Page 104 of Hometown Halftime

“I thought I was doing okay.”

He grins. “You two aren’t as sly as you think you are.”

I groan, rubbing both hands over my face. “Jesus.”

Knox laughs under his breath, but the sound fades quickly. When he speaks again, his voice has changed to the tone I know too well from every hard conversation we had when I played for him.

“Listen, I’m not out here because I care about the age difference. You’re twenty-two. She’s twenty-nine. You’re both adults, and Kinsey can make her own choices. I’m also not out here to warn you away from her, because that woman would filet me with a butter knife if I tried speaking for her.”

That pulls a reluctant laugh out of me. “She would.”

“She absolutely would, and I value my life.” Knox turns his bottle slowly between his hands. “But I care about the team, about those girls. I care about the fact that Kinsey is the head coach and you’re her assistant. If something happens between the two of you and it goes south, it doesn’t just make family dinners awkward. It affects the program.”

The humor drains out of me because he’s right. The girls aren’t just some after-school activity anymore. They’re invested. They show up early, stay late, text each other about drills, ask questions after practice, and look at Kinsey and I with trust. She’s building more than a team out there, and the last thing I want is to become the reason any part of that gets complicated.

“I know,” I tell him, my voice quieter now. “I’ve thought about that more than you probably think I have.”

Knox watches me for a moment, then nods. “Good. That’s what I needed to hear.”

I shove my hands into my pockets, looking back toward the house.

“For what it’s worth, I’m not going into this casually. I don’t know what she wants from me. I don’t know where football takes me after this. I don’t even know if starting something right now makes any kind of sense, but I know I’m not simply messing around with her.”

The last sentence came out firmer than I intended, but I don’t regret it. If anything, certainty settles something inside me. Because for all the things I don’t know, I know that Kinsey isn’t a distraction or a convenience. She isn’t a temporary cure for loneliness while I’m stuck in Cedar Falls.

Knox studies me long enough that I fight the urge to shift under the weight of it. Then his shoulders loosen.

“That’s the answer I was hoping for. She’s an amazing woman, Riley, and—because she’s my wife’s best friend—I will be ordered to cut off your balls if you hurt her.”

I shudder. “Noted.”

He smiles over his beer. “Good man.”

A little relief moves through me. “You had a different speech prepared if I said something stupid, didn’t you?”

“Several versions.”

“Were any of them nice?”

“No.”

I laugh, and this time the tightness in my chest eases.

Knox takes another sip from his beer before adding, almost too casually, “I already talked to Ramsey.”

My head snaps toward him. “You did what?”

He laughs, entirely too pleased with himself. “Relax, Weston, I didn’t use any names.”

“You can’t say something like that and then tell me to relax.”

“I asked about district policy a couple of weeks ago because I saw this coming before either of you did. There’s no issue as long as you’re both adults, no students are involved, and nobody lets personal drama interfere with the team.”

My pulse slowly returns to something resembling normal, though I’m still glaring at him on principle. “You could’ve led with the part where nobody’s in trouble.”

“I could’ve.”

“You enjoyed making me squirm.”