Page 102 of Saving the Halfback

“Stop it. Look at me,” I demanded.

“I’m sorry.” She nearly whimpered and my heart shattered. I let go of her wrist and tilted her chin up, so her eyes could meet mine. Fear. There was no fire in her eyes, there was nothing.

“You lied to me,” I repeated. “You knew it was Hadley. Why didn’t you tell me?” She said nothing. “Just be honest with me.”

“There were several people there, but what would it matter? Nothing good would’ve come out of telling you. Hadley was there for you when I wasn’t, and I didn’t want to wreck that. I had already kissed you, Chase, I didn’t want to ruin things between you and her.”

“After what she did to you? You know how messed up it is that you covered for her, right?”

And then her eyes went blank…void. “What she did to me is nothing compared to what I’ve already been through. Don’t bring it up again, Chase.” She turned and walked away, leaving me standing in the parking lot.

After I collected myself, I walked into the school, heading for the auditorium. We used the large screen in there to go over theplays. I didn’t miss the look Lachlan gave me as I walked past the four of them, didn’t miss the way Bailey’s eyes lingered before looking down to the ground. I walked over to Hersey and Kell and sat down, bumping my fist with theirs as I did.

We sat and listened to Coach for an hour. In short, although we won the game, we played it wrong. Most of our plays were fails, and he said a lot of things that slipped through with this team wouldn’t have made it past other teams. This wasn’t a top-tier team, and we had struggled to keep up with them. Our saving grace had been Bailey and Lachlan for making the runs. Wes and Hersey for making more than one epic tackle. We reviewed footage on our open spaces, missed opportunities, and players not being where they were supposed to be. On the outside, our team won, we were coming together nicely. But Coach was right—below the surface, we were still struggling. If we didn’t get it together, we would never make it against the top players.

Coach was still talking when Sam leaned over and tapped me on the shoulder. “They are saying this is Bailey,” he said, showing me his phone.

I was going to murder Hadley. That damn photo was still making its way around.

“It looks like her frame,” Hersey said.

“Delete it,” I ordered Sam. He did immediately. “Bailey is on our team, she is our team member. Make sure you spread the news. Anyone sending this photo around will be shunned. Anyone bringing it up will deal with the team. The entire team.”

“Wait, what?” Sam asked.

“We don’t need Bailey worrying about this. We need her focused, so she can play, not deal with drama.”

“This really was her?” Hersey asked. “That’s sick.”

I waved him off. I was done talking about it. “If anyone gives you grief, come to me.”

35

Bailey

Monday

Feigning ignorance to the events that happened Friday night worked…for the first couple of nights. I was sure sleeping with Nolan in my bed had helped the first night. Exhausted, we’d slept right through until my mother knocked on the door in the morning. My parents had given us the safe sex talk before the rest of the guys had shown up Saturday morning. Nolan and I swore up and down it wasn’t like that, but Dad said it was his job as a parent to say it regardless; he wasn’t ready to be a papa. I was ready to die on the spot, but at the same time, I was grateful Mom hadn’t mentioned I had an implant.

I had gotten it after I lost my virginity. Ed was continuously talking about me being a wife, and I just had this sick feeling in my stomach. Even though I thought I was happy, that it was what I wanted. He was there for me, right? So, it was normal to stay with him, right? I told Mom I wasn’t sexually active, but I wanted to be prepared. She’d looked skeptical, but with the lack of boys around, I guessed she didn’t feel the need to press for more information.

We had chosen the implant. It lasted a long time, and for some reason, it seemed the easiest for me to hide. Though, I wasn’t exactly sure why I felt the need to hide it in the first place.

I busied myself the whole weekend, helping Dad harvest the bean fields and reviewing the coaches’ changes and critiques from review day. It was easy to mentally multitask when driving the tractor up and down the field. Auto drive was the best, but the cell signal, not so much.

The sun was just beginning to set on Sunday, and I had finished the west field. I radioed into Dad that I was on my way in for the day when my phone blew up.

Beth:okay, do you know what happened this weekend?

I sighed. I knew I wouldn’t be able to hide from it for long. I parked the tractor along the side of the drive shed, the farm hands telling me they would put it away, and walked out to my truck. This field was thirty minutes away from my house.

After taking a swig of water, I pulled my phone out again.

Bailey:I might have an idea, what did you hear?

Beth:Omg, so much.

Beth:Chase and Hadley broke up.

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