Full Coverage: Boys of Fall (14 page)

* * *

T
heir wake
-up call came at seven a.m. Randi rolled and stretched as Nolan grabbed the bedside phone, lifted the receiver and set it back down to stop the ringing.

He groaned.

She smiled.

It had been a late night, but it had been worth every milligram of caffeine she was going to need to mainline today. New York City was amazing. She was happy she’d gotten to see it. She’d been amazed by the buildings and lights and
people
. She’d watched a half dozen street performers, given nearly fifty dollars away to homeless people, and been propositioned by two prostitutes, at the same time.

It was a fun, crazy, exciting place to be.

And she couldn’t wait to get home. She loved seeing the city, dressing up, trying new things. But she was already ready to be home where nighttime was fully dark, where you could see farther than a city block at a time and where there was such a thing as quiet.

In fact, tonight she intended to sit on her back deck with a cold beer and look at the stars and listen to…absolutely nothing.

In her bare feet.

That was another thing she wasn’t going to miss—it was damned cold in New York in February.

“You going to join me?” she asked Nolan from the doorway to the bathroom. She needed to take a shower, but it didn’t have to be a fast shower.

He glanced at her and scrubbed a hand over his face. “Uh, no. You go ahead.”

She frowned. He seemed distracted, and very tired. “You okay?”

“Yeah.” He stood. “I’ll order breakfast from room service.”

“Okay, great.” Randi couldn’t explain it, but she felt cold all of a sudden.

But that was ridiculous. Everything was fine. He was tired and they’d had a big night last night. She knew he’d had a quick meeting with his editor when they’d first arrived. He probably just had a lot on his mind.

Randi showered and dressed and joined Nolan for breakfast at the little table in their room. But she’d just picked up a piece of bacon when he got to his feet and headed for the bathroom.

“Gonna shower.”

She nodded and watched him go. Trepidation made the bacon not taste as good. Which was serious.

Nolan was quiet on the way to the airport and pulled out his laptop as soon as they were settled in the gate area.

Finally, she couldn’t take it any longer. “What’s going on?”

He looked up. “What?”

“You’re quiet and distant. What happened? I thought the trip was good.”

He looked back at his laptop. “I just have a lot of work to do.”

“That’s fine. I get it. But I don’t love the silent treatment. Why not just say that?”

“I just have a lot on my mind.”

She put a hand on top of his on the keyboard. “Talk to me. What happened at the party?”

He looked up, finally meeting her eyes. “I messed up the book. I didn’t do the job. So I’m heading back to San Antonio tonight. I need to put my head down and work my ass off.”

She frowned. He was leaving? Going back to San Antonio?

Of course he was. She’d known he would eventually. But she’d…yeah, maybe she’d been hoping that he would stick around awhile longer. He could write in Quinn. He had been. He’d told her he’d gotten a lot done.

“I thought you were almost done with it,” she said.

“I thought so too.”

“Nolan, what happened?”

He sighed. “The book’s not what they want.”

“They don’t want a book about Coach?”

“They want a book about Coach and football. What I gave them was a sappy book about a small town obsessed with football.”

Randi felt the cold from earlier intensify. All the stories she’d told him. That’s what they didn’t like. “Oh. And staying in Quinn—”

“Will make it worse.”

Her throat tightened. “Oh.”

“Clearly,” he said with a frustrated sigh. “I let myself get all wrapped up in everything there, everything you told me about—in you—and I started to do my own thing and…” He shook his head. “I need to go home and get focused and get this done.”

Randi felt her heart squeeze painfully. “Right. Sorry. I guess that was kind of my fault. I didn’t stay on topic. Let me know if you need any help with the stuff you rewrite.”

“Yeah.” He looked like he was about to say more, but in the end he just said, “Okay.”

“I’m—” She stopped and swallowed, rethinking her words for a moment. But then she went on. “I’m sorry that I distracted you from your work these past couple of weeks. You’d be a lot further ahead if you hadn’t come home.”

She’d said it to hear him deny it. She knew that. She also knew, looking into his eyes after she said it, that she should have kept her mouth shut. Because if he didn’t deny it, it was going to hurt.

“Yeah, I would have.”

Ouch
.

“But It’s my own fault. I didn’t come to Quinn to work on the book. And I should have left it alone. I should have gone home after a few days. I was the one who stuck around and started rewriting.”

“You didn’t come to Quinn to work on the book?” she asked with a frown.

He gave yet another heavy sigh and shut his computer. “No, Randi, I came to Quinn for you.”

That sounded like something that should make her feel good. But it didn’t. Everything about the way Nolan said that indicated he regretted it all.

She had nothing more to say. She nodded and stood. “I’m going to get some coffee.”

She didn’t come back to the gate until it was time to board. Nolan was typing furiously and he stopped only long enough to get on the plane. Randi took the window seat and stared out at the clouds, listening to the sound of Nolan’s fingers on his keyboard all the way back to San Antonio.

She didn’t let the tears fall until she was on the road back to Quinn.

Nolan hadn’t even argued with her about her plan to just rent a car to get home rather than having him drive her to Quinn and then turn around to go back to San Antonio.

At least he’d kissed her goodbye.

E
verything sucked
.

Everything.

Even tequila. Maybe especially tequila. Because it reminded her of Nolan, and when she thought of Nolan, she got sad. And lonely. And horny.

It was
not
okay that tequila sucked.

The last time she’d been truly sad for several days at a time, it had been after the football team lost in district play. The last time she’d been lonely was…she couldn’t even remember. The last time she’d been horny for days…had been after Nolan had kissed her at Coach’s party.

She really wanted some tequila.

“What can I do?” Annabelle asked.

Randi felt the sting of tears as Annabelle took a seat on the overturned bucket where Nolan had spent so much time. That was so stupid. It was a bucket. She should have thrown it out. She should at least turn it over so people stopped sitting on it. Because every time they did, she had the urge to make them get up. It was Nolan’s bucket. Which was definitely stupid. But it was also the reason she hadn’t gotten rid of it.

“There’s nothing. My life is over. I can’t drink. I can’t even part with a plastic bucket.”

“Okay. A good attitude is everything,” Annabelle said with a grin.

“My good attitude often comes from a glass bottle that says
tequila
on it. And now that makes me want to cry.”

“You could talk to him.”

Randi sighed. She couldn’t. “Talking to him was what distracted him before. I’m trying to let him get his work done.” And the thing was, she didn’t really want to.

She understood he’d been stressed about the book and his editor not liking it. She got it. She understood getting caught up in work. There were times when she lost hours when she was under a car. But she hadn’t heard from him in three weeks. Nothing. Not even an email. And that pissed her off.

He was the one who’d needed to work. Who’d needed to get back to San Antonio. Who had to put his head down. Fine. But when he lifted his head, he needed to be the one calling her.

And he hadn’t.

“Randi! Someone here for you!” Donny called to her from the doorway to the main waiting area.

Randi looked over at him. “Who is it?”

“Someone who insists on having
you
look at his car.”

Donny ducked back inside and the door shut behind him. She sighed. Seriously? She was so not in the mood for this. She didn’t need picky customers today. Of course, she hadn’t been in the mood for much over the past three weeks since she’d gotten back from New York. She wiped her hands on her rag.

“See you later?” she asked Annabelle.

“Of course.” Annabelle stood from the bucket. “Want me to take this away with me?”

Randi started to say yes, please. But in the end, she shook her head. “No. Leave it.”

Annabelle gave her a sympathetic look. “Okay.”

Pathetic. She was completely pathetic. Maybe this next customer would take her mind off of everything. Randi headed inside, trying to feel hopeful. But it was tough. She was destined to spend sixty hours a week in her garage for the rest of her life and her garage now reminded her of Nolan. For the rest of her life.

As Randi stepped into the waiting area and she saw who was there for her, she did, however, smile.

“Hey, Coach.”

Coach Carr turned from where he was filling a cup with coffee.“Hey, Randi.”

“How are you?” She crossed the room and lifted onto tiptoe to give him a kiss on the cheek. He was one of her favorite people and in spite of her crappy mood, she was happy to see him.

“Couldn’t be better,” Coach told her.

Randi grinned at that. Coach’s daughter, Lorelie, was in love and Coach was happy about it. That really could have gone either way and Randi had been thrilled when her friend told her that Coach liked Glen.

But, Randi had only been able to handle a few minutes of Lorelie’s glowing. Just like she’d turned down Annabelle and Jackson’s invitations to dinner, and had excused herself from the table with Lela and Charlene when their men showed up at Pitchers. She was just having a hard time not being a jealous bitch. It was better that she just keep her melancholy, lovesick crap to herself.

“So how’s the car?” Randi asked Coach.

“Good.”

She lifted an eyebrow. “Donny said you wanted me to look at it.”

“Oh, right. Yep. Need new wiper blades,” Coach said.

Now both her eyebrows went up. “You need me to replace your wiper blades?”

Coach sipped from his cup and nodded.

The man was one of the most intelligent people she knew. He crafted plays that made other coaches weep. He’d run his ranch for umpteen years. He’d raised a daughter all on his own. He’d been a father figure to dozens of young men. There was no way Nicholas Carr needed her to change his wiper blades. Something was up. And it was probably about Nolan.

Randi felt her heart squeeze at the thought of Nolan. He and Coach talked at least a couple times a month even when Nolan wasn’t visiting. She was sure Coach knew that she knew that. He was waiting for her to ask about him. She sighed. If Coach had something to say that he thought she needed to hear, she was going to hear it. But she didn’t have to encourage it.

“Okay,” she said. “Pull the truck into bay three and we’ll get you fixed up.”

“Will do.” Coach tossed his empty cup into the trash and headed for the front of the garage.

She watched him get into the truck and start it up. He was going to pretend he needed her to work on the truck rather than just getting to it?

Fine. She was going to charge him for the stupid blades.

He pulled into the bay and she grabbed the blade replacements from the store room. She climbed up on the running board and had the first one done in two minutes.

She moved to the other side to replace the second blade that was in practically perfect condition.

“Weather’s been good, huh?” Coach asked.

For God’s sake. They were going to talk about the weather? Literally?

Randi nodded. “It really has been.”

“Heard you went to New York.”

Now they were getting to it. She snapped the wiper back into place and jumped to the ground. “Yep.”

She wasn’t going to give him anything. If he wanted to know something specific, he could ask. This was Coach. He was a straight shooter. He told people what they needed to hear, whether they wanted to hear it or not. There was a reason he was working up to this. He was gauging her reactions and expressions. He was trying to read how she felt and what she was thinking. And he’d probably tell Nolan everything.

Well, she wasn’t that easy.

“Cold up there, huh?” Coach asked.

“Yep. Very.”

“Have a good time?”

“Yep. Very.” She had. New York had been great. It was the stuff that came after that. “Okay, two new blades,” she said. “You’re all set.”

“Will you check my wiper fluid while I’m here too?” Coach asked.

Wiper fluid? Really? Was there anyone who didn’t know how to do that themselves? “Of course.” She popped his hood.

“So how are you? Guess I didn’t ask,” he said as she filled up the nearly full fluid and replaced the cap.

“Fine. The same,” she said, playing along. “Why do you ask?” There. She could be straightforward if he couldn’t.

“Just checking on one of my favorite girls.”

She gave him a legitimate smile. “You’re sweet.”

Just say what you have to say.

“How’s the coolant?”

Okay, fine. She checked. “Looks good.”

“And the brake fluid?”

She checked. “Yep, you’re good.”

“How about the tire pressure?”

She sighed. What was going on? Why not just say what he’d come here to say? She pulled the pressure gauge from her back pocket and squatted next to the passenger side front tire.

The pressure was perfect. As expected. She moved to the back tire. Also fine.

Finally, she caved. “You really going to have me check them all?” she asked.

“Yep. And the oil, the filters, the hoses.”

She got to her feet. “Which will all be perfectly fine.”

“Probably.”

She turned and tucked her hands into her back pockets. “What’s going on?”

“I’ve been waiting for you to come to me for at least two weeks.”

“About?”

“Nolan.”

She gave him a little smile, but her chest hurt just hearing his name out loud. “Why did you think I would come to you about him?”

“Because you’re in love with him and he’s acting like a jackass.”

She gave a short laugh. “You can help with that?”

“Oh, I’m a specialist in dealing with jackasses,” he said. “Lots of practice.”

She smiled, but shook her head. “He had to go back to San Antonio to finish the book.” She swallowed hard. “I distracted him too much.”

Coach gave her a half smile. “Well, that’s as it should be. If a man isn’t distracted by the woman he loves, he’s doing something wrong.”

Her heart kicked at hearing Coach say Nolan was in love with her. She believed it, actually. But hearing someone else acknowledge it felt…awesome.

She shrugged. “He tried working here. The distraction thing ruined the book.”

Coach shook his head. “Not possible.”

“I promise you, that’s exactly what happened. The book he wrote while he was with me isn’t the one his editor wanted.”

“Oh, well, that’s different from ruined,” Coach said. “The things a person does when they’re in love are the best things they ever do. Especially when it comes to being creative. How do you think romance novels and love songs and poetry happen? Without love, the most beautiful things in the world would have never been created.”

She shook her head, but couldn’t help her smile. She loved this guy. He was one of the toughest men she’d ever met. He could chew ass, yell, and rant better than anyone. She’d seen him yell at a ref, one inch from the other guy’s nose. She’d seen him throw clipboards, water jugs, helmets and a hundred other things halfway across a football field. But he was also one of the sweetest, most loving men she knew. Because he got people. He really got them. And he always believed the best of them.

“He’s in San Antonio, finishing the book, because he’s obligated to do it,” she said. “He has a contract and he’s not the type to back out. He made a promise to them and he’ll honor that. And he has to be there, because when he’s here with me, he wants to write something…different. I understand.”

“You understanding doesn’t mean he shouldn’t apologize to you.”

She swallowed. “Yeah. Maybe.”

“I want you to know, if you realized you didn’t really love him when you saw how he acts under pressure, I get it.”

Randi straightened away from the car. “No. That’s not it. I do love him. He was a jerk, but that doesn’t change the way I feel about him.”

“But he hasn’t said he’s sorry.”

“No. But…” She didn’t have an excuse for him. “No, he hasn’t.”

Coach nodded. “He will.”

“You think so?”

“Yeah, cuz I’m gonna chew his ass and tell him to.”

Randi shook her head. “You can’t do that. He has to mean it.”

“Oh, honey,” Coach said, putting his hand on top of her head. “If I didn’t know he’d mean it, I wouldn’t tell him to do it.”

Randi pulled in a deep breath. “Okay.”

“Good.” Coach pulled his keys from his pocket and started around to the driver’s side of the truck.

He opened the door and Randi shook herself. “What? You came over here today and went through all of that just to tell me he was going to be apologizing?”

Coach turned back, his hand gripping the edge of the door. “No. I came over here to let you know that I love you for loving a jackass and that I know that ain’t easy.”

She smiled in spite of herself. “You didn’t tell me that.”

“But you know it anyway, right?”

She nodded. “Yeah.”

He gave her a wink and got into his truck. But before he shut the door she called, “Those wiper blades aren’t free you know.”

“How much?” he asked with a grin.

She ran her gaze over the car. “Three hundred and fifty-two and thirty-one cents.”

He chuckled. “Wow.”

“That’s twelve thirty-one for the blades, forty for labor and three hundred for annoying me.”

He nodded. “Put it on my bill.”

She laughed and he got up into the truck. Just before he started the engine, she said, “Hey, Coach?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks.”

“For what?”

“Chewing the jackass’s ass.”

“Like I said, I’m kind of a specialist.”

“And be sure to tell him I love him.”

Coach nodded. “Right after I tell him that if he doesn’t already know that, he’s also a dumbass.”

Then he gave her a wink and drove off, wiping his windshield with his new wipers.

* * *

“
I
can’t believe
you haven’t been back here in a
month
.”

Nolan sighed. “Hi, Mom.”

Teresa set her purse on the kitchen counter. She wasn’t surprised to see him—Nolan had called to tell her he was on his way this morning—but she didn’t look thrilled to see him either.

“And you ate the pie?”

Nolan looked down at the empty pie plate in front of him on his mother’s kitchen table. “I’ve been eating microwave burritos and frozen pizza for the past month. I couldn’t help it.”