Stranger in Town

But what was the point? Deborah hadn’t stripped a man of his ability to walk. Hannah’s sin was far worse, and the guilt she felt wouldn’t allow her to defend herself. If only she hadn’t tried to pass on that curve….

Rebecca spoke up. “That was beneath even you, Deborah.”

“This isn’t about the past,” Shirley added in a conciliatory tone. “It’s about the future. We, as a community, need to stand behind Gabe.”

“Why?” Deborah cried, jumping to her feet. “Why is he any different from the rest of us? If I got in a car accident and was put in a wheelchair, do you think this community would do anything for me? No! Because I’m not some hotshot football player. Just because he can throw a ball eighty yards doesn’t make him any better than anyone else,” she said and stormed out.

Hannah turned to watch Deborah flounce down the street toward her car. Shirley joined her at the window. “I heard she wanted Gabe,” she mused. “But I didn’t believe it until now.”

“Do you think he rejected her?” Ashleigh asked. Still unmarried, Ashleigh generally kept tabs on every available man in town and sounded put out that something might have occurred that she didn’t know about.

Trudy rolled her eyes. “Ya think?”

Shirley ignored Trudy’s sarcasm. “He must have.”

Hannah set the cookbook on the seat next to her. “Deborah was in my graduating class. She had a crush on him way back then, but so did a lot of girls.”

“I bet he’s never even looked at her,” Shirley said. “Probably the only thing that made her think she finally had a chance with him was that wheelchair. Otherwise, he’d be so out of reach it’d be like crying for the moon.”

Hannah wasn’t sure that rejection was the reason for Deborah’s sniping. Probably had more to do with her father not getting the position as head coach. But Hannah could certainly understand why Blaine’s daughter might find Gabe attractive. There probably wasn’t a woman in town who hadn’t fantasized about him. He was strong, talented, intelligent and handsome. Really handsome.

Remembering the look in his eyes yesterday, that brief flash of something powerful and erotic, gave Hannah the same fluttery expectation she felt on a roller coaster as it climbed the highest hill.

There were times she wanted him herself.

But even if he could forgive her, she doubted he’d ever be able to forget what she’d cost him.

SHOVING HIS EMPTY plate away, Kenny shifted uncomfortably in the booth at Jerry’s Diner and told Brent to eat the rest of his hash browns. Their dad had finally rolled out of bed at eleven-thirty, so they were having more of an early lunch than a late breakfast. But missing breakfast wasn’t anything unusual when they stayed with Russ. This Sunday morning had gone pretty much like all the others—except that Kenny had dragged himself out of bed the moment Brent had gotten up to watch cartoons. Kenny hadn’t intervened when his little brother helped himself to a candy bar first thing, but no way was he going to allow Brent to get hold of another porn video.

Brent pushed his potatoes around on his plate. “I’m stuffed,” he complained. “I can’t eat another bite.”

Looking immediately to their father, who’d recently started growing a goatee to compensate for his thinning hair, Kenny said, “He’s done. Can we go?”

Russ hooked an arm over the back of the booth and waved for the waitress to come round with the coffee. “Of course not. Coach Blaine hasn’t arrived yet.”

Kenny wasn’t sure if Blaine would show. Kenny couldn’t see a man like him having much to do with Russ, even if they both wanted to see Gabe Holbrook give up the job he’d just taken.

“He should’ve been here half an hour ago,” Kenny said. “Something must’ve come up.”

“We’re in no hurry. We can wait.”

His father was never in any hurry. But Kenny didn’t want to wait. He didn’t really want to see Blaine. Growing anxious, he started bouncing his knee.

His father scowled at the movement. “Jeez you’ve got a lot of energy. Has your mother ever had you tested for ADHD?”

Russ had only recently learned of ADHD—and instantly decided he had it. He saw symptoms in everyone else, too, and was quick to suggest medication. Left to him, more than half the town would be on Ritalin.

“I don’t have ADHD, Dad.”

“Coulda fooled me.” He added cream to his coffee. “You fidget more than Brent does.”

That was an exaggeration if Kenny had ever heard one. Brent was pouring sugar onto the table right now. His father had to take the sugar dispenser away from him in order to sweeten his coffee, but he handed it back as soon as he was done. Russ let Brent do just about anything.

“Don’t you care that he’s making a mess?” Kenny asked, irritated that his father didn’t act more like…well, a father.

Russ shrugged. “I don’t have to clean it up.”

“Someone does.”

His father grimaced. “You’re sounding more like your mother every day, you know that?”

Russ accused him of that a lot, probably because Kenny couldn’t come up with a good answer.

“Anyway, he probably has ADHD, too,” his father said, jerking his head toward Brent.

Ignoring them both, Brent squeezed ketchup all over the sugar volcano he was building on the table. The mess bugged Kenny enough that he would have stopped his brother, but after what his father had said, he couldn’t—not without sounding more like Hannah than ever. “He doesn’t have ADHD, Dad. People with ADHD have trouble focusing.”

“I know,” his father replied, nodding emphatically. “I’ve been struggling with it since I was a kid.”

Kenny wished he could believe that. But it sounded like another convenient excuse—the latest in a long line of excuses. “Brent focuses fine. And so do I.”

His father leaned forward. “Then, why don’t you focus on having a cup of coffee and quit bitching at me for a damn minute?”

Kenny wasn’t particularly sensitive to bad language. He could swear with the best of them. But he didn’t understand why their father had to cuss so much in front of Brent.

He shot a quick glance at his little brother to see if Brent had marked it, and knew he had when Brent shot him a mischievous grin. “Dad—” Kenny started, but fell silent when Russ’s eyebrows clashed, making a solid slash of brown above his golden eyes.

“What now?”

Kenny stared down at his plate. “Never mind.” It wasn’t any use asking Russ to quit with the bad language. His father would only do it more, or say that he and Brent needed to come live with him before their mother turned them into complete pussies.

The waitress came around, but Kenny refused coffee. While she filled his father’s cup, he glanced at the other tables, and froze when he spotted Josh and Rebecca Hill seated in the far corner with Booker and Katie Robinson. Like his brother Mike, Josh was a good friend of Gabe Holbrook’s, and Booker owned the only automotive repair shop in town, so he probably serviced Gabe’s truck. Which meant, if Coach Blaine showed up and Kenny sat talking with him for any length of time, Coach Holbrook would probably hear about it. Because his father and Blaine acted as though they had some problem with Holbrook, Kenny didn’t want that. His mother had told him to give Holbrook his loyalty and, despite his worries about getting to play, he wanted to. Maybe Hannah had put Gabe Holbrook in a wheelchair, but the coach was still a man who could command respect regardless of what the accident had cost him.

Keeping his eye on the clock, Kenny forced himself to sit still for another five minutes. Then he appealed to his father once again. “Blaine’s late, Dad. I don’t think he’s coming. Can we go? Please?”

His father glared at him. Then, muttering, “I’ll bet my ass you do have ADHD,” he finally tossed twenty bucks on the table.

Briefly, Kenny wondered how his father had twenty bucks for breakfast when he couldn’t pay his child support this month—he’d heard his parents arguing over it just last week. But he didn’t want to think about any of the stuff that made him angry. He’d learned early on when it came to his father he had only two choices—he could cut Russ out of his life, or he could put up with him. There was no other alternative, and therefore no way to win. It was important to take his father moment by moment.

At least they were leaving the diner now. At least Kenny wouldn’t have to face Coach Holbrook at practice on Monday knowing—

“Sorry I’m late.” Coach Blaine loomed over them before they could even stand all the way.

Swallowing a groan, Kenny flopped back into his seat. Russ did the same as Blaine slid into the booth next to him, wearing a muscle shirt and a pair of jogging shorts. Although Blaine was probably in his fifties, he was a stickler for physical fitness. Today he was sweating badly enough that Kenny knew he hadn’t been late for any reason other than a morning jog. Obviously Blaine didn’t think this meeting was important.

“I’m glad you could come, Coach,” Russ said eagerly.

Blaine waved for the waitress to bring him coffee. “What’d you want to talk to me about?”

Russ blinked as if surprised by the question. “I’m concerned, of course. Aren’t you?”

“About what?”

Most folks in town didn’t take his father too seriously. Blaine was clearly one of them.

“What do you think?” Russ replied. “The recent changes at the high school. I mean, you’ve given that team thirty years of your life. You can’t tell me you’re happy to be overlooked now that Coach Hill has passed on.”

A tightening around Blaine’s lips proved that he wasn’t happy about it at all. “They say it’s only for one year.”

“Well, if I know Gabe, he’ll decide to stay. What else is he gonna do now that he’s in that chair? And, if he does decide to stay, who in this town is gonna tell him no?”

Wiping away the perspiration rolling from his temple, Blaine attempted a shrug, but it didn’t come off as casual as he’d probably intended. “He won’t stay.”

“How do you know?” Kenny was unable to hold the question back.

Blaine seemed in no hurry to answer. The waitress had arrived with his coffee, and he waited for her to move away. “We probably have the weakest team we’ve had in over a decade. And now we’ve got a head coach with absolutely no experience.” His spoon clinked as he stirred cream into his coffee. “Add to that the fact that we’re all used to the Spartans coming out on top, and we’ll see how excited everyone is when we start losing our games.”

Kenny heard the eagerness in Blaine’s voice. “You want us to lose?”

“It has nothing to do with what I want,” he said shortly. “It’s what’s going to happen.”

If Kenny had his guess, it was exactly what Blaine wanted.

“You seem pretty sure of it,” Russ said.

“Maybe I wouldn’t be so sure if Gabe would listen to me. But I called him just this morning to tell him how things are normally run.”

“And?” Russ prompted.

“He said not to worry about the past. He’ll be making some changes.” Blaine grimaced at the sugar, ketchup and water mess Brent had created on the table. Grabbing the sugar container, he sweetened his coffee, then set it well outside Brent’s reach. “Coaching isn’t as easy as Gabe seems to think.”

“We’ve only had one practice,” Kenny said, wondering how Blaine could already be so convinced of their failure. Sure, they didn’t have the strongest team. Several of their best players had graduated last spring. But Kenny was still hopeful they could pull off a winning season.

“It’s Holbrook’s attitude,” Blaine explained. “He isn’t willing to learn from those who’ve been doing this far longer than he has.”

“So what do we do?” Russ asked.

“We wait, I guess. When the Spartans begin to lose, the school board will eventually step in and beg me to take over.” His long nose disappeared in his cup while he drank.

“I was going to ask you to look out for Kenny,” Russ said. “You know how Gabe must feel toward Hannah. I don’t want to let him take his resentment out on my boy.”

Blaine’s eyes flicked over Kenny’s face. He obviously wanted to say something, but he hesitated.

Kenny leaned closer. “What is it?”

“For God’s sake, if you think that might happen, use your heads.”

“How?” Russ asked.

“I’ll say it one more time. The more games we lose, the quicker Gabe will find himself back at his cabin, where he belongs.”

“Where he belongs?” Kenny echoed.

“He sure as hell doesn’t belong on the sidelines with me. And neither does that damn dog of his.”

“But will you take care of those who stick by you?” Russ asked.

Blaine wouldn’t look at him, but his words were decisive enough. “Of course.”

Kenny wasn’t sure he understood this exchange—wasn’t sure he wanted to understand it. He frowned as Blaine said, “Stay in touch,” and left without bothering to pay for his coffee.

Russ said nothing, and suddenly the clack of dishes, the tingle of silverware, the voice of the waitresses calling to the cooks and the hum of conversation at the crowded booths surrounding them seemed unnaturally loud to Kenny. At last, with a sigh, his father stood. “Well, you heard him.”

“I heard him say we were going to lose,” Kenny said glumly.

Russ lowered his voice. “I heard him say you’d better make sure of it.”

Kenny backed up as though he’d just encountered poison. “You can’t really expect me to do that?”

His father glanced furtively around, then shuttled him outside. Brent was still lingering in the booth, tearing up strips of napkin—but at this point, Kenny didn’t much care about the lack of parental intervention.

“It’s better to lose a few games in the beginning than to give up the entire season, and maybe next year as well,” Russ said, when the door closed behind them.

Kenny squinted against the sudden brightness of the sun. “But I can’t do less than my best!”

“I’m sure you won’t be alone. Blaine has two nephews and a second cousin on the team.”

Kenny knew that. The twins had necks almost as thick as Kenny’s waist and were part of the offensive line. Their cousin, with a much lighter build, was the kicker. “You’re saying Blaine and some of the guys are going to sabotage our games?”

“What do you think Blaine was talking about?”

“I don’t know, but I can’t do that,” Kenny said, shaking his head emphatically. “I’d let everyone down. I’d—”

“Do you want to play in the NFL someday?” his father snapped.

Kenny was so shocked at what his father had suggested, that he paid no mind to Tiffany Wheeler, who honked as she drove by. “You know I do.”

“Then you have to think past three or four games. Gabe won’t want to see you succeed. He’s never liked me, and you know what your mother did. Blaine’s our only hope. He’ll probably be taking over soon—next year if not this year. You scratch his back, he’ll scratch yours.”

The bell jingled over the door as Brent finally joined them, his shirt smeared with ketchup.

“But we haven’t given Coach Holbrook a chance,” Kenny replied.

Russ’s movements were jerky as he opened the door of the Jeep for Brent. “Coach Hill didn’t give me much of a chance when he handed my position to Gabe.”

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