Page 8 of The Maverick's Homecoming

And he really needed to remember that.

CHAPTER One

The present, mid-August

First day of preseason football practice dawned clear and warm. The weather forecast looked good with variable winds and a high around eighty degrees. By 7:30 a.m., Finn had the entire varsity squad out on the field.

He started with an introductory pep talk. It went pretty well, he thought. The kids were eager and engaged. No horsing around, no attitude, everybody ready to listen and learn.

He was just about to move on to warm-ups when he glanced toward the stands and spotted Kenzie on the sidelines talking to the water boy. For a moment, he wondered if he’d maybe lost his mind.

But no. It was Kenzie. She was really there. She had that blond hair pinned back in a neat bun, and she wore blue scrub pants and an oversize scrub top printed with footballs. A wheeled black medical bag waited at her side.

About then, he put it together. The team had no doctor or training staff. Kenzie had stepped up to handle first aid on the field.

The water boy, whose name was Oscar Abernathy, said something to her. She grinned wide and nodded. Just then, a gust of wind tried to free her hair from that tidy little bun and plastered the football-printed scrub top to her body.

“Okay,” Finn said, still looking where he shouldn’t be. “A few stretches and then we’ll…” Words deserted him as he noticed that Kenzie had put on a few pounds—mostly around the middle. The sight of that newly rounded belly of hers told him everything. “It’s important to…” His voice trailed off again as he noted that her breasts were fuller, too.

Barrett Deroy Jr. stood several yards away. Finn signaled him close.

Barrett jogged over. “What do you need, Coach?”

“Take over for a minute or two, would you? Get them going on the warm-ups?”

“You got it.” Barrett faced the squad. “Okay, guys. Spread out. We’ll start nice and easy with marching in place…”

Finn didn’t hear what Barrett said next. By then, he’d tuned everything out but the school nurse in her football-themed scrub top as he jogged to the sidelines, where Kenzie was still chatting with Oscar.

Their eyes met. “Nurse Osborne, I need a minute.”

She gave him a cordial smile. If he hadn’t been hopelessly in love with her once, he would have had no clue that smile was forced. “Of course, Coach.”

He turned to the water boy. “Hey, Oscar.”

“Hi, Coach!”

“I’m through giving speeches. You ready to keep the team hydrated?”

“I’m on it, Coach.” Oscar grabbed his water carrier full of squeeze bottles from the first row of the bleachers and jogged onto the field.

Now, it was just Finn and Kenzie—and he needed to say something casual and innocuous.So how are you doing?Or maybe,’Preciate you helping out like this.

But the way she was looking at him said she knew exactly what he was really thinking and there was no point in pretending he didn’t.

So he just put it right out there. “How pregnant are you?”

She answered with a weary shrug. “Twenty-four weeks tomorrow.” They stared at each other. After several awkward seconds, she added, “And, no, Finn. That day at the Grizzly, I had no idea I was having my ex’s baby. I didn’t even think about it as a possibility until a few days later. So I took a test and saw my doctor. By the time you called, everything had changed for me.”

“I get it.” He studied her beautiful face. “And I wasn’t asking you to explain all that.”

She lifted her chin in defiance. “But you wanted to know.”

He gave her the truth. “Yeah. I did. How are you feeling? Are you and the baby alright?”

She looked so proud, standing there with her head high and the wind tugging at her pinned-back hair. He ached to comfort her somehow, though it was obvious she had no desire to take comfort from him right now.

The past—theirpast—felt so close at the moment, pressing in on them. He asked again, “Are you okay?”