Page 43

“Not a fucking chance in hell.” That idea was going nowhere. I wasn’t about to be responsible for a bunch of drunk guys with impulse control issues. Nothing about that appealed to me. “Now, as I was saying… there’s one last thing I need to do, and that is to assign a team captain.”

That got their attention. Bodies shifted upright, and side conversations stopped.

“Oh, look,” Jude got to his feet, “my people are calling me.”

“Sit your ass down, you dramatic fuck,” I ordered. “You’re not my pick for team captain.”

“But I’m the quarterback.” Murmurs of curiosity accompanied his protests. I got it. I did. Quarterbacks were the obvious choice more often than not, and under the previous coaching staff, obvious seemed good enough. Jude had probably been handed the title because of his position, and nobody thought much harder about it.

“The team captain is a leader,” I began, my hands falling to my hips. “Someone who goes above and beyond where the team is concerned.”

I’d spent two weeks watching them. There was a lot I liked about this team. They were loyal to each other in a way I hadn’t expected after everything they’d been through. They fought and mocked one another relentlessly. But when one of them needed something, the others showed up. Still, one person did it more consistently than everyone else.

“Being in a leadership position on a team means recognizing your shortcomings and becoming better for the benefit of others. It means recognizing the shortcomings of others and figuring out how to lift them up—help them be better and feel better every time. And it means doing so silently without seeking recognition and praise because the only thing that matters is what benefits the team,” I told them. “Before I name my pick for team captain, I want to say thank you. I know these past two weeks have been… well, they’ve been a clusterfuck of chaos. I know that learning everything about your previous coaching staff was a lot. I’m sure many of you looked up to these men, and it’s never easy seeing a hero fall short.”

The mood shifted. There were a few nods around the group, lips pressed together tightly as I hit a nerve with that one. That was the part of all this I couldn’t fix with conditioning or a new playbook. Coaches mattered. The right ones did, anyway. For some players, they became mentors and sometimes something close to family. Finding out the people you’d trusted with that kind of role had failed you didn’t disappear just because a replacement walked through the door.

I couldn’t undo that for them. All I could do was try not to become another person they regretted trusting.

“That hit wasn’t easy, and each of you handled it better than most would’ve,” I said. “And I know it wasn’t easy to have some thirty-two-year-old local football hero come in and throw a wrench into everything you knew. Especially when that guy is the older brother of your quarterback. I know that I’ve pushed you hard the last few weeks on multiple fronts, but you’ve done great. Better than I could’ve hoped for. I’m real fucking proud of each and every one of you—yes, you, too, Jude.”

“Aw,” he jokingly swooned and damn near collapsed onto Theo’s shoulder. “My big brother is proud of me.”

I resisted rolling my eyes at his antics.

“Before Jude turned dramatic,” I continued, “I don’t have the jacket because the Dean hasn’t helped me figure that shit out yet, but… my pick for team captain this year is Theo.”

The response was immediate: applause, shouting, and a couple of whistles. Jude grabbed Theo by the shoulders and shook him hard enough that Theo nearly lost his balance. And just like that, any lingering doubt I'd had disappeared.

Theo, meanwhile, looked like he had absolutely no idea what to do with the attention.

“Oh, but I’m just the running back,” Theo tried to say. The way his cheeks turned pink was goddamn adorable. It did things to me—things I pushed aside quickly.

“There was only one person who went back and ran extra miles to make sure every player made it the full run,” I reminded him. “Only one person did extra exercises to keep his fellow teammates motivated. Only one person helped his teammates with the extra homework. I even heard through the grapevine that you were spouting economic facts for support when the whole team was worried the season might get canceled. Your position on the team doesn’t matter, but everything you’ve done for the team does.”

I watched him as I spoke. Theo had this habit of giving himself completely to the people around him without realizing anyone noticed. He didn’t do any of it for the credit. And that was exactly why he deserved it.

“Captain!” Jude shouted before I could say another word.

The rest of the team joined almost immediately. The chant deteriorated within seconds into some horrible combination of Theo’s name and Captain with absolutely no rhythm whatsoever. It sounded terrible, but they loved it. Theo did too. His embarrassment cracked beneath the attention until he was grinning so wide I could see it from across the field.

I stepped back and let them have the moment. This belonged to them.

And despite every reason I had to look somewhere else, my attention stayed fixed on that smile. Pride settled warm in my chest. I told myself it was because I’d chosen the right captain. That explanation would’ve been a hell of a lot easier than the truth.

CHAPTER 16

Theo

BABY KENNEDY: CAPTAIN!

WYATT: CAPTAIN!

BABY KENNEDY: Ohhh, Capitaaaaaan

Stop that.

You’re captain.