Page 690 of Cold Case, Warm Hearts

“That sounds good.” Sydney began pushing her way through the crowd to get to Kendall.

Kendall looked through the crowd at Sydney. His face was radiant. The broad grin that split his face when he saw her hit her with enough force to send a tingle shooting through her body. They might’ve been the only two people on the field. “We won,” he called out to her. “Can you believe it? We won!”

She tried to make her way to his side. “I know.”

The next event seemed to happen in slow motion. Sydney watched Jessica emerge from the mass of people. Before Kendall could reach Sydney, Jessica stepped in front of him and threw her arms around his neck and gave him a full kiss on the mouth. This brought a few wolf calls from the crowd.

“Congratulations champ,” Jessica said.

Kendall tried to untangle himself from Jessica’s grasp. His face was red. “Thanks Jess,” he said a little breathlessly.

Jessica turned and looked at Sydney before sauntering off in the crowd.

“Looks like you’ve got some competition.”

“What?” Sydney slung around to see Sean standing beside her.

“It looks like you’re not the only one standing in line to give Lover Boy a congratulatory kiss.”

“Oh why don’t you just drop dead!”

Sean chuckled. “It was just a simple observation. And by the way, he’d have to be a fool to go after Jessica when he can have you. Then again, he’s not exactly the smartest guy on the block.”

Sydney ignored Sean and moved toward Kendall. When she reached him, he leaned down and gave her a peck on the cheek. Any other time Sydney wouldn’t have thought twice about it, but after witnessing Jessica’s mauling, she felt like Kendall was kissing his sister rather than his girlfriend. “Hey hon, I’m sorry you had to see that. I don’t know what got into Jessica.”

A tight smile formed on her lips. “Congratulations.”

Before she could say anything else, someone tapped Kendall on the shoulder. “Coach, can you gather your team on the sideline? I want to get a picture for the paper.”

“Sure.”

Kendall turned back toward her. “I’ll call you tomorrow.”

Sydney didn’t answer.

The shrill ringingof the phone jarred Sydney awake. She raised and looked at her clock—6:15AM. Who would be calling this early in the morning?

“Hello?” Her voice was still coated with sleep.

“Hey, it’s me.”

There was a long pause.

“Kendall?”

“Something terrible has happened.”

Sydney was now wide-awake. She sat up in her bed. “Kendall, what’s wrong?”

“It’s Reggie. He was involved in an accident last night.”

“Is he okay?”

There was silence for a few moments.

“He’s dead.”

“No! It can’t be true! What happened?”

---