shoulder. She was still staring and smiling. She waved again. And a little farther up in the stands, Penny was deep in conversation with Tanner.
Now I had some one-night stand here and Tanner talking to Penny. Could this night get any worse?
I watched as Jefferson’s extra point sailed way to the right, nearly crashing through a window of a nearby skyrise. It bounced off the brick wall and then knocked into one of the floodlights.
Damn it.
He came running off the field.
“Good try, Jefferson.” I put my fist out for him to bump and he awkwardly shook it. This poor kid. “Did it hit your laces again?”
He looked down at his cleats and shrugged. “I’m not sure. I tried to make contact with my instep like you said. Did it look like I hit my laces instead?”
I honestly wasn’t sure. Because I was too busy thinking about what Tanner was saying to Penny. And whether or not I had a stalker situation I needed to deal with.
“We’ll keep working on it next week.” I tried to give him an encouraging smile.
“Have you tried a cookie yet?” he asked.
“Oh. No. Let me try one.”
I took a bite. “This is great.” I finally got to tell him something positive and truly mean it. His cookies were delicious. Which was good, because if they were as bad as his kicking, I’d for sure get food poisoning.
The rest of the game was painfully slow. Tanner and Penny had not stopped talking for a second. And to make matters worse, Scarlett was sound asleep on her lap. Which meant Tanner was probably grilling Penny about her sex life or inviting her to his sex club or something else wildly inappropriate.
Empire High won by two touchdowns, but only by twelve points, thanks to missed PATs by Jefferson.
As the team came off the field celebrating, I gestured toward the cookies. “Great game, guys. To celebrate the win, Jefferson brought us all a treat. Go Eagles!”
“If only he could kick a field goal,” someone said under their breath.
I didn’t see who said it or I would have called them out. “It’s a team win. We celebrate as a team.”
“Jefferson sucks,” added someone else through a fake cough.
The whole team laughed.
“We’re celebrating our team win together right now,” I said more firmly.
Smith rolled his eyes at me. And not in a cute way like Penny did. But in a disrespectful way.
“Everyone eat a damn cookie or I’ll have you running sprints until Monday morning!” I wasn’t sure what made me snap. Maybe it was the frustration of not being able to help Jefferson fit in. That I just kept making it worse somehow. Or maybe it was the stress of who was in the stands. I didn’t know. But I did know what it was like to be on the team. They’d all be going to a house party tonight. Drinks. Drugs. They didn’t want cookies. I’d basically set Jefferson up for failure.
I grabbed a cookie and bit into it a little more violently than necessary. “Now,” I added and pointed at one of the trays.
The team slowly obliged. But I knew I hadn’t helped Jefferson at all. I’d just made myself look like a dick and showed favoritism toward everyone else’s least favorite player.
Jefferson pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose as he watched everyone grab a cookie.
“These really are great,” I said with my mouth full.
He smiled, but it didn’t look like he believed me.
I felt defeated. I was trying my best, but I was just making his life at Empire High worse. There had to be a way to improve his game. I just…didn’t know what it was. I patted Jefferson on the back. “We’ll keep practicing next week, okay? I know you’ve got this.”
He nodded and then went to pick up his trays of cookies, one of which had gone entirely untouched.
“Great game,” Penny said as the stands emptied. Scarlett was asleep in her arms, and Tanner looked very pleased with himself.
“Thanks. Here, let me.” I lifted Scarlett up. She really was getting heavy.
I felt someone staring at me. I looked over to see the one-night stand no longer smiling. Actually, she seemed rather horrified. She looked back and forth between me and Penny and then retreated into the crowd.
Weird. I looked down at Scarlett. Oh. She thought… I lifted my gaze to meet Penny’s. That woman must have thought that this was my family. Scarlett my daughter. Penny my wife.