Page 79 of Ready to Score

“For now.”

Jade made a noncommittal noise, then sniffed, dropping her arms to her sides. “Focusing on the big picture right now means that, well, it means that maybe I don’t let my ambitions cloud my reality.”

“Jade.” Franny sucked in a breath. “You are not giving up on this. You’re not…”

Franny couldn’t fathom a version of Jade that existed without a dream—this dream. Landry was not in attendance at first-day practice because of meetings or something, but Franny suddenly felt the need to seek him out and give him a real piece of her mind.

“I’m not. You know I’m not. I never will. I’m like a damn dog with a bone. I’m not giving it up. I’m just not going to keep letting myself make awful decisions in defense of it.”

They caught each other’s eyes and held their gazes. Franny didn’t care if anyone noticed. “One bad decision does not a fuckup make, Jade.”

Suddenly, Jade looked away. “I’m not just talking about the West Beaufort thing… I’m talking about you too.”

“Oh, Jade…” Franny shook her head in disagreement.

“I missed out on a lot of time that could have been spent with you. I was mean to you for no reason. I said awful things…”

Franny touched Jade’s arm, and the muscles tensed underneath her palm. The touch was simple, but it linked them together in a tangible way, and as she kept her hand there, she could feel Jade’s shoulders loosen.

“You were definitely an asshole,” she said. “But I liked playing along just fine.”

“Still. I want this too much to let it slip through my fingers because I didn’t know when to stop bluffing and fold.”

“Jade, look at me, please.”

Jade’s movements were reluctant, a slow turn of the head until they were face-to-face again. The tears in Jade’s eyes made Franny’s heart ache. The scene around them was far from quiet. Even on their water breaks, the team was loud, boisterous. Their camaraderie was evident even through their exhaustion. The heat, the artificial smellof the Astroturf, even the sounds of the people around them faded away into nothing the second their eyes met.

Franny smiled at her. “There isn’t a single version of me in existence that would ever want to see you give up your dream. You might not believe in luck or destiny, but I’m silly enough to, and I believe that this is only one of many great things you’re meant for. There’s no need to put it on the back burner, not for me. I’m not coming to you with ultimatums, Jade. So please don’t give yourself any on my behalf.”

Jade looked down, sniffing and blinking away the tears Franny had seen pooling in her eyes. It honestly seemed as if they both had cried full-on rivers in recent history.

“You’ll keep me honest, though, won’t you?” Jade’s voice was as meek as she’d ever heard it. “If I start getting buck wild again?”

“Yeah. I’ll keep you on the straight and narrow, kid.”

Franny’s heart stuttered in her chest for what felt like the thousandth time since she’d first laid eyes on this woman. Practice be damned, she wanted to kiss her, feel the warmth of her lips and her body. Franny wanted to give Jade the comfort she knew she needed.

“We need to get back to work.” Jade cleared her throat.

“Yeah, before I jump your bones.”

“We’ll continue at home?”

“Yes. At home.”

26

Jade had been six years old when she’d gone to her first football game. Dead in the middle of November, on a misty Friday night, the temperature had dipped down into the low sixties. This meant that her mother had bundled her up in a thick sweater and scarf that made the bottom of her face too warm for comfort. Jade’s father had brought her to Greenbelt Senior High School’s stadium to see her older cousin play in one of their playoff games. The stands had been packed to the rafters with people, but she and her father had found seats in a middle row of the bleachers, near the fence that kept folks from falling off the sides.

Jade remembered the awe she’d felt at the sheer size of the crowd. She remembered hearing the marching band play, the way each bang of the drums thumped in her chest. The smell of popcorn and the almost blinding lights that stood tall above them all. The way the crowd roared and how the bleachers shook with the force of people’s stomps. It had been a heady experience, a total overload of her senses. She had never been able to forget it. That game had been such a catalyst in her life. It didn’t matter how many times she’d experienced that roar, how she’d managed to migrate from the stands to the sidelines. She never got over the overwhelming elation that filled her body whenever she was at a game. She wouldn’t have admittedit to anyone else, but it was the one time she understood why people got so hyped at church.

Today was no different; Greenbelt had come out in full swing for their first game of the season. With the stands packed tightly, all she could see when she looked around the stadium was a sea of green and white. And West Beaufort had a decent turnout on the away-team side, filling it with black and gold. The energy was so palpable, she felt high just being in the middle of it.

She wore her standard coach’s uniform—a pair of khaki pants and a green polo shirt. It was a mild night for August, not much humidity, with a dark sky and a high moon. Still, the fabric of her shirt clung like hell to her lower back.

She’d started sweating before she and Franny had even left the house. The other woman had forced her to drink three glasses of water and eat half a deli sandwich before she’d relinquished the keys to Gladys so they could leave.

Jade eyed Francesca, clad in a pair of skinny jeans and a Greenbelt Gators T-shirt from the student center, as she huddled with Coach Carr. She should have been wearing the same thing as the rest of them. She should have had a whistle around her neck and the actual authority to call shots for the offensive line.

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