Page 12

“I want you to step in as interim head coach, Mr. Kennedy,” the Dean continued. “You’re smart, you’re talented, you know the game, and you’re so far outside the orbit of this disaster that I’m surprised you even know it.”

“I ran into Mrs. Grady on my morning run,” I told him. Understanding immediately crossed his face. Everyone in Everdale knew Mrs. Grady. She was somewhere between being retired and starting her own independent intelligence agency. She knew who was sleeping with who, whose marriage was failing, and whose kid got arrested three counties over. I avoided her as much as possible. To be honest, it was amazing she hadn’t figured out Theo and me by now. “You realize I have a job, right?”

“I know.”

“I work remotely, but I don’t have time to volunteer.” That was technically untrue. I had plenty of time. My schedule was currently flexible. I’d designed it that way so I could help with my mom. Unfortunately, I was bored out of my mind here, living within the restraints of the image I kept in Everdale rather than being myself.

But there was a difference between having time and wanting to donate several hundreds of hours to a college football team.

“Not a volunteer,” he interjected. “It’d be a paid position. Well paid. You’d be doing me a huge favor by taking on the team.”

A paid opportunity changed the equation. I didn’t desperately need the money, but maintaining my house in Florida while renting one here wasn’t exactly cheap. Another source of income would make this arrangement less stressful.

I leaned back in my seat as I considered him. College football coach. I rolled the title around in my mind. It wasn’t a career trajectory I’d ever plotted for myself, and my mind started doing what it always did—weighing variables, benefits, drawbacks, time requirements, and complications. I was a pro-and-con-list kind of guy. Give me enough information and time, and I could work my way to the most reasonable course of action.

Usually. Theo had proven over and over that he was great at making me throw my system out the window. I had never been as impulsive in my life as I was with him.

“If I do this—and that’s a very big if—it’ll be under my rules,” I said. Michael raised his brows but said nothing. “If I take this job, it’s for the season—not interim. I won’t invest in this team to then walk out on them. I work a particular way, and that would be reflected in the team’s growth. It’d be unfair to the team if I did that. That part is non-negotiable.”

The condition was immediate. I knew myself. If I stepped into this role, I wasn’t going to half-ass it. I’d learn every player, and I’d invest in them. I’d restructure whatever needed restructuring, and I’d build systems around what they could do rather than whatever someone before me thought they should do. Once I did that, leaving halfway through because Harbor Tech found someone with a more impressive coaching résumé would F over everyone involved.

“Understandable,” he replied.

“It’ll give you real time to find a head coach. One that passes your discipline needs.” The dig was unnecessary, but I enjoyed it anyway.

“That’s true.”

“And I need two defensive coaches and two offensive coaches like yesterday,” I continued. “I’ll be doing this job on top of my own, which means I’m going to need all the help I can get.”

“I’ll do what I can,” Wirtz told me, “but I’m working at a deficit here. We just learned of this… indiscretion. We’re scrambling. Thankfully, the team is still in pre-season training—”

“With two weeks until school starts,” I finished for him.

Two weeks was nothing. That gave me two weeks to evaluate an entire roster, understand whatever system they’d been running, decide what could stay, determine what needed to change, find staff, establish expectations, and somehow convince a group of college athletes their season hadn’t just imploded.

If I agreed to this, my life was about to become a living hell for the foreseeable future.

“Exactly,” he agreed. “We have a lot of groundwork to cover in a short amount of time. I can promise I’ll do whatever I can to make the transition easier, but it’ll still take me time. Until then, athletic trainers and other staff are on hand to help with certain logistics. You won’t be completely on your own, but you’ll still be the only coach.”

I nodded slowly. Professional language translated surprisingly well when you stripped away the politeness. Good luck, Kennedy. That’s what he meant. They’d find people when they found them. Until then, I’d be responsible for everything.

I should’ve said no. I already had a career. I hadn’t come back to Everdale looking for a second one. Coaching would complicate my schedule, make me considerably more visible around town, and force me into daily interaction with people when I’d specifically structured my current life to avoid that.

And yet… I was interested. Fuck. A good challenge had always been one of my more exploitable weaknesses. The harder the challenge, the harder time I had saying no.

Another thought slipped through every professional consideration I’d been carefully arranging: Theo. Whatever the hell we were doing worked because our lives barely touched. That was part of what made it possible. We met in private, we fucked, and sometimes, we talked longer than either of us intended. Occasionally, we ran into each other when our families interacted, but that was it.

But coaching the Hammerheads meant Theo stopped existing in a secret, separate part of my life. I’d see him every day, and there would be dozens of people watching our every interaction—knowingly or not. There would be no margin for error. No room for lingering looks or disappearing together. I couldn’t just text him to come over because I wanted his mouth on me or have him show up when he was needy.

Worse, I wouldn’t merely be a man sleeping with him anymore. I’d have authority over him. The line of right and wrong between us wouldn’t be a blurry, obscured mess. It’d be fucking fluorescent.

If I took this job, whatever existed between Theo and me couldn’t continue. Taking the team meant giving Theo up.

And the fact that that was the part making me hesitate should’ve told me far more than I was ready to admit.

CHAPTER 03

Theo