by Danica Avet
“These boys have worked hard all season,” Buddy says once the noise dies down again. “And I have a feeling they’re going all the way to the BCS.” The roar of the crowd is like a jumbo jet taking off. “Now, this is homecoming, which means we have to say goodbye to the players who’re going off to bigger and better things. If you’ll hold your applause…”
I’m smiling as my gaze wanders back to Katie, who’s standing with the band. She has her arms wrapped around her waist, looking up at us. Every time I look at her, I see my future. I see kids and practices, holidays and anniversaries. I see everything in her, and when her mouth goes all soft I know she sees the same in me.
Buddy calls up the players who’re graduating, either in the fall or spring. Some are going to the NFL, the EFL, or the CFL. Some are going on to work in the fields they’ve been studying and some will probably go home and live off the glory of their years at Sauvage State. But tonight they’re all young gods, accepting the adoration of thousands of screaming fans.
As the boys climb onto the stage with us, a disturbance not far from the band catches my attention. People are shuffling out of the way as someone pushes his or her way through the crowd. I can’t see who it is, but irritation flares. I hate impatient people. Thinking it’s most likely a couple of cleat chasers trying to get closer to the football players for the after-bonfire fuck fest that’ll most likely take place, I turn my attention back to Buddy, who’s personally thanking each player for his help in making the Spartan football program what it is.
Once the players are on stage, the crowd roars again and the band strikes up the school fight song. I glance over at Katie but don’t see her, people having shifted around to almost surround the band. I frown, but applaud with everyone and listen through two short speeches, one by Dean Forbes and the other by the president of the Alumni Association.
Sometimes I really fucking hate formalities, but I smile and shake hands with all the VIPs who are on the stage with us. I add my congratulations and thanks to Buddy’s for the players, but the entire time my gaze is searching the crowd of people as the band is dismissed. Katie said once the massive wooden S at the end of the field was lit, the band members would head out to pack away their instruments and either go home or return to the party. I know she planned to hang around, waiting for me to finish with all my coaching duties before we mingled at the block party later on, but I don’t see her anywhere.
My gut tightens, impatience filling me as Buddy and the Alumni president engage me in conversation about any equipment we might need for next season, what our prospects look like for recruitment and other bullshit I can’t concentrate on. Something is wrong. I don’t know why I have that feeling, but it’s there and worsening with every second that passes without me putting eyes on her.
“You look like you’re ready to bolt,” Buddy jokes when he sees me look at the crowd again. “Need to get to your girl?”
I flash a smile I don’t really feel, but say, “Yeah. So if you’ll both excuse me.”
Without waiting for them to say anything else, I hop off the stage, not even bothering with the stairs. The crowd of spectators has already started for the bonfire, which starts flickering with light, and most of the band is gone, their distinctive scarlet shirts nowhere to be seen. I nod, smile and push my way through the throng of people, a strange urgency filling me as I work my way like a salmon traveling upstream.
There’s a ripple of something that hits the people who’ve begun to slow, some coming to a complete standstill around me. The mood goes from jubilant to shock, the loudness of their chatter beginning to fade, allowing me to hear a feminine voice screaming shrilly. I turn my head in the direction everyone’s looking and my heart stops. Dead. I don’t even breathe for several seconds because there’s no way I’m seeing what I’m seeing.
But as more and more people begin to turn toward the spectacle taking place right on the edge of the crowd, I know my eyes aren’t deceiving me. Because I finally found Katie. With Denise, thin arms gesticulating wildly, screaming into her face while a strange man stands at her side looking uncomfortable yet triumphant. Katie, meanwhile, looks horrified, defeated, her body flinching with every vile word that falls from my bitch of an ex-wife’s lips.
She looks ashamed, and that’s what finally gets my heart pumping again, gets my feet moving. Slow at first, but quicker with every step I take, pushing my way through the crowd and not giving a fuck if they’re pissed. Because my woman looks as though she wishes the ground would swallow her whole, and that is un-fucking-acceptable.
Kate
“Kit-Kat,” I hear and everything sort of freezes.
I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe and I can’t believe this is happening. How can everything be going so well that I want to pinch myself to make sure I’m not dreaming, only to have it go so horribly wrong in a split second?
One minute I’m staring up at Shaun, admiring his muscles, the smile on his bearded face as he listens to Buddy’s speech, and in the next minute I see the one person I never wanted to talk to again: Adam. Why he’s here I have no idea, but I do my best to ignore him.
Shifting slightly to the left, giving him my shoulder, I keep my attention on the stage, almost begging Shaun to save me, but he’s smiling and clapping with everyone else. And Adam just makes more of a ripple as he comes around me, proving he’s still a persistent bastard.
“Kit-Kat,” he says again. “I really need to talk to you.”
I don’t want to talk to him. I don’t want to even look at him. He’s a part of my past that doesn’t impact my present or my future. Not anymore.
I stare straight ahead, my stomach beginning to churn. Shaun looks so happy up there and I wish I were with him, even if it put me directly in the spotlight. It’s better than being stuck down here with Adam.
“Katherine!”
Mark frowns my way as Adam grows louder, rudely interrupting everyone’s enjoyment. My patience ends, as I finally look at him and say, “Fine.”
Funny how only eight months ago seeing Adam would’ve filled me with happiness, with love. Now, though, I only feel impatience and indifference. Because I finally know what real love is. It’s wanting someone to be happy, no matter what. It’s wanting the whole world to know they’re yours. I learned that from Shaun. He isn’t afraid to show me how he feels and he isn’t ashamed of those feelings, or of me. What we have is beautiful and I don’t want Adam tainting it.
So I lead the way in the direction Adam points, giving a fake smile to Levi and the drumline as they watch curiously. I was really hoping Shaun and I could watch the bonfire, hang out at the block party for a little and stuff our faces with junk food before we went home, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen unless I can get rid of Adam.
There’s a lone woman standing several yards away from the mass of bodies when we break free of the crowd, but I pay her no mind, trying to figure out how I’m going to convince Adam he needs to let this go.
Once we’re in a relatively quiet spot, I turn to him and cross my arms. “What are you doing here?”
He licks his lips. He’s still handsome, but the power he once had over me is long gone. He isn’t my Shaun. “Kit-Kat…” His eyes survey me from the top of my head to the tips of my toes. “You’re looking good.” He meets my gaze before flicking a look over my shoulder. “Um, so Lisa and I are getting a divorce.”
I feel a pang of sympathy. Not for Adam, but for his wife. She probably found out about us and couldn’t deal with it. This was exactly what I wanted to avoid at all costs. I didn’t want to be the cause of a broken home, of kids seeing their family ripped apart. I straighten my spine. If anyone is at fault here it’s Adam. He was the cheater. Lisa and I were both victims of his ways.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” I say stiffly. “For Lisa. But what does that have to do with me? I told you I didn’t want to see you anymore and I meant it.”
His smile is smarmy. Had he always been smarmy like this? �
�Oh baby, you know you miss me.”
He takes a step toward me, hand extended like he’s about to touch me, but I jump back with a glare. Adam stops, glances over my shoulder again. Wondering what he keeps looking at, I look as well and feel my heart skip a beat, because the lone woman is coming towards us. And while I haven’t spent a lot of time staring at Denise Decker on Shaun’s Facebook page, I know what she looks like.
She’s beautiful of course. I knew that. But in person, it’s obvious she takes pride in her looks. It’s in the clothes she’s wearing, that I know have to cost as much as my whole wardrobe put together. It’s in the healthy shine of her sleek black hair, in the dramatic makeup on her face, the full, pouty lips and her augmented breasts. If you stood her next to Shaun, they’d look like the most impossibly attractive couple on the planet and I feel some of my self-confidence shrink back. Which has nothing to do with the scathing, almost pitying look she gives me as she comes to a stop a few feet away. Nothing at all.
“You’re the one he left me for?” she spits, her eyes slits as her gaze rakes over me again. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
My throat is tight and my hands are sweaty, but I’m not going to let her put me down. Right?
“Denise,” I say, proud that my voice is almost steady. “What are you doing here?” I frown and look from her to Adam. “What are you doing here? Together?”
Her lips quirk. At least I think they quirk, it’s hard to tell because the rest of her face doesn’t really move. “Shaun isn’t the only one who can hire a private investigator,” she drawls, folding her arms over her impressive chest. “Imagine my surprise when I find out you have a habit of targeting married men.”
The homecoming celebration continues not more than thirty yards away, but it may as well be five miles as Dean Forbes’ speech drones on, becoming a surreal backdrop to the horror happening right before me.
“You and Shaun are separated. You cheated on him. Your marriage is over as soon as you stop being difficult and sign the agreement.”
She laughs, the sound cracking over the field like a whip and I flinch without meaning to. “Is that what he told you?” She shakes her head. “Poor girl, don’t you understand how these things work? It isn’t the first time he and I have had a difference of opinion, or that he’s shacked up with some naïve thing while he waits for me to take him back.” My stomach sours at the surety in her tone. “But I really didn’t expect him to find someone like you. Or was it the other way around?” she asks, voice musing. “Did you know if you want a divorce in Nevada, it doesn’t matter if the other party doesn’t agree? If he really wanted to end our marriage, he would push for us to meet before a judge, but he hasn’t. And do you want to know why? Because he doesn’t want this marriage over, except you’re holding him back.” She eyes me again. “I’m sure he feels pity for you falling in love with him. It happens all the time.”
For a moment, the tiny seed of doubt I’ve carried around with me threatens to grow, but it doesn’t bear fruit. I love Shaun and I think I’ve come to know him well in the past three months. He isn’t a liar. He’s a good man, one who has shown me again and again that I’m the woman he wants to be with. I trust him. The realization is like a chorus of angels singing “Hallelujah!” In my head. Shaun loves me, I love him and I trust he wouldn’t do anything to hurt me.
I shake my head. Denise is not going to fuck with my mind, me or Shaun. A protective instinct rises in me to shield him from the bitch he’d married. The speeches have stopped and the crowd has started to make for the bonfire. Out the corner of my eye I see the band heading our way as they return to the annex to drop off their instruments and I know our time is up if I want to avoid a scene.
“I don’t know why you’re here, either of you,” I add, with a glare at Adam. “But—”
“You want to know why I’m here?” Denise suddenly screams, her arms flying up and out in a dramatic arc that has me rearing away from her. “I’m here because you’re trying to steal my husband the same way you stole this man from his pregnant wife!”
My stomach is little more than a knot of muscle as I glance to my right. And see the Marching 300 standing only a handful of yards away, their eyes locked on the scene Denise is causing with her dramatics.
Oh god.
“This man,” Denise continues, reaching out to touch Adam’s arm. “This poor man told me how you seduced him away from his wife, a woman he’s been married to for fifteen years! He told you he wasn’t interested, told you he loved his wife, had a child with her and was planning for another, but you simply had to have him, didn’t you?”
Her face is wild with…something. Exhilaration? Triumph? I don’t know and I don’t care because while what she’s saying about Adam isn’t true, it still makes me sick to know I’d been his mistress.
“And then,” she says loudly. “Then, when you were fired for being a home wrecker, you set your sights on Shaun.” She pauses dramatically, free hand to her cleavage, a tear trickling down her cheek. “My Shaun, who I’ve been married to for eleven years. We just had an argument, a stupid little fight and he needed some space, but there you were, going to his hotel room with him. Destroying yet another marriage! Home wrecker!”
Every word is like a whip across my conscience. I can’t look at the audience that’s gathered, utterly ashamed of my stupidity when it came to Adam.
“Bullshit,” someone says loudly.
Denise’s gaze narrows on me a second before she looks at our audience, a tragic expression on her face. “It isn’t,” she says softly. “I love Shaun, always have. We have—had a good marriage before—”
“Oh yeah? That why I’ve seen pictures of you with Johnny Sommers last spring?” someone else added, a very familiar voice. “Although it was more like a video, if you know what I mean.”
My head snaps in that direction to see Levi, Cuba, Cuba’s brother Titus and that De Groot kid standing at the forefront of the band, all of them witness to this ugliness. But it was Levi who’d spoken.
Cuba’s innocent eyes widened. “Hey, that is the bitch who was sucking—”
Titus slaps his hand over his younger brother’s mouth. “Ladies, Cuba, there are ladies present. Except for her,” he says with a tilt of his chin at Denise.
Okay, maybe Cuba isn’t that innocent.
“Decker’s well rid of your skanky ass,” De Groot grunts. “He’s got Frosty now and that man’s got it bad.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Denise says stiffly. “This man,” she points at Adam. “Is proof of her home wrecking ways.”
Hundreds of gazes bounce from me to Adam and back again before Levi says, “Nice trade up, Frosty.”
“His wife is divorcing him!” Denise shrieks, throwing her arm wide again. “She found out about this whore and she’s taking him for everything he’s worth.”
“I didn’t know he was married,” I say through numb lips, mortified that my personal business is being paraded in front of my students. My eyes burn with unshed tears. My hands ball into fists at my sides. “He asked me out and we dated for three years. Three years!” I shout. “Then I found out he was married and he almost ruined my life!”
“Boo!” The crowd of students jeer, making Adam look extremely uncomfortable.
“What a cocksucker,” Titus mutters loudly.
Denise opens her mouth to say something, but she’s cut off as a strong arm snakes around my waist, pulling me into a familiar, hard body. “Unless you’re here to tell me you’ve signed the community property agreement papers, you need to get gone.”
Shaun. I didn’t realize I’m shaking until he’s holding me securely, his warmth sinking into me, granting me the strength I felt dwindling with every hateful word out of her mouth. The lethal edge to his deep voice shuts everyone up, including Denise who stands before us, eyes wide and mouth gaping.
Then she seems to snap out of it, going from self-righteous anger to sex kitten in a heartbeat. “Muffin,”
she whimpers. “I just want you back. I love—”
“Bullshit!” This time the entire band coughs the word out, earning a hard glare from her.
“What you mean is you went through the rest of the money in your account,” Shaun drawls, his hand squeezing my waist lightly in reassurance.
Adam, who up until now was simply a silent spectator, suddenly looks from Shaun to Denise, eyes wide. “Wait, what? You’re broke?”
“I…I… Of course not,” she stammers, her wild glance bouncing around. She gives a high-pitched laugh. “Shaun, you know I love you, muffin. We can pretend none of this happened.” She waves her hand between me and Shaun as though she can make the obvious connection between us disappear. “We can be us again. You know, Denise and Shaun Decker. I’ll even move here.” She pauses to look at our surroundings and her lip curls. “Most of the year.”
“Hey Frosty, Decker does something stupid like that, you want to go on a date with me?” De Groot calls out, making everyone laugh.
Well everyone other than the main players in this fiasco. “Ain’t happening,” Shaun growls, his other arm slipping around my waist. “Denise, it’s time you bring an end to this bullshit.”
“Wait, I still want to know about the money,” Adam pipes up. He looks from Denise to Shaun. “She’s broke?”
I feel my man shrug behind me. “Don’t know, bud, but my guess is yeah.”
Adam turns to Denise, who’s starting to look panicked. “I want my money now.”
She puts a hand to her chest. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I asked you to come with me to confront that—that woman,” she spits, with a lot of venom.
But Adam, for all his womanizing ways, is all about the money. It’s how he’s become such a successful businessman. He plants his hands on his hips. “I’m talking about the half a mil you offered if I came down here to talk with Kit-Kat.”
There were several whistles of amazement.