Page 27 of When to Call a Blitz

The rest of the game goes by in a blur. I focus more on Elara and Juniper’s excitement than anything else, counting down the seconds until it’s over and I can go home.

I can’t wait for the day things become easier for me and life gets a little less mean.

14

EMMETT

We won yesterday, but coach was pissed off about a few things he saw, and so there is no Victory Monday to start our season. No. Instead, I’m up and out of bed early in the morning to get ready to get our asses chewed out, most likely.

Coach has been in a bitchy mood for the last few weeks, and although we could maybe take a hint and realize that he may be under intense pressure to perform this year or get cut lose, the guys have other ideas.

“He definitely isn’t getting any at home,” Cooper says under his breath after the game. Coach went on and on about how we won but we weren’t going to be winning for long if we kept making the same mistakes. I’ll admit, we were all a little rusty. Although we did fine, we’re going to have to get it together, and quick.

That being said, the defense is always a little rusty the first game or two of the season. We don’t really tackle each other during practices to prevent too many injuries, so the main action is always on the field. We’re a little rusty from the summer, but I’m sure we’ll get it together for the next game.

This morning feels particularly shitty, as I was up late last night in my garage working on the Barracuda. Heidi seemed spooked when I saw them after the game. She had been standing with Briar and Isla, waiting for the other guys to come out, and although everyone around her looked happy, there was something behind her smile that made me think she was about to cry.

Instead of asking her if she was okay, I asked if she liked the game.

“Yeah,” she had told me with a stiff nod, almost wincing.

“Good,” I told her, scooping Juniper into my arms.

The conversation was quick, if it was really even a conversation at all, and when we said goodbye, she was off in a hurry.

So it comes as a bit of a shock when I walk into the family room to see Heidi out the front window, sitting on the pavement of the driveway, pulling on shoes.

I open the door, and when she doesn’t turn, I call out to her.

“Heidi?” I ask loudly, resulting in her nearly jumping out of her skin.

Taking her headphone out, she shoots me a guilty look, sweeping her long, red ponytail over her shoulder to her back. “Yeah?”

“You’re here early.”

She looks around. It’s a beautiful morning. The sun is just coming up, the birds are chirping, and the Maryland heat hasn’t quite kicked in yet. It’s not at all odd for it to be nearly ninety-degrees in the morning in September.

“I,” she looks down, biting her lip as she thinks about what she wants to tell me. “I wanted to go for a run.”

“You run?” I ask, propping myself against the doorframe.

“I used to,” she says with a shrug as she stands up, picking up the slides she had clearly been wearing beforehand and placing them in the footwell of the car.

“And you want to do that here?” I ask, looking around.

“I don’t want to be late,” she says simply, her hand against the car door as she stretches. “I figured if I run around here, I can just get here early, or if I’m running late I don’t run at all. Either way, I’m here when you leave and you don’t have to worry about anything.”

My heart clenches a little at her words, realizing that she really cares about this job. Well, that or she just don’t like being late to things just like me.

But I want to think that she really wants to be here helping us, and so that’s what I choose to believe.

“Well,” I pause as I turn to head back inside, “I hope you have fun.”

“What did you do when you lost your purpose in life?” she says quickly all of a sudden, and when I turn, she’s already shrinking back. “Never mind, ignore that I asked.”

I shake my head. “No, don’t do that.”

“Do what?”

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