Page 147 of Hometown Halftime

Her brow furrows. "Riley Weston, are you keeping a secret from me?"

Fuck, it amazes me how she always does that.

I play with the cord of my hoodie. "Okay, there's someone, but I'm not sure it's a long-term thing, so we really don't need to talk about it."

She yanks the cord from my fingers. “Don’t lie to me, or I’ll lock you in the attic again.”

We laugh at the memory, then I blow out a breath.

“I think I’m in love, Poppy.”

I watch as Poppy’s eyes go as wide as saucers.

“Love? You did say love, right?” she whisper-shouts.

I turn, angling myself on the couch to face her.

“Yes, but please don’t freak out. Actually, maybe you can give me some advice. Mom is all gooey-eyed over it, and while I love Darren and Lee, they only care about sex and embarrassing me at every possible moment.”

She mirrors my position, fully invested.

“Yeah.” She nods frantically. “Yeah, of course. But first, who is it?”

“It’s Kinsey, the woman I’m coaching the team with.”

“Your coworker?” she gasps. “Wait, isn’t this the same Kinsey that works at Gordy’s?”

I nod.

“Isn’t she, um, older than you?”

“Yeah,” I say defensively. “But that doesn’t matter.”

“Okay.” She holds her hands up in surrender. “So you two have a thing going on and it’s serious?”

I huff out a breath. “We made an agreement of sorts. We’d hang out until I leave to go back to school.”

She leans forward. “You made an agreement?”

I close my eyes. “Yeah.”

“That already sounds like a terrible idea.”

“Thank you for your support.”

“You're welcome. Continue.”

I groan. “We said no feelings, but now, well...there are feelings.”

Poppy hums. “And now you don’t want things to have an end date.”

I scrub my hand down my face. “No, I don’t.”

Poppy sits for a moment, then shuffles forward and takes my hand.

“Riley, you have a really crazy year coming up. If you get drafted, that means contracts, training camps, moving, preseason, and a rookie year. Your life is about to become unpredictable as hell.”

I process her words, then ask what's been in the back of my mind the past couple of weeks.