Read Online Rachel's Redemption by Jennifer Maitlen - Free Book Online Page B

her as she stared out the window, chewing on a finger nail. A nervous habit for someone that has it all. He remembered her doing that in high school, too, and vaguely wondering the same thing. He’d done a lot of Rachel-watching in high school. All of it from afar, because no way was the son of the disreputable Mean Gene Hastings going to get anywhere near the most popular girl in town.
    Popular wasn’t the right word to describe her. It wasn’t big enough. Notorious, maybe, but not in the way he’d been notorious. Famous. That’s what she’d been. Famous for her heritage, her crazy grandmother, the family fortune, the future that lay ahead of her. She was Redemption Royalty.
    He cleared his throat. “I’m sorry about your grandmother.”
    Rachel said, “You hated her.”
    “I did not.”
    Rachel gave him a “give me a break” look.
    “She hated me!”
    “She didn’t. She was just . . . she was protective.”
    Logan grunted. “That’s an understatement. At any rate, I’m sorry.”
    Rachel smiled and it reached her eyes making them bigger, greener. Beautiful. Her whole face lit up.
    He was so busy noticing her eyes he almost missed the only parking space in front of The Spoon. He cranked the wheel and narrowly fit his truck into the front row parking space.
    They climbed out of the car. There were several patrons standing in and around the restaurant. “Damn, I hate to wait.”
    She stepped toward the entrance and said over her shoulder, “It builds character. I’ll put our name in and see if the owners can meet with me today.” She disappeared into the mass of people, probably all of whom had happily satisfied stomachs, before he could dissuade her from bothering the owners. He seriously doubted they’d accept the offer. Come on, it was too close, and they wouldn’t want to miss the game.
    He stood alone on the sidewalk, lost in his thoughts.
    “Hey, Coach.”
    Logan turned to see one of his players and his parents walking up the sidewalk. “Hey, Josh.” He shook the hand extended by Josh’s dad and offered Josh’s mom a warm smile. Just like every time he drove into the high school parking lot, having respectable citizens come up to him, shaking his hand, and calling him “Coach” was a near creepy case of mistaken identity.
    But this was his identity. He was the coach and the people of Redemption embraced him. Redemption was his home.
    Logan chatted with them a moment, talking about how prepared the players were—leaving out how prepared they weren’t—for the season opener. Josh’s parents wanted to know what he thought the opponent’s weaknesses were. He answered in that completely noncommittal way of coaches from Pop Warner to the NFL, saying mostly nothing, while throwing out buzz words like “great players executing”, “strong secondary”, “commitment to winning”, “playing smart”, “playing competitive.”
    The attention of Josh’s parents slid away from him and over Logan’s shoulder. He knew what had captured their attention even without looking. He turned to see Rachel standing next to him, a happy smile on her face. She must have got an in with the owners to talk catering. It certainly had nothing to do with him.
    She slid her eyes to the folks he’d been talking to, then back to him expectantly. He recovered quickly, introducing her. Then Logan stood back while they exchanged pleasantries. It wasn’t every day the average Joe-resident got an opportunity to meet the granddaughter of the woman whose family name was plastered on most of the buildings in Redemption.
    His gaze followed Rachel as she graciously accepted their condolences. Was he the only one that noticed the tension around her eyes when she talked about her grandma? Losing her hadn’t been easy, which made planning this thing all the more important to Rachel.
    A slight attack of conscience drilled him in the chest. He steadily ignored it. He wasn’t going to eliminate the whole event, just move it.