“You know, you can tell a lot about a guy based on his friends,” she told him.
Levi’s eyes widened. “Oh yeah? So what does the very little you know about Tommy Crawford tell you about me?”
She pursed her lips and tapped her index finger against them. “He’s self-deprecating, which is fine. You could have been the type of guy who leaned into his friend’s insecurities and piled on. I’ve seen guys like that…”
Levi leaned back against the bed of his truck, stretching his arms along the top of it. “I’m not that kind of guy, Haddie.”
She shook her head. “No…you’re not. You sang his praises like you actually meant it.”
His brows pulled together. “Ididmean it. Does that surprise you?”
She stepped forward and cupped a hand to his cheek, giving it a soft, grandmotherly pat that did not register as such to his insides, his pulse quickening at her touch.
Just friends, just friends, just friends,he reminded himself.
“Lots of things about you surprise me each and every day, Levi Rourke.”
She dropped her hand, and he let out a nervous laugh. “In a good way, I hope?”
Haddie grinned. “So far, so good,” she told him.
Her stomach growled, and Levi laughed.
“Youheardthat?” she asked, hand flying over her belly.
“Everyone in the parking lot heard that,” he told her. “I guesswe better get you home and fed.”
They tossed their schoolbags in the back of the cab and climbed into the truck. As Levi backed out of the parking space, Haddie’s phone chimed.
“Ooh,” she said, looking at her screen. “It’s an email notification from Principal Crawford. Subject line says, ‘Important News.’ Seems a little ominous, considering we just left a gymnasium where he could have announced important news to us directly, don’t you think?”
Again, Levi got that twisty feeling in his gut, but he pushed it away. What could be worse than being suspended from the job he loved and coming home with his tail between his legs to coach a sport he knew absolutely nothing about?
“I’m sure it’s nothing,” Levi told her.
Famous last words.
Chapter 7
Haddie paced back and forth in front of the television, unable toconcentrate on the one thing that usually set her mind at ease…as long as the U.S. Women’s National Team was winning its soccer match. But she still couldn’t get past the list in Principal Crawford’s email.
“I don’t think stewing about it is going to change anything,” Levi told her from where he sat on the couch, nursing an after-dinner beer as he tried to peek around her every time she crossed his line of sight from the couch to the TV. “And I thought you wanted me toeducatemyself on the game some more.” He gestured toward the screen. “Or can I give Coaches Lasso and Beard another go?”
“How are you not more upset about this?” she asked, coming to a halt.
Levi shrugged. “I am upset about it,” he replied. “I think it sucks that other programs like Tommy’s debate team get the short end of the stick so the school can pour everything into the football program, but Coach Crawford isn’t wrong about bringing revenue to the town. We’re known for football, and the better the varsity team does, the more game tickets we sell, and the better the wholeschool district does in the long run.”
Haddie just stared at him. She was pretty sure that if she were a cartoon, steam would be pouring from her ears and nostrils.
“Short end of the stick?” she cried. “Short. End. Of. The. Stick?Levi, he’s gettingridof the soccer program after this school year. Thewholeprogram. He’s not going to tell the students or families until after the season is over and he’s got the school board’s support, and there’s nothing we can do about it if we want to keep our jobs, which means there is nothing they can do about it either! Tommy might have a little bit less in his team’s activity account, but he gets to keep his debate team. But our teams?” She couldn’t form the right words to articulate all of the emotions she was feeling or why she was feeling them. All she knew was that Principal Crawford’s “By the way, here are some upcoming budget cuts” email had knocked the wind out of her, and Levi’s response had been nothing more than a shrug accompanied by, “That really sucks.”
He finished his beer, set it on the end table, and then leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees with a sigh. “I know,” he admitted with at least a hint of feeling in his tone. “But what’s done is done. Coach Crawford has been running this district since we were kids, and his word is pretty much law. I mean, when it goes to the school board, anyone against it can attend the meeting and protest, but I’ve never seen a board not do Coach Crawford’s bidding. That’s life in Summertown.”
Haddie scoffed, hoping the hot sting of tears would take a back seat to her unmitigated anger. “So that’s it? You’re just going to sit back and let him steamroll a whole program because ‘What’s doneis done’?” She crossed and uncrossed her arms, waiting for him to respond with something that would prove she hadn’t misjudged him, that the Levi she’d begun to know was more than just a really good first impression. But when too many seconds had gone by and all he could do was offer her another sigh, she stormed into her room, slammed the door, and quickly changed into her running gear.
When she emerged barely five minutes later in her green fitted athletic tank and matching leggings, his only response was, “Where are you going?”
“I need to clear my head,” she told him, positioning her phone in her armband and inserting her earbuds. “Remember what I said in the parking lot about you surprising me each and every day?”
