“God, no,” I retort, making her laugh. “They’re all young enough to be my patients.”
“Come on, there’s no harm in letting them crush, is there?” She nudges me, and my expression softens. I think there must be a deeper meaning behind it, but we’re interrupted by a catcall.
“Ayo, Miss Day-zee! Came to watch me play?” says one uniformed kid among a small crowd of football players, and I place my hand on Daisy’s lower back without thinking.
“She’s here for me, you simp,” his teammate retorts, shoving him playfully. And a growl nearly escapes my chest.
Instead of blurting out some inappropriate threat, I clench my jaw and curl my hand into the fabric of Daisy’s dress possessively. She blinks a few times before she answers, obviously flustered, though I can’t tell if it’s because of the kids’ calls or my reaction to them.
“I’m here for all of you,” she says sweetly.
They laugh as one of them nods in my direction. “That your boyfriend or something?”
“Something,” I answer for her this time.
“You look like you’d rather be watching a golf tournament than a football game, Pops,” he continues, elbowing his teammate.
I reach up to adjust the collar of my polo while they carry on with their roast, though I don’t understand most of the words they’re using.
“Hey, see that sign over there, the one next to the concession stand?” I address the first kid again.
“The one with Coach JD and Coach Blake on it?”
“Yeah, that one,” I retort dryly, then I tap my chest. “Number seventeen.”
They all turn and squint at the billboard honoring our state championship run from about fifteen years ago. I ended up serving as a catch-all that year, alternating positions as a backup quarterback and wide receiver, as well as a middle linebacker.
“You’re Landry Reed?” the kid finally surmises. Frankly, I’m a little disappointed that it takes him so long to read my name aloud.
“Well,DoctorReed now.” I feel my mouth curving into a smile.
“Hey, he must be Ms. Reed’s brother,” one kid tells the rest of them before he turns to me. “Wasn’t your dad the coach?”
I sigh when he knocks me back down again. “Yeah.”
He unexpectedly tosses a football my way, and I let go of Daisy to catch it. Then I step to the side and roll my shoulder around before throwing it back, depending on my muscle memory to keep me from looking like a total loser. The kid’s eyebrows raise appreciatively when he wraps his hands around the ball after it spirals toward him.
“So you played with Coach JD, too?”
I laugh shortly. “Mm-hmm.”
“That’s cool, bruh,” he replies just as JD walks by. “Hey, Coach, we just met your old teammate.”
JD’s grin falters when he turns and sees me. “Doc, Miss Daisy. Thanks for coming out to support us,” he says mechanically before he marches on down the sideline. Blake and another assistant coach trail behind him, to my surprise, and Blake gives me a halfhearted nod before he tries to get away.
“What are you doing out here?” I call out to him. “Shouldn’t you be at the hospital?”
He sighs before turning around and jogging over. “Loren kicked me out tonight.”
“What the hell did you do?” I fire back.
“Not like that.” He rolls his eyes. “She guilted me into coming to the game.”
“And you listened?”
“Look, it doesn’t matter how many times I tell her—she thinks I need to get back to doing the things I used to enjoy before I had her and the girls to keep me—” Blake stops abruptly and points an accusing finger at my face, and Daisy nudges me, presumably to warn me about my expression. “Don’t you dare, Reed. You know damned well I was talking about coaching,” he says defensively.
“Whatever,” I mutter, flinching when Daisy elbows me harder.
