school board firing Coach Denny.”

“Ahh.” She sat back in her chair. “I’m not surprised you’d want to go to bat for your old coach.”

“He’s a good guy that deserves someone going to bat for him.”

“No argument there. As much as I like to get on him, I’ve always thought he was a good man. Which is why he got to keep his job for as long as he did. If he had been coaching for any other school district in this state, he would have been long gone by now, Jace, and you know it. Losing coaches don’t keep their jobs—especially here in Texas.”

Jace did know that. Texans were all about winning. If you didn’t, you were out. But he also knew how Coach Denny felt. He knew how devastating it was to lose football. Football wasn’t just a job. It was a way of life. It had been Jace’s life and he knew it had been Coach Denny’s too. While he couldn’t change Coach Denny’s winning record, maybe there was another option.

“What about assistant coach? Could he stay on and coach with the person you plan on hiring?”

“We haven’t hired anyone yet. Herb Dickens, the assistant coach, is taking over until we do. And if we keep Denny, Herb will just let him be in charge. Which puts us right back where we started—with a losing team. Even if we found a new coach and he wanted to keep the same coaching staff, Denny’s ego wouldn’t let him go from head coach to assistant coach. Not unless the new coach was someone he thought highly of. Someone he totally respect—” She cut off and her gaze narrowed on Jace. “Someone like an ex pro football player.”

Jace held up his hands. “Oh, no. I’m not coaching the Wildcats.”

“It would only be until we found another coach. By that time, Denny will be settled in as assistant coach and we might be able to convince the new coach to keep him on.”

“Sorry, Ms. Stokes, but I can’t do it.”

“Why not? You have another job?” He took too long to find a lie and she snorted. “That’s what I thought. So what’s the problem?”

The problem was a blond-haired cowgirl he couldn’t stop thinking about. And since Mrs. Stokes already knew about their night together, he figured it wouldn’t hurt anything to be honest.

He glanced around before he leaned closer. “Things are uncomfortable between me and Hallie.”

Mrs. Stokes’s penciled-in brows lifted. “Uncomfortable?”

“Yes. Very.”

She snorted. “Well, I’ve learned that the only way to get through an uncomfortable situation is to face it head on.” She glanced over at a man behind the teller counter. “Take Stu over there. One night after working hours, we had a little dalliance, which made working with him very uncomfortable—mainly, because, during that dalliance, he asked if he could try on my bra and panties. But after a few weeks, the image of him in my underwear faded and we went right on about our business.”

TMI.

Jace cleared his throat. “Uhh . . . yeah, well, I think Hallie and I are going to need a little more time than just a few weeks.”

Her eyebrows rose. “Hmm? That must have been some mighty fine sex.”

It had been. That was the trouble.

He changed the subject back to the problem at hand. “There has to be some way to keep Coach Denny coaching football.”

Mrs. Stokes pinned him with her intense gaze. “I think we just came up with the solution. So now it seems the only person keeping Coach Denny from coaching the sport he loves is you.”

When Jace had decided to come talk to Mrs. Stokes, he hadn’t thought she would turn the tables on him. But that’s exactly what she’d done. He should have known better than to confront the woman. Her cleverness at getting what she wanted was why she’d had numerous husbands and was the richest woman in town. She had him feeling guilty as hell and she knew it.

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