Page 123 of You Found Me

“Right.” She dragged her feet to make the walk back take a little longer. “Back to playing pretend.”

Funny how she’d been enjoying that game a few minutes ago. Now it just felt hollow.

They reached their seats just as a young girl started singing the national anthem on the field.

Della couldn’t focus on the song beyond an impression. The girl had a sweet voice. Not as strong as Mason’s. Not as clear as Mattie’s. But nice.

She didn’t even try to hum along.

The game started with a loud whistle and a chant from the cheerleaders. The crowd stood as the team lined up to kick the ball. “B-O-L-T-Z! Boooooooooooltz!”

Samantha jumped up and down, her phone seemingly forgotten. “Boltz, Boltz, Boltz!”

“Go, number seven!” Elyse shouted.

Several nearby started chanting, “Mace the Face! Mace the Face!”

Della watched Elyse, Sam, and Ward for clues on when to cheer and when to stand, but her mind wasn’t on the game.

Somewhere, Piper was reading about a fight they never had.

Somewhere, Lizzie was worried.

And somewhere, a man she didn’t know was angry that he’d been made to feel like a fool.

She shook her head to clear it all away. Ward was right. She couldn’t afford to focus on what her stalker was doing, or what Piper was reading, or anything else. She was Lucy. Lucy didn’t have a stalker, and she didn’t have sisters. Lucy would be enjoying the evening out with her boyfriend.

Della impulsively hugged Ward’s arm to put herself back into character.

He glanced down at her with a raised eyebrow.

“You played, right? You were a quarterback like Mason?”

Ward snorted. “Quarterback, yes. Like Mason, no. He’s all finesse and distance. I was more in-your-face.”

“Don’t let him fool you,” Elyse said. “Donovan was one of the best quarterbacks the Boltz have ever had. He could have gone pro.”

Her voice sounded a little soft by the end of that sentence.

Della realized the unsaid part:If his mother hadn’t been killed and he hadn’t beaten up the man who did it and then been forced to join the Marines.

She glanced up at him to see how he’d reacted to Elyse’s compliment, but his focus was on the game. “Hit it, Mace. Hit it.”

As if he’d heard, Mason released a long pass that landed sweetly in his teammate’s arms. The crowd erupted in screams to run, run, run!

“Yes!” Ward pumped a fist in the air and shouted, “That’s the way!”

Sam hopped up and down, cheering madly as the Boltz scored their second touchdown. She appeared to have forgotten all about the post she’d shared with them.

“See what I mean?” There was a proud light in Ward’s eyes that soothed away the rest of her anger. “Finesse. I never had that kind of accuracy long distance.”

He loved his family. He was proud of his brother. Those were good things. Very good things.

Elyse waved away his comment. “Like I tell Mason, it’s not a competition.”

Della watched Mason high-five his teammates before they all ran off together. He took his helmet off and searched the crowd until he found where his family was sitting, then lifted his helmet in salute.

“It is for Mason,” Della said.