Free Homecoming (A Boys of Fall Novel) by Shannon Stacey Page B

and visit him for a little while. Away game tomorrow night, and I can’t decide how I feel about it. On the one hand, I’d like to coach my first game in front of people who already know I have no idea what I’m doing. On the other hand, if I screw it up too badly, maybe having a bunch of strangers in the bleachers wouldn’t suck.”
    “Trust me, if you screw it up, we’ll all know before the bus even rolls back into town.”
    “Funny. You know, you can stop in and give me some advice anytime.”
    Deck winced, then dug his spoon into the hot blueberry pie. “I filled in for Coach once a few years back when a stomach flu wiped out the coaching staff. It was a disaster. It seems I’m a big softie and I’m incapable of telling people what to do, especially kids.”
    “I’ve spent some time with your boys and it seems like you keep them in line. They’re good kids.”
    “I’ll tell Cheryl you said so, since she’s the one who does the actual keeping in line.” He put a big spoonful of pie in his mouth, closing his eyes as he savored it. “Speaking of Cheryl . . .”
    And here it comes
, Sam thought, going to the fridge to grab a couple of waters since he hadn’t bought milk yet. Someday he was going to have a conversation with somebody in Stewart Mills that didn’t circle around to Jen Cooper. And it was a crying shame to have hot blueberry pie without milk.
    “Heard you had a nice dinner with Jen at O’Rourke’s night before last,” Deck finished.
    “I don’t know about a nice dinner, but we grabbed a couple of burgers.”
    “They make good burgers.”
    “True. Anyway, yes, Jen and I grabbed a bite to eat while we talked about team stuff.”
    “And?”
    Sam shrugged. “And we talked about team stuff.”
    “Cheryl’s going to be disappointed.”
    If she knew she was missing out on the details of asmoking-hot kiss in the gym foyer, she’d be
really
disappointed. “Your wife’s not alone. I swear, Stewart Mills needs a movie theater or something.”
    They made a hell of a dent in the pie before Sam put the lid back on the dish and set it in the fridge. “I can’t believe we ate half a pie for breakfast. Hell, I can’t believe your wife
baked
a pie first thing in the morning. You’re a lucky man.”
    “Nothing luckier than watching your wife bake pies meant to be given away.”
    Sam put his hand on his stomach and groaned. “Okay,
I’m
a lucky man. At least there’s practice after school so I can work off some calories.”
    “Yeah, it’s a helluva workout, standing there blowing that whistle.”
    “Asshole. Watch it or I’ll shove you into a chair and leave you there.”
    Hot kisses, blueberry pie and trash talk with an old friend. For this moment, at least, it sure was good to be back.
    —
    A t least once a month during the school year, and sometimes during the summer break, Jen met Kelly at O’Rourke’s for a meeting. It wasn’t really business, since their discussions were off the books, but they both considered the unofficial meetings a core part of their jobs.
    Today they were meeting for a late breakfast because Kelly had the day off and was expecting Chase to get home in the early afternoon. He was still commuting back and forth to New Jersey to wrap up some business he had going on before Eagles Fest had brought him back to Stewart Mills and Kelly for good. Jen had told the office she had an off-siteappointment and would be late getting in, and she’d taped a note for students on her door before she left the night before.
    It was the last thing she’d done before ending up in the gym atrium, kissing Sam.
    “How’s the new school year going?” Kelly asked once they had coffees on the table and their breakfast orders in.
    “So far, so good.” She rapped her knuckles lightly on the table, even though it probably wasn’t real wood.
    “I know you’ve been focused on the football team quite a bit, for which my dad and I can’t thank you enough, but how are things