“Why? Wait…” I thought about my research over the months that he’d been in Arizona. “That’s Kayden Matthew’s number.”
“He’s not coming back this season. They talked to us about him at the meeting because rumors are already flying around. He’s doing a press conference tomorrow to explain everything.”
“Why?” I asked. “What happened?” Because I hadn’t read anything that had indicated that the starting quarterback was going to retire.
“He and his wife have a family, a few kids, and they also run a big pet rescue. All that takes up a lot of time. I could tell last season that he wasn’t always thinking about football, but he showed up ready and he played great.” A fan said hello to him and he nodded back. “They don’t just have cats and dogs. Someone surrendered a miniature donkey.”
“Aw!” That sounded adorable.
“Yeah, cute. It follows him around like a dog and two days ago, it tangled in his legs while he was walking upstairs.”
“Does that mean that they have a donkey in their house?” I wondered.
That wasn’t the important part of the story. “Kayden fell and tore his meniscus. He needs surgery and he’ll be out for the season, but I think he’s going to announce tomorrow that he’s done for good. He’ll be glad to do it. All he did at away games was talk about missing his wife and kids. They’re very…loving.” He seemed slightly puzzled by that.
“So Dallas Laforet will be the starter?”
“Maybe. Maybe not.” Everett stopped walking and looked down at me. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s mine for the taking.”
Oh, geez. His eyes were literally sparkling in anticipation. No, not literally, but I could see all the excitement there. I hoped he would get it—I really, really hoped he would get it.
“We should go out and celebrate,” he said.
I glanced behind myself, because this had happened before, in high school, when I had mistakenly believed that an invitation to our senior prom was real. When I’d said that I was sorry but I couldn’t go with him (although I was really grateful that he’d thought of me), it had turned out that I’d misinterpreted the situation. “I wasn’t actually asking you out, Zoey,” he’d written back. “It was a joke. Don’t flatter yourself.” It had been a social media trend that people were trying, a prank. Anyway, I couldn’t have gone even if it had been real. It would have killed my sister to see me attend when she never would, and I wouldn’t have done that to her.
“Zoey.” Everett waved his hand in front of my face, calling me back to the present. “Did you hear me?”
It seemed like right now, though, the invitation was real. “We would celebrate the opportunity, not that Matthews got hurt,” I said, and he nodded. "Sure, I’d like to go out.” I started to smile again but then reminded myself: friends. “Sure, I’d like to go in a platonic way.”
“Uh, great. First come inside. I heard a secret about the stadium that you wouldn’t have seen on your tour with the first graders.”
I nodded happily and we went together.
Willow was flabbergasted when she saw me later. “How did you get so filthy?” she asked incredulously. “Were you mining?”
“No, there are no mines at Woodsmen Stadium. There are hidden tunnels due to all the renovations and we were exploring,” I started to explain, but she really didn’t care.
“Get in the shower, now!” she ordered. When I had texted that Everett and I were going out tonight, my sister had Boyd drop her back at our apartment so that she could help me again. Once I was clean, she started yanking a comb through my hair. “Crawling around in the dirt before a date…” she muttered.
“Not a date. We’re friends,” I reminded her, and she told me to stop talking so that she could focus on my hair, which needed it. I watched as she worked because I thought (for the first time) that it might have been a good thing for me to learn how to do this myself. And I didn’t make any remarks about how long it took to get it dry, like she did about our laundry.
Willow had calmed down a lot by the time she started on my makeup. “Where are you going tonight?” she asked me.
I shrugged, which made her flick my shoulder and tell me not to move any muscles at all. That included my face, so I sat in the chair in silence.
“It better be somewhere nice.” She studied me. “You’re done. It’s good.”
It was lucky that she had finished because Everett texted to say that he was in front of our building. I said thank you to my sister and hurried to the door.
“Zoey!”
I paused.“What?”
“Just…be careful, ok? Be careful,” she repeated.
“We’re friends,” I reminded her, and tried not to do that weird running thing again as I rushed to meet him.
We didn’t go anywhere “nice,” but I didn’t care. I was very happy to sit and talk for a while, because there was a lot to go over. First, football: “Tell me what’s going to happen with the Woodsmen,” I said. “Explain in detail.”
