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Whatever It wasn’t like I was going to e someone on a hookup app to ask for real-life advice Geez, I wasn’t that desperate

I dish as I pulled rass

I locked up the athletic office before trekking the high school’s tree-lined ca a h ceilings, and the turn-of-the-last-century retro lighting

Westgate was no ordinary prep school It had the look and feel of an Ivy League college, and that wasn’t a Hollywood-style trick of sinal founded by a railroad baron who’d owned half the city in the late 1800s It was a legit historical landmark and had been featured in dozens of films and television shows over the years Tourists occasionally drove by the fa west to take pictures

Yep…this was a good gig

I graded papers for an hour, then locked uplot My mind was all over the place, which was probably why I didn’t notice the figure leaning against the hatch until I pointed the fob at my 4Runner

“Hey, Coach”

I ju wildly “Jesus, Carly You scared me”

Carly snortedher look er than seventeen “Sorry You were zoned out”

“Yeah, I tend to do that” I opened the hatchback and tossed ear in the SUV “What can I do for you?”

“I’ay That’s what happened on the field That B wanted to rattle me and I let her I’ize if I was rude That’s all”

All right She’d literally hand-delivered a second chance forI had to make this count

“You weren’t rude But I’lad you waited to talk to me I’m on your side, Carly”

Her radiant grinhero “Thanks I don’t think it’ll be a big deal My teammates have known for a year”

“A year?” I repeated

“Yeah, and they don’t care My parents don’t care either I have one weird aunt and uncle who live in the ht that before I came out”

“Family”

“I know, right? But the people who uys broke up, but ames It’s just how they are You’ll probably see more of her and…”