“Oh.” Molly looked shocked by my admission.
“That was a joke.”
Mel shook her head. “No one gets your sense of humor.”
“Jake does,” I said it without thinking.
Ben smiled. “He has an interesting sense of humor himself.”
Molly nudged Ben. “Interesting? Do you mean infuriating?”
“I take it you two aren’t best friends.” I was still dying to know what went down before Jake’s accident.
“No. They fight all the time. It’s usually quite entertaining.” Kelly held open a bag of popcorn. “Can he have some?” She gestured to Noah.
I nodded. I appreciated her checking with me first. Popcorn was one of those things you had to be careful with in kids his age. “Yeah, it’s fine.”
Kelly leaned over and gave him some.
“But Jake’s great.” Molly must have suddenly remembered what I was doing at the game.
“I know.” I still wanted more to the story, but hopefully he’d bring it up himself—that is if we spent more time together. I’d gone to the game, but I wasn’t sure what was going to happen next.
As Mel predicted, the dance team took the field for a pre-game routine. It brought back a lot of memories. Austen used to make fun of me for it in high school. I used to hate when he teased me. Back then I really cared about what he thought. My brother had made fun of me too, but I expected it and I knew he never meant it. I think he was actually glad I was on the dance team. It meant I was always at his games.
I noticed Jake on the sidelines waiting for the game to start. He had his arms crossed and an incredibly serious expression on his face. He was looking down at his clipboard. The guy next to him, who I recognized as Cole, nudged him and pointed at me. I’d never met Cole, but he must have figured out who we were. Jake’s serious expression immediately melted into a smile. He waved.
I waved back and Mel noticed. She leaned over to whisper in my ear, “He’s still hot.”
“Thanks, Mel. I needed that.”
“It’s true.”
“It’s still crazy to me that Jake’s coaching. He looks so adult.” Molly took a sip from a bottle of water.
“He seemed pretty nervous about it when I talked to him, but he looks right at home.” I watched as Jake turned to talk to the team.
Mel leaned over to whisper again. “No checking out his ass with Noah here.”
I pushed her arm. “Shut up.”
“Although, he does look good…”
I knew she was only messing around to keep things light. She might have been talking about Jake, but her eyes were locked on Cole. They were both wearing red, collared shirts and khaki pants. It must have been the coaching uniform because two other men had them on too.
“Mama.” Noah moved off Mel’s lap and back to me. It was only a matter of time before he wanted to run around. I’d probably end up having to walk with him.
They did the pledge and the game began. The Mustangs started out on fire with two straight drives for touchdowns. The crowd loved it. Almost everyone was out of their seats cheering. The jeers when the other team scored a field goal were just as loud. Noah was having a ball. I don’t think he’d ever heard grownups yell so much.
I enjoyed the game, but the best part was watching Jake. He got so animated about everything—good or bad. Watching him throw his clipboard after a call against them worried me a little, but I told myself that didn’t mean he had an anger problem like Tim. It was normal. I wondered if I’d ever stop worrying about things like that. Probably not.
I was pulled from my negative thoughts when Noah successfully moved off my lap. “I better take him down to run off some energy.”
“There’s some grass just behind the bleachers. I’ll come with you,” Molly offered.
“Oh, thanks.”
“Want me to come?” Mel tore her eyes from the game.
“No, it’s okay. Enjoy the game.” I didn’t want to ruin her fun, and I figured it might be nice to talk to Molly anyway.
I picked Noah up, and we followed Molly down. She was right, there was some grass behind the bleachers. It was far enough away that we wouldn’t be in anyone’s way, but close enough that we could still hear the announcer and fans—not that it would have been hard. The cheering had only increased as the Mustangs scored another two touchdowns.
“I don’t know how you do it.” Molly took a seat on the grass when I’d finally tired Noah out enough that he’d sit.
“It’s a lot of work, but fun too.”
“I just can’t imagine. I mean I’m scared to do it with Ben, I can’t fathom how hard it is for you to take care of Noah alone.”
The way she said it made it sound like having a child was a real possibility for her. Still, I needed to be careful. If she was trying and couldn’t get pregnant, I didn’t want to upset her. “Are you thinking of having kids sometime soon?”
“I’m almost four months pregnant.” She smiled.
“Oh, wow. Congratulations.”
“Thank you.”
“When do you find out the gender? Next month?”
“We can, but I haven’t decided if I want to.”
“You’re braver than me. I needed to know.”
“Ben wants it to be a surprise. I might have to give in.”
“That’s so exciting. If you find out you’re having a boy, I still have a lot of Noah’s things.”
“Really? That’s so nice of you to offer.”
Noah started to run away but I tackled him down. He burst into a fit of giggles.
Molly grinned. “How old is he?”
“He’ll be two in November.”
“What day?”
“The 16th.”
“Really? November 16th?”
“Yeah, why?”
“That’s Jake’s birthday.”
“Seriously?” That was pretty random.
“I guess it’s a popular birthday.”
“I guess so.”
Molly started to say something but she was drowned out by cheering. “I take it we scored another touchdown.”
“Sounds like it. Jake’s going to be happy.”
“I bet. Are you guys doing anything after?”
“He said something about ice cream.” I stood up and dusted off some grass stuck to my jeans.
“This is his first time meeting Noah, isn’t it?”
“Yeah.” I sighed. I hoped it went well.
“Listen, Jake can sometimes say or do stupid things, but he is a good guy. He likes kids. Don’t let any of his antics fool you.”
“Thanks.”
Molly walked back up to the bleachers just as Mel came down. Mel helped me keep Noah entertained long enough to wait for Jake. I knew it was going to be awhile, and I was starting to debate just going home. It was getting late and Noah was going to start getting cranky. As soon as I suggested it to Mel she shot it down.
“Don’t start making excuses. You want this to work, so make it work.”
“It’s not just an excuse, it’s late—”
I stopped when I saw Jake heading our way. He looked nervous, and somehow that made me feel better. I wasn’t the only one.
“Hey.” He stopped right in front of us like he didn’t know what to do. He probably didn’t.
Noah tugged on my leg for me to pick him up. I complied. “Hey, Jake. This is Noah.”
“Hi, Noah.” Jake took a step closer and smiled at him. Noah picked his head up off my chest and smiled back tentatively.
“Congratulations on the win.” I belatedly remembered to say it.
He looked at me. “Thanks. I’m really glad you guys came. I thought you left before half-time, but then I realized Molly wasn’t sitting there either so you probably went somewhere with her.”
“Yeah. She helped me entertain Noah. He gets stir crazy.”
“I don’t blame him.”
We stood awkwardly for a minute until Mel intervened. “Emily mentioned ice cream, are we going to Sweet Leaf?”
“Of course. Where else would we go?” Jake looked at Noah. “What do you say, do you want ice cream?”
Noah grinned.
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
Jake slipped his hand around mine as we headed toward the parking lot. It felt a lot more natural than I expected to be holding his hand with Noah in my arms.
***
“I didn’t think you were actually going to take us for ice cream.” I sat next to Noah in a booth, and Mel and Jake were across from us. Sweet Leaf was a really cute little shop that still served homemade ice cream. The boy serving us, who couldn’t have been more than sixteen, made sure to tell me that all the toppings were homemade too.
“I told you I would.”
I gave Noah another bite of the hot fudge sundae we were sharing. There had been at least ten flavors to choose from, but Noah pointed to vanilla. I didn’t mind. Sometimes the simplest flavors were the best.
“So what did you think of your first Clayton Falls Mustangs game?” Jake licked some chocolate ice cream that was about to drip off his cone. He noticed me watching him and smiled.
“It was fun. I think Noah enjoyed it too. Didn’t you?”
Noah was too busy with the ice cream to answer.
“Either way, he likes this.” Jake gestured to the dish Noah was about to pull onto his lap. I grabbed it just in time.