Love Lifted Me (25 page)

She accented her laugh with a hand slap to the table.

“Did he ask you about Hines? Or Chevy?” Was she exposing her husband instead of helping him? A bit of dread swirled in her sour stomach.

“He surely didn't.” The real estate mogul scowled. “Should he? What's on your mind, Jade, and don't tell me nothing.”

Jade inhaled deep. She raised her cocoa for a drink, but the sweet fragrance made her lip curl.

“It's just . . .” She breathed deep.

“You okay, darling?” Brenda took her latte from Debbie and handed her a couple of bills.

“Thanks, Mrs. Karlin.”

“Yeah, just tired,” Jade said.

“You look it. Now, what's bothering you? Tell ol' Brenda.”

“Do you think Bobby believes in Max as head coach?”

“Bobby believes in himself.” Brenda sipped her latte and waved to someone out the window. “Helen Alba. I'll be. If that woman don't spend a thousand bucks a month on clothes. Hey, Helen, you clotheshorse. Your shoes don't match your dress, shug.”

Jade pinched a grin. “You don't get along with Helen?”

“Oh sure, and don't worry, I've called her a clotheshorse to her face so many times she's starting to believe me. Now, Bobby. I wouldn't worry none about him. The boosters support Max.”

“All of them?”

“Well, the ones I influence do. Principal Buchholz supports him. Chevy really wants Max to succeed. He cut everyone out of the hiring process, even BM.” She snorted into her latte. “It takes time to build a team. We're not going to let Bobby run roughshod over him like he's done the other coaches. I reckon you don't know Bob's story, but he's always wanted to be the Warriors' head coach. Mercy, some dreams never die.”

“Roughshod? Like how?”

“Oh, the usual stuff. Making life difficult. Riding the coaches so they quit. One coach Bobby hired knowing he had infractions against him.”

“Why isn't Bobby coach?” The perfect motive to sabotage Max.

“Chevy won't let him. Neither will half the boosters.” Brenda leaned over the table. “My half. Rick and his consort can stomp around all they want, but we're not going to cave.” She smacked the table.

“Why can't he coach? Why doesn't he go to another school?”

“See, the Molnar men were Warrior coaches for three generations.” Brenda leaned toward Jade, hand to the side of her face. “But Bobby's got that awful temper. Hit a kid down in Plano. Oh look, there's Lisa Webb, one more facelift and her eyes will squirt right out her head.”

“He hit a kid? Brenda, focus.” Jade snapped her fingers.

“That's the scuttlebutt. Nothing came of it. Got kind of swept under the rug.” She rolled her eyes. “Big surprise. Anyhoo, the Plano school released him or he resigned, another mystery, and Bobby pulled a few strings to get hired on here as athletic director. Which really is perfect for him, you know? He's involved but not
involllvved
.” Brenda rolled the word with her tongue.

“So, he doesn't want to coach anymore?” Jade blinked. A greasy mist floating in the coffee shop from the panini maker fogged her senses. She breathed back the sting of bile.

“Oh, he's dying to coach. Sure. He thinks Chevy will cave and see the wisdom of carrying on the Molnar coaching tradition. Chevy may look like a pointy-headed intellectual but he's got aces in places Bobby don't even have place.” Wink. Nod. Brenda went on with the coaching history. Molnars to the Burkes to a string of failures.

To Max.

Oh, poor Max.

“. . . biding his time until the Warriors called him up to head coach, but then he popped that kid in Plano and”—Brenda dusted her fingers together— “gave Chevy the perfect excuse. The Molnar style of coaching would never fly in today's culture.” Debbie arrived with Brenda's panini. “Thank you, shugpie. I was about to pass out from hunger.” Brenda passed over a couple more bills. “Keep the change.”

“Do you think he'd sabotage Max so he could get the job? I mean, if he'd counted on Chevy to hire him . . . is there some condition or whatever that would give him the job?”

“Well, if the head coach gets fired in the middle of the season, then the A.D. can take over.”

“Fire? They'd fire Max in the middle of the season?”

“Shug, don't worry about it. We won't let that happen.” Brenda bit the corner of her sandwich. “This is fabulous. Are you sure you don't want a bite?”

“No.” Oh no . . . Jade scooted her chair downwind. “Appreciate it, though.”

Debbie dropped a quarter in the jukebox and a sultry voice filled the coffee shop.

“So what do you need me to do, hon?”

“Can you find out if Bobby is scheming to fire Max? Or set him up? Like, is he really in cahoots with anyone?”

Brenda wiped the corners of her mouth. “Now that would take some smarts and I'm not sure our dear A.D. is quite so clever. But you leave it to me.” She winked, then rolled her eyes when her phone pinged. “Oh mercy, ain't no place to run and hide these days. It's Bit. Can't be late for a client meeting.” She shoved away from the table. “I'll let you know what I find out.”

“Please, keep this between us. I'd hate to cause trouble for Max.”

“Between us. Never you fear.” Brenda slung her purse over her shoulder. “As for you? Run on up to see Dr. Gelman. I do believe you're pregnant. Debbie, thanks for the latte.”

Twenty-three

Noah's pass sliced through a shower of afternoon sun rays and hit Calvin right in the numbers. Max punched the air with his fist as Calvin spun away from the safety and crossed the goal line in three long strides.

“That's the way, Noah.” Max ran toward his quarterback. “Right over his left shoulder. It couldn't have been more perfect.”

Hines slapped Max on the back. “Son, we got us a football team.”

“We're turning the tide, Hines.” Max evaluated his assistant with his lawyer lenses. He'd been watching him since the clandestine meeting with Bobby and so far, nothing about the good ol' coach said
traitor
. In fact, the play they just ran was his design. Hines wanted to win football games.

“Max,” Haley called across the field. “Run it again. We'll defend it.”

“If you think you can.” Max laughed. “You've been beating us all season, Hale. We're finally throwing you a few curves.”

“Just run it, Max,” Haley said. “D, on me.”

Max set up the offense to run the pass play again. Haley was more than a good idea to run Warrior defense, she was a brilliant idea. Also, Hines's idea. The man had to be on Max's team. Had to be.

Noah and Calvin executed the play over and over, outwitting Haley's defense every time. Finally, on the last play, her brute linebacker Carpenter leveled Calvin, who bounced back up laughing and juking.

“Woo-hoo, Coach, we're going to kick butt Friday night.”

When Max released the boys to go home, he caught up with Tucker. “Can you stay? Practice a bit more.”

“I
been
practicing, Coach. I'm no good.” Eight weeks. Tucker still had no confidence.

Max lassoed him in a hold. “Not if you keep declaring it, Tucker. Ever hear of self-fulfilling prophecy?”

He led Tucker to the tee on the ten yard line. Jade was right. Tucker needed him more to build his heart and soul than his kicking skills.

She was right about his conspiracy theory too. He was building a fantasy case against Hines and Bobby. It was probably nothing more than a friendly question. In the dark. At the field house. After nine o'clock. Nothing to call into suspicion.

Ha! He'd gotten jury convictions on less.

“Tucker. You've been hitting the weights, training, practicing. There's no reason you can't hit a field goal. Let's start on the ten and work our way back to the thirty.”

“The thirty? That'd be a forty-seven-yard field goal.”

“It's only a number. Let's go.” As Max held the ball, he saw Jade running wild across the field. He motioned to Tuck. “Hold up.”

“Max, Max . . .”

Was she crying? He sprinted to her, catching her on the fifty yard line. “Babe, are you okay? Where's Asa?”

“He's, he's—” Jade bent forward, catching her breath. “I'm so out of shape.”

“Asa . . . Jade, is he all right?” Max bent over to see her face, his heart on alert. “Are you?”

“He's playing with the Feinberg boys.” When Jade raised up, her clear eyes glistened. “Max, I—” Emotion quivered on her bottom lip.

“Babe, come on, you're scaring me. What is it?”

“Max. A word, please.” Bobby marched across the field toward them. “I need to see you.”

“I'm busy. Talking to my wife.”

“It'll only take a moment.” He marched in between their private huddle.

“Afternoon, Jade.”

“Bobby.” She stepped back, still catching her breath, tucking her fingers into the pockets of her shorts. Her go-to stance when she had something to say but couldn't.

“Hurry up, Bob. What is it?” Tucker practiced kicking on his own. Max glimpsed the last kick. Tucker fired the ball
under
the goal post. But at least he had the distance. As much as Max wanted Tuck on the team, he might have to enlist one of the other boys to be the inept kicker. Brad Schmidt had put it through the uprights from the twenty yard line a couple of times. Okay, maybe once. On a fluke.

“Bad news. Noah Warren and Calvin Blue can't play this Friday.”

Max snapped his attention to his A.D. “Come again?”

“They're both failing algebra.”

“What? How? I check their grades every week. I saw their last test. They both had B minuses.”

“But they didn't turn in their homework. No more practice until they get those missed assignments turned in, and no game on Friday.” Bobby watched Tuck try to hit a field goal and shook his head. “Never saw a kid work so hard for so little gain.”

“You're benching our star players? Just like that? Let me look into it, Bob.”

Could the man be any more smug?

“There's nothing to look into, Max. They're grounded until they get the work in and have a report from Mr. Parrish.” He stood aloof now, hands on his waist, watching Tucker.

“Bobby, we have no offense without Noah and Calvin.”

“Then you have your work cut out for you. I can't treat them different because they're your stars, Max. Rules are rules.” Bobby cupped his hands around his lips. “Draw your leg back straight, Tuck. You're hooking it right.”

“What are you doing, Bobby?” Jade charged him with a low, commanding accusation. “You want to sabotage Max and take over the team, don't you?”

Bobby glared at Jade, then Max. “Want to control your wife?”

“Want to not insult her? She just asked you a question, Molnar.” When had Jade joined the conspiracy theory? He liked it.

“It's true, isn't it? You want to coach but Principal Buchholz won't hire you—something about a kid in Plano?” Jade's voice dropped to a fierce whisper. “You think this job is yours because your daddy and granddaddy were Warrior coaches before you.”

“Who do you think made Warrior tradition great, Jade? Small-town southern lawyers?” He daggered Max with a glance. “No, it was made by men like my father and grandfather.” He leaned over Jade. “Men like me.”

Max shoved Bobby's chest. “Move on, Bobby.”

“Tell your wife to mind her own business.” Bobby pushed between them, heading off the field.

“Max is my business.” Jade rushed him but Max grabbed her arm.

“Easy there, Annie Oakley.”

“He's a rat fink.”

“What's going on? Who have you been talking to, Jade?”

“Brenda Karlin.” Jade recounted her Colby Grounds conversation with Brenda.

The small breeze tugged at Max's shirt. “Tuck, let's do some drills here in a second.” He peered at Jade. “I can't go with ‘Brenda Karlin said,' Jade. Rat fink or not, Bobby's the athletic director and he calls the shots.”

“What? Last night you were sure there was something fishy going on, and here I am with the evidence. Talk to Chevy, Max. Don't just let Bobby sideline your best players.”

Max regarded his wife for a moment, loving her passion. “Let me look into it. I do check their grades, but not their homework. If they're failing, then—”

“Sure, they're failing. Wink-wink.”

“You think Bobby has that much power? To get a teacher to say two kids are failing when they're not—and deliberately undermine the head coach? He knows we'll lose Friday night. Conniving a way to bench Calvin and Noah is a bit drastic, don't you think?”