Page 17 of The Perfect Pass
Cade grinned. “Try not to worry too much about it. I just thought you should know.”
“I appreciate that.” It was nice to know that at least one person had his back around here. He blew out a breath. “Just what I needed. Another battle on my hands.”
“Don’t let Simmons get to you, and try to forget what happened yesterday. Once everyone sees that you’re here to do what’s best for the team, this will all sort itself out. The most important thing is to keep your focus on the kids.” Cade shrugged. “Just a piece of advice from one educator to another.”
Was that really what he was now—an educator?
Jackson scrubbed his face. If his teenage self could see him now, he would’ve gotten a hearty laugh out of this. School had never been his thing. Blessed with natural talent on the football field, he’d coasted his way to his diploma, letting the pep rally girls do his homework, knowing the teachers would never fail the school’s star player if he bombed a test or two. Which he did…often. He’d probably spent more time making out with girls under the bleachers than he had in the actual classroom.
Simmons was right. Jackson wasn’t qualified for this job. Not even close.
He lifted his gaze to the ceiling where a water stain spread over one of the overhead panels. The boys in the weight room were laughing now, trash talking each other.It’s a regular team, just like any other,Jackson told himself. He’d been thrown into this situation, but maybe if he did as Cade said and concentrated on building something with the kids, he could do some good in Bishop Falls.
Sitting beside Calla earlier in the shadow of her brother’s portrait had been a sobering experience. Jackson didn’t want to just phone this thing in. If he was stuck here, he wanted to do it right. Not just for himself, but for the memory of Ethan Dunne. And maybe, just maybe, for a woman he barely even knew.
He was never this earnest. Maybe this truly was his rock bottom.
Don’t tempt fate, you idiot. Have you learned nothing over the past twenty-four hours?
“All right.” He gritted his teeth. “Let’s see how the first day goes, then.”
“You’ve got this, Coach. I’m here if you need anything.” Cade tipped his head back, finished his coffee and tossed the paper cup into the trash can next to the door as he strode inside the weight room.
Jackson followed, and the heaviness of the task ahead sank into his chest like a three-hundred-pound bench press. He took a deep inhale, gut churning as he muttered under his breath.
“Here goes nothing.”
* * *
Later that afternoon, Calla nearly jumped out of her chair when her boss seemingly appeared out of thin air,head popping up on the other side of her wide-screen computer monitor.
“Stan, you startled me.” She minimized the window on her screen as quickly as she could. She’d only been reading articles about Jackson for research…obviously…but something about getting caught with a giant photograph of him on the glowing display made her cheeks burn with a sudden warmth. “What can I do for you?”
She’d been giving her editor a wide berth all day. As happy as he might be with the overnight surge in subscription rates, she’d still gone rogue at that press conference. He had every right to be upset with her.
Calla could handle confrontation, though. What she couldn’t handle, on the other hand, was Stan’s weird mention last night of leaning into the attention that her showdown with Jackson had garnered. Other than running her biweekly column on the front page, she wasn’t sure what exactly he’d meant by that offhand comment. Truthfully, she was afraid to ask. Her job was to cover football, not individual people. This wasn’t a sports-themed rom-com. It was her career.
“What’s this I hear about you being invited to watch the Bulldogs practice?” Stan barked.
Of course he’d heard. Secrets weren’t a thing in small towns like Bishop Falls, especially not in the newsroom. “How on earth do you know about that?”
She hadn’t breathed a word about Jackson’s invitation to anyone. Not even Bailey. And especially not to her father, who was a card-carrying member of the Victory Club.
“That’s not important.” Stan ran a hand over his salt-and-pepper crew cut. “Although, if you must know, I got a trim on my lunch break and my barber at Blitz & Buzztold me. Everyone in that place was talking about you and Jackson Knight having coffee this morning at Huddle Up. Someone overheard him inviting you to practice.”
Of course the barber shop was named Blitz & Buzz. Heaven forbid the residents of Bishop Falls get their hair cut anyplace else.
Stan nudged his black-framed glasses farther up the bridge of his nose and huffed. “I don’t like being the last to hear about these things, Calla.”
“It’s not the way it sounds. I promise.” Her heartbeat kicked up a notch all the same. Her mind spun with memories of the way Jackson’s eyes had danced over his giant dollop of whipped cream. Shereallyneeded to stop looking at his photos online. All that charm and deceptively wholesome appeal was a major distraction. “We weren’t on a coffee date. We simply bumped into each other.”
Stan nodded, but Calla didn’t like the way his eyes narrowed. She had a feeling she was going to like whatever he said next even less. “Good, because that’s not what I meant when I told you we needed to take advantage of all the attention your exchange at the press conference garnered yesterday. It would be a conflict of interest for a sports journalist to become romantically involved with the coach of the football team she’s assigned to cover.”
She wanted to die right then and there. They were in the middle of the bullpen where anyone could overhear. Granted, this was a small-town paper, so she only had a handful of colleagues. But still…
A throat cleared nearby, and Glenda from the lifestyle section aimed a sympathetic glance at Calla as she banged away on her keyboard. Everyone this side of Dallas wasgoing to hear about Stan’s little lecture before she even showed her face at football practice. Awesome.
“You don’t need to remind me what’s ethical and what’s not, Stan. I’m a professional. And in case you and the rest of this town have suddenly developed a case of selective amnesia, I don’t date football players.” Everyone who resided in the Bishop Falls town limits knew that about her.Literallyeveryone.
