A low chuckle danced over the crowd.
“But most of all I want to thank the parents for allowing me to coach your kids,” Blake went on in a more serious note. “These are the hardest-working, most determined bunch of boys I’ve ever had the pleasure to work with. Coaching them for the past two seasons has been the most fulfilling thing I’ve done in a long time.” He cleared his throat. “A lot of people had written us off. They thought the Bobcats were finished, thought we’d never do anything but lose. But your boys have shown them down isn’t always out.” He glanced around the room. “Now, we may not have taken the state title this year, but the fact that we even made it that far was beyond anyone’s expectations for us. I don’t know about you, but I plan on seeing our name at the end of that bracket next year as the state champs.”
The players hooted and pumped their fists in the air.
Blake grinned. “I’m getting the finger wave from my fiancée, so dig in to the food she’s made for us.”
The crowd dispersed, with the parents approaching Blake and the players going straight for the food.
Beside him, Matt shifted. “I’ve gotta get some more of those puff things.” Then he was gone.
Brandon immediately went in search of Stella because he’d been away from her too long. But he stopped short and spun around when someone pinched his ass.
Stella grinned. “So feisty.”
“You’ll pay for that,” he growled, then swooped down for a wet, deep kiss.
When she came up for air, she swatted him on the shoulder. “There are kids here.”
Brandon snorted and looked around. “And most of them have done a lot worse than that.”
Stella hooked her arm around his waist and led them toward the already lengthy buffet line. “Blake gave a nice speech.”
“Yeah,” he agreed.
They stopped at the end of the line and Stella turned toward him. “Are you sure you don’t want me to go with you tomorrow?”
He and Matt were leaving in the morning to visit Trish in Oklahoma. At first Matt had insisted on going by himself, then he’d relented and asked Brandon to go with him. Brandon had pointed it out, but he sensed that Matt was scared. That he wasn’t yet too old to need his father by his side. And Brandon had been happy to agree, because it had always been the two of them and he wasn’t going to leave Matt high and dry just yet.
Brandon sighed and tucked a strand of hair behind Stella’s ear. “This is something Matt and I have to do.”
“Will you guys be okay?” Stella queried.
Brandon glanced at his son, who was standing with a group of other players. “He’s handling it in his own way. But yeah, he’ll be fine.”
Stella slid her hands up his chest. “And what about you? Are you nervous?”
“Me?” He’d been so busy worrying about Matt that he hadn’t really taken the time to process much. “I thought I would be, but no. And as long as I have you to come home to, I’ll be perfect.”
“Aw.” She slid her arms around his neck. “What fortune cookie did you get that out of?”
He chuckled and kissed her. “Smart-ass.”
“Hey.” Cameron bumped him from behind. “Get a room already.”
Stella grinned at him. “You wouldn’t be feeling lonely, would you?”
Cam narrowed his eyes at both of them.
“Anyway,” he went on. “I heard the recruiter from UT gave Matt a letter indicating their interest in him.”
Brandon couldn’t help his smile, even though UT hadn’t been his first choice. But Matt had been bursting with excitement when the letter had come in the mail three weeks ago. “Yeah, the three of us are going to Austin during the school’s spring break to tour the campus.”
Adrienne had already been accepted, so Matt had hurried and applied. Brandon had urged him to wait, just to see if some kind of scholarship was going to come through. Matt’s response had been a huge grin and, “If I don’t get a scholarship, I’ll just apply for loans and other scholarships.” But the kid was bound and determined to stay with his girlfriend. Yeah, that had freaked Brandon out at first, but Adrienne was a good girl and he’d taught Matt well enough to hammer some common sense into the kid.
Bottom line, he was happy, had good grades and a goal. Brandon couldn’t ask for much more than that.
“We’re making a whole trip out of it,” Stella expanded. She grinned up at Brandon. “While we’re in Austin visiting UT, I’m making Brandon take me to see Cirque du Soleil.”
Cameron furrowed his brow. “Seriously?” he asked Brandon. “Acrobats?”
He gestured toward Stella. “Do you forget who you’re talking to?”
Stella poked Cameron in the chest. “You’ll be doing the same thing for a woman someday.”
Cameron vehemently shook his head. “Not a chance. The only thing I do for women is get them off.”
Brandon smacked him on the shoulder. “Dude.”
Cam shrugged. “Just keeping it real.”
“Yeah, real dumb,” Brandon shot back.
Stella just laughed because she knew, at the heart of it, Cam was a good man. “You’ll eat those words one day, Cam. Just wait and see.”
Cameron shook his head. “Not happening.”
Brandon chuckled as his friend ambled away.
Stella poked him in the ribs. “What’re you laughing at?”
“Nothing,” he immediately answered. But when she lifted a brow, he cleared his throat. “Just that I used to say the same thing.”
“No, not you,” Stella teased. “You would never have been that pessimistic.”
“I was happy in my pessimism.”
“No, you weren’t.”
He blew out a breath and lowered his head. Yeah, she’d caught him red-handed. He’d never truly been happy before, despite what he’d told himself. He’d been miserable in his mistrust and lonely as hell. Until Stella had come along and thrown his world off its axis with her colorful outlook on life, guarded eyes, and her inability to take his bullshit.
He tightened his arms around her. “Yeah, you’re right.” He dropped a kiss on her nose. “How do you always know these things?”
“Because I’m a genius. You ought to know that by now.”
What he knew was that he’d just really started living, and it all began on the day she’d thrown up on his shoes.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Erin Kern lives in north Texas with her husband, two kids, and their dog. She loves barbecue, Texas sunsets, antiquing, and high school football games. The Champion Valley series was inspired by Erin’s love of Texas football, small towns, and happy endings.
When she’s not at the computer working on her next tale, she can be found spending time with her kids or curled up with a good book.