Read Online Song of the Brokenhearted by Sheila Walsh - Free Book Online

think they were assistants to the coaches.
    At half-time the team was behind. Jason was one of their best players, yet he remained benched. Before the team disappeared into the locker room, Ava saw Jason turn to study the bleachers as if searching for them. He held his helmet under his arm, and the expression on his face read sheer frustration. Ava wanted to rush down and find out exactly what was going on. Suddenly she understood those pushy parents much better.
    The next two quarters continued the Wolves’ downward spiral as the Hawks scored two more touchdowns and a field goal.
    The final buzzer rang with the crowd grumbling, one man yelling toward the referee, and a cowbell tossed onto the field.
    â€œWe could’ve used your kid tonight,” a man shouted as he walked down the middle stairway.
    â€œI know it,” Dane said, shaking his head.
    â€œI can’t believe they didn’t play him,” Sienna said, disappointed.
    The crowd dispersed while they hung back in the bleachers until it was pocketed with groups of parents waiting for their sons on the team.
    Ava caught a few parents’ remarks that made it sound like it was Jason’s fault or their family’s that the coach didn’t play him.
    â€œHey, Mr. Duke,” Sienna said, waving at an older man standing on the sidelines with his hands shoved deep into his football jacket.
    â€œSienna, well, well!” Mr. Duke called back, walking toward the bleachers. He’d been one of Sienna’s favorite teachers— history, Ava recalled—and assisted on the football team. “What are you up to?”
    â€œCame out for a visit and to watch my brother play, but what happened out there? My brother could’ve been an asset tonight.”
    Mr. Duke lifted his ball cap up and down on his head. “That’s not the coaches’ fault. We needed him. He’s let the whole team down.”
    â€œHe . . . what are you talking about?”
    Ava noticed two of the other mothers in the bleachers suddenly lean in to whisper something to one another. She looked at Dane, then at Mr. Duke, who now looked as confused as they did.
    Mr. Duke walked the distance separating them at the railing. He glanced around, but the coaches and players had all disappeared into the locker room.
    â€œCoach Ray didn’t reach you?” He said this to Dane, then glanced at Ava with a concerned expression on his face.
    â€œI have about fifteen messages on my phone right now,” Dane said, pulling out his phone and scrolling through it. “I was in meetings all day and evening.”
    â€œOh,” Mr. Duke muttered. “Think you better talk to him or Jason—or both, for that matter.”
    Dane glanced at Ava as if she might know what was happening.
    â€œWhat’s going on?” Ava asked more to Dane than to Mr. Duke.
    â€œOh.” Dane turned the phone toward her.
    â€œWhat is it?”
    â€œA text from our son. It says that he’s suspended from the game.”
    â€œWhy?” Sienna and Ava asked at the same time. They all looked at Mr. Duke, and Ava felt a sudden anger that Dane hadn’t seen the text earlier because he was wrapped up in his work again.
    â€œI’m not sure I’m the one to discuss this.”
    â€œJust tell us, please,” Sienna pleaded.
    Mr. Duke rubbed the gray stubble on his chin. “This afternoon Jason was chosen for a random drug test. Sorry to say, he failed it.”

Nine
    T HE DAY OF HER FATHER’S ARREST, AVA SMOKED HER FIRST CIGA -rette to save her brother from a beating.
    She didn’t want to smoke. And her brother didn’t want to be saved, especially by his big sister. Clancy was in a fight every other day it seemed. But when she came around the corner of Jem’s Frosty to the view of her brother surrounded by Doug Bell and his cronies, Ava knew Clancy had bitten off more than he could chew.
    Doug Bell had a crush on her and it was years