Page 116 of Hometown Halftime

His eyes go wide. “Oh, yeah?”

I sigh dramatically. “Yup, I still can’t feel my toes.”

The corner of his mouth tips up in a grin. “Sounds like a good problem to have. Better fix that though before practice this afternoon, Malone.”

I slip past him, tapping his cheek. “Definitely a good problem.”

I head upstairs to take a shower, because if I don’t, I’m going to climb onto the island and ask him to make my problem even worse.

Chapter forty-seven

Riley

The bus smells like grape sports drinks and whatever horrifying onion situation Tara unleashed in the back row twenty minutes ago.

“I’m telling you right now,” Brooke says while gagging dramatically into the sleeve of her hoodie, “if that burger touches my backpack again, I’m throwing you out the emergency exit.”

“Leave me alone, I need pregame protein,” Tara argues around a mouthful of food.

“Just finish it already.”

Laughter bounces through the bus while the girls pile over each other trying to switch seats before we pull out of the Cedar Falls High parking lot. Megan’s a couple of rows back from where Kinsey and I sit in the front seat, blasting Miley Cyrus from a portable speaker.

“We need to make a no food on the bus rule,” I say, leaning back in my seat.

Kinsey looks up from her notes app on her phone. “I’ll put it in the game notes for review on Monday.”

The farther we get from Cedar Falls, the quieter the bus gradually becomes. The energy is still vibrating throughout the team, but now it feels more like nerves instead of just picking on each other. Kinsey steals the speaker from Megan after the fourth profanity-laced remix in a row and replaces it with classic rock that earns her accusations of being elderly.

As we pull into the Harrison Grove High parking lot, the sky has turned gray. The girls spill off the bus carrying bags and water bottles while Kinsey and I grab ours from the storage beneath the seat.

“This isn’t going to be an easy game,” Kinsey says, her voice laced with worry.

I nod. “Yeah, but the girls need the challenge. All we can hope for is that the girls stay focused until the end. We can’t let them give up before the game is over.”

She huffs out a breath. “I’ll keep 'em focused if you keep ‘em inspired.”

“Deal,” I say as we step off the bus and head for the field.

My mind is clear until I look up at the stands from the visitors’ bench and see my dad.

Disbelief floods through me as he sits near the top by himself. Our bleachers are sparsely occupied since we’re a county over and the weather isn’t great, so he sticks out like a sore thumb.

For a second, I’m not at Harrison Grove anymore. I’m seventeen again, standing under stadium lights after throwing three touchdowns and still waiting for him to mention the one interception. I’m eighteen at the kitchen table while he talks about colleges, trying to make the decision for me.

“Riley?”

Kinsey’s voice cuts through the ringing in my ears.

I blink hard and realize she’s staring at me now, brows pulled together. She follows my line of sight toward the stands before looking back at my face.

“Is that your dad?” she asks cautiously.

I look out over the field. “Yeah.”

“Hey,” she says carefully, “are you okay?”

No. Not even remotely.