Levi wondered if this was enough of an emergency to interrupt Tommy and Juliana before they’d barely had a chance to get out of town, but it was too late now. The damage was already done.
“Right,” Tommy continued, addressing Levi now. “Where were we?”
“I won’t keep you. Just… Does your dad still have that apartment to rent?”
“You mean the one above the hardware store where you’d getto see yours truly each and every Saturday and Sunday? The one he wanted to rent to you, sight unseen, and you said thanks but no thanks? Yeah, I think Principal Crawford still has the place.”
Levi groaned, slowing his pace as he neared the town square. He could see the tall, painted sunflowers on the tree stump that survived the tornado the summer before, and the new,liveones—heads tilting up toward the sun—framing the square.
“He already gave me a job. I thought I’d have a couple weeks before the season began to get my bearings…and maybe I wasn’t ready to put my tail between my legs.”
Tommy chuckled. “You know this isn’t like college, right? He can’t hire you to just coach. You’ll have to teach too.”
Levi waved him off, even though Tommy couldn’t see him. “Sure, yeah. I know. P.E. How much harder can it be than what I do on the field?”
“And your license is up to date?”
Levi laughed. “Someone’s sounding an awful lot like their father these days. Yes. The license is up to date. And just because I’ve never actually done the classroom thing doesn’t mean I forgot everything I learned in college.”
That might have been a slight embellishment. But, like he said, how hard could it be?
“Yeah, yeah,” Tommy replied. “I’ve been doing it for ten years, and it still kicks my ass. Talk to me after the first week is up, and tell me if you still feel the same. Otherwise, I think the shop could use someone else behind the register during the week. Speaking of which, the man in question is filling in for me today, so if you popover right now, I bet you can start unpacking within the hour.”
Levi sighed, already feeling a weight lift from his chest.
“You’re the best, Commissioner. I owe you one.”
“No way, man,” Tommy replied. “Yousent the Bat Signal, and I saved your ass. I think that makes me Bruce for the foreseeable future.”
“You’renotBatman!” a female voice called somewhere in the distance on Tommy’s end.
“Shit,” Levi’s friend added. “I gotta go. We’ll celebrate when I get home.”
“Didn’t we celebrate last night?” Levi asked.
“We’ll celebrate your new place and new job, and…” He paused. “It’s a good thing,” he continued, the playfulness leaving his tone. “You coming home. Try and see it that way.”
And there it was again, the pressure on Levi’s chest that had been there since the university let out last spring and he knew he wouldn’t return in the fall.
“Yeah,” he replied, trying to force a smile into his voice. “Of course it is. Thanks for the help, Bruce.”
“Any time, Five-Oh-One. I better get back to the cabana.”
Tommy ended the call.
Levi glanced down at his attire, a gray T-shirt—now damp with sweat—and red basketball shorts. Fine for hauling boxes, but what about appealing to your new boss for a place to live? Sure, he’d known Principal Crawford all his life, but while Tilly Higginson saw Levi as a grown-ass adult who should call her by her first name, Principal Crawford had been Principal Crawford—presiding overthe elementary, middle, and high school divisions of their tiny district—since Levi and Tommy were in sixth grade. He had been Coach while Levi went to Summertown High School and Principal Crawford the few times Levi got himself into some trouble. Those two monikers were the only options. He and his best friend’s father were not and would never be on a first-name basis.
He could jog back to his truck in his father’s driveway and try to fish out something else to wear, but he only had access to the formal attire he’d had on last night, and he’d look like more of an idiot walking into a hardware store in that.
So, he squared his shoulders and strode on, mustering the confidence he once had on the field during any number of games.
A bell jingled the second he pushed open the door to Crawford’s Hardware and the man in question looked up from a newspaper spread across the checkout counter.
Seriously? Just like his dad, Coach obviously preferred the printed word to up-to-the-second news.
Was the universe trying to tell Levi he was too reliant on his phone, or was the fatherly vibe just permeating the air today?
“Mr. Rourke,” Tommy’s father crooned with a grin. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
