Page 77 of His Reckless Freshman

Darian manages to block the ball, falling over as he throws it to Sawyer, who quickly fires it off to Jimmy. He races down the floor, dribbling around one player, then going for a quick jump shot.

The buzzer sounds, and I start cheering before the ball even makes it through the hoop.

“Yes!” Raising both my arms in the air, I laugh as the scoreboard flicks to a very sweet 65–69 in favor of the Nolan U Cougars.

Holy shit.

We just won our preseason game against Lennox.

That never happens.

Sawyer lets out a triumphant roar, jumping all over Jimmy, who gives him a shy smile, then ends up grinning when Mac murmurs something to him.

“Fucking yes!” Darian’s jumping on me now, and I piggyback him over to the other guys so we can celebrate together.

The crowd is obviously in shock, filing out of the arena with stunned whispers and a lot of head shaking. Coach is chatting with the guy from Lennox. I don’t hear what they say, but facial expressions are telling me something serious just passed between them.

And I find out what that is about five minutes later when we’re back in our locker room on a high.

Sawyer and Darian are singing, Jamal and Enzo are in obvious shock over our win, and Jimmy’s just sitting on the bench, a towel wrapped around his shoulders as he stares up at the ceiling.

“Good job, man.” I take a seat beside him. “You played like a fucking boss tonight.”

“Yeah.” His laughter sounds forced, and I turn to find out what the problem is but get interrupted by Coach.

“I have an announcement to make.” Raising his hands, it takes him a few tries, but he eventually gets us all to quiet down. “Congratulations. I really wanted that win tonight.” His smile is sad as his gaze travels across each of us. “That was my last game, and it feels really good to go out on a win.”

“What?” Darian pushes off the locker he was leaning against.

“Yeah, I’m, uh… retiring.” Coach clears his throat. “Health reasons. It’s all come on quite suddenly. I thought I’d have more time, but…” He shrugs. “Yeah, so… uh… Assistant Coach Mahoney is going to step up.” He turns to point at the young coach, who gives us a twitchy smile.

My eyebrows wrinkle.

Mahoney? I don’t even know if I’ve heard the guy speak before.

“The school might look for a new head coach. I’m not sure. For now, Coach Mahoney will take charge with Coach Stalbeck assisting him.”

I scan the room for our second assistant coach, but he’s not even here.

What the fuck? Why is this happening?

“Coach, what’s up? Are you sick?” Adonis asks.

Pausing for a beat, Coach eventually nods. “Yeah, been on and off for about a year now. Thought I’d beaten it. Felt pretty good over the summer, but I found out yesterday that it’s back, and it’s pretty aggressive.”

“Cancer,” I murmur softly, but everyone still seems to hear.

Coach bobs his head again. “They’ve given me a few months, and I want to spend that time with my family. Hate to let you boys down, but like I said… the assistant coaches will step up, and you know… maybe they’ll find someone new. I’m not sure. But I am sure that you’ll be just fine.”

The sobering silence that follows indicates that we’ll be anything but fine.

Coach clears his throat. “So yeah, I just wanted to thank you boys for playing so great tonight. It’s really awesome to go out on a win like this. I know you’ve had a tough couple of seasons, but I’m sure you can turn this thing around.” He gives us a double thumbs-up but looks as though he’s about to start bawling.

Quickly turning, he bolts from the room, and I slump back against the wall, kind of reeling over this sudden news.

“Fuck,” Darian finally mutters into the silence.

He gets no response. It’s like we’ve all lost the ability to talk.