“You almost put me in the ground on those bleachers.”

“I’m sorry,” he laughed.

“I needed the suspense.

It doesn’t land without the suspense.”

“You’re terrible.”

“I learned from the best.”

He picked up his duffel bag and zipped his jacket and started for the door.

And then he stopped, and turned around, and for one split second I didn’t see a bearded eighteen-year-old with a scholarship and a truck outside.