Page 2 of The Way We Win

My jaw tightens, and I swallow the thickness in my throat,giving him a brief nod. Stepping into his shoes is exactly what I’m doing, in more ways than one.

“Zane, you’re going to help your brother Jack take the lead, and Garrett, you keep protecting the little ones.”

The muscle in Garrett’s square jaw moves. He’s got his game face on as he nods briefly.

“Your dad loved football, and he’ll always be remembered for his accomplishments. But his proudest accomplishment was you five. He’ll be watching you from above, standing at your mama’s side. Don’t let him down.”

Hendrix inhales sharply, and Dylan and Liv simultaneously reach for his hands.

“His spirit lives on in you.” Thomas looks into my eyes. “We’ll always remember the good times, and we’ll think of him now, reunited with the ones who went before.”

He’s at the water’s edge, and he bends a knee to place the blue packet on the waves. “Ashes to ashes, and dust to dust. We release you to the beautiful waters you loved.”

Standing on the edge of the bay, my eyes lock on that white sea turtle as it drifts farther out, where it will swirl into the tide and continue to eternity.

I realize every muscle in my body is tight when Dylan’s arms go around my waist. Releasing the death-grip of my arms crossed over my chest, I wrap them around her.

Another pair of arms wraps around my side, and I realize Hendrix has come to me as well. Garrett follows, putting a hand on my shoulder, and Zane turns his head to give me a sad smile.

He’s staying close, at least, attending a small private college not far from Newhope. Garrett has one more year of high school before he moves to Tuscaloosa. Holding my family, I inhale a shaky, fortifying breath.

Thomas returns to where we’re standing, takes one look at our huddle, and gives me a satisfied smile.

I’m the oldest. I’m the leader. When we were kids, and we’dhave chores or we’d play scrimmage in the park, Dad would say I was team captain.

I wonder if he knew then what he was preparing me to be.

Either way, I know who I am. I know what’s expected of me, and I’ll carry us through this. Protection, family, leadership… it’s what I do.

1

Allie

Present day

“Where do you take a book on a date?” Kimmie Joy Bradford wrinkles her nose as she lifts a paperback wrapped in brown paper and tied with an elaborate red bow off the shelf.

We’re well into teacher prep days, getting ready for the new school year to start, and she and Edward Wells are helping me set up the library.

It’s become our tradition since my son Austin started high school and joined the football team three years ago.

Jack Bradford is head coach of the Newhope High Captains, and as we’re both single parents working at the high school, we’ve developed this little trade-off situation. His daughter Kimmie stays with me while Austin attends summer football camp with him.

It’s Austin’s senior year, and his first year as starting quarterback. He’s been working toward this goal since he went outfor the team as a freshman. I can’t believe three years have already passed so quickly.

Jack took him under his wing, training with him on the weekends, working with him every summer and fall. I’ve done my best not to fawn all over him for being so good to my only child, but it certainly doesn’t help that while he’s quiet and stern, he’s also kind and attentive.

Jack’s a former quarterback himself, a football superstar in Texas, and sex on wheels. At six-two with a square jaw, dark hair, and sapphire-blue eyes, my breath catches sometimes when he looks at me.

His little sister Dylan befriended us when we moved here from New Orleans. I’d landed the job as high school librarian, and Austin was a quiet middle schooler.

We had little money and no family to speak of, so she asked if I could be head waiter at their family’s restaurant on the bay, Cooters & Shooters.

She claimed they needed more help in the summer, and since I’d waited tables in the French Quarter to pay my way through college, a sprawling family restaurant in a small, south Alabama town was a piece of cake.

Dylan also recruited Austin to babysit Kimmie, who was still in preschool at the time, and we were both grateful for the extra income.

Working in the library, sharing my favorite books with the students, helping them find new authors to love, and all the things library-related make me so happy. The job has great benefits, great hours, great holidays… and very little pay.

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