must be about fifty or sixty feet between here and the tree.
“Some things you don’t forget.”
“Yeah.” Cole nodded as he absently massaged his thigh.
Finn missed the ball that landed just in front of him and scrambled after it as it bounced away at an odd angle. “I read about your accident,” Arlo said, tipping his chin at the walking stick lying on the grass. “I’m sorry.”
“Thanks.” Cole was over being surprised at who knew what. Maybe he hadn’t expected someone from buttfuck nowhere on the other side of the planet to know, but a few strokes of the keyboard could give anyone information these days. He glanced at Arlo’s profile as the other man kept an eye on Finn. “I see you’ve also got a bit of a limp going on.”
“Yeah.” Arlo looked down at his leg. “I lost it in the line of duty.”
Cole blinked. Arlo had lost his leg? Here he was, indulging in his own pity party, when at least he still had a leg. Considering how close he’d come to losing it, he was extra thankful now for what he did have, despite the frustration of his limitations. “I’m sorry.”
The other man shrugged. “It was a long time ago now.”
“You have a prosthesis?”
He knocked on his thigh, which produced a dull thud. “Yep.”
Finn came puffing back with the ball, stopping a few feet from them. “Catch!” He tossed the ball wide of Arlo, who threw out his arm and deftly plucked it out of the air. Finn grinned and said, “Throw it again.”
“Okay.” Arlo smiled. “Back you go again.”
They watched as Finn started to run backward, and Cole felt a spike of alarm. “Turn around and look where you’re running,” he called.
“Okay,” Finn yelled as Arlo laughed.
It was no laughing matter. Cole could only imagine his performance review tonight if he returned Finn with even the slightest little scrape. He’d rather not face the wrath and fury of Jane Spencer. He’d prefer her approval, smiling at him around the lip of her bottle.
And besides, he really wanted to do this again tomorrow. It had been fun.
Arlo tossed the ball to Finn again, then turned to Cole. “You given any more thought to that rugby clinic I mentioned?”
Cole frowned. He hadn’t really thought Arlo was serious. “I hadn’t…no.”
“You should. As I said, you’re a natural with kids. There’ll only be a handful, anyway, and I can get you some volunteers, along with the moms and dads, who’ll also help. There’ll be plenty of hands. You can bring Finn, if it’s okay with his mom.”
His first instinct was to dismiss the invitation a second time, but suddenly Cole was seeing the advantages. He’d had a really good time out here kicking the ball around with Finn, it was clear Finn was enjoying himself enormously, and it was exercise.
Before he could change his mind, Cole nodded. “Okay, sure… Why not?”
Finn got his hands to the ball this time, and Arlo clapped and called, “Good job,” before returning his attention to Cole. “Yeah?”
Cole nodded. “Yeah.”
Arlo held out his hand and shook Cole’s enthusiastically. “Thank you. The kids around here are going to love it.”
“No worries.”
“It’ll take me a couple of days to organize. What do you say we do it this weekend?”
“Sure.” It wasn’t like his calendar was full.
“Thanks. I’ll be in touch.”
“Here you go,” Finn announced, squinting up at them, still puffing but obviously not ready to call it quits yet as he passed the ball to Arlo. “One more time?”
“Sorry, Finn.” He ruffled the boy’s sweaty hair before replacing his hat for him. “I’ve gotta go now.” He handed the ball to Cole. “But I’ll be seeing you around, okay?”
Finn nodded solemnly. “You got to catch bad guys now?”
Arlo laughed. “No bad guys in Credence, Finn.” Then he gave a half salute and sauntered away to his car parked near the curb, his limp only just discernible. Cole wondered how long it had taken Arlo to recover and rehabilitate from his injury and how anyone ever got over losing a limb.
“Can you teach me to kick like you do, Cole?”
Finn’s request pulled Cole back from things that swirled dark and dangerous inside his head. A place he’d lived a lot in those early days and weeks after the accident and one he wasn’t keen to revisit.
“Sure, mate.” He grinned and grabbed the ball off the kid. “Let’s start with a dropkick.”
Finn nodded, squinting up at Cole like he’d invented football, and for the first time in a long