Bluegrass Undercover (Bluegrass Brothers)

float. Paige Davies put together a Derby hat float for her store, Southern Charms, and Pam Gilbert was dressed up as a referee on a soccer field float for the Parks and Recreation Department.
    People lined Main Street decked out in blue and white. They cheered the floats, waved to the people on them, and talked to all their neighbors. The Rose sisters had set up an outdoor food booth and showed the Homecoming Court what it really meant to hold court. Everyone in town made sure to stop by to pay their respects before heading home.
    The town was excited for Homecoming. The team had gotten off to a rocky start but had won the last five in a row. They had squeaked by in a couple of them, and it still looked like they were trying to find their groove, but a win was a win. Cade had told her that he didn’t know whether to be thrilled or horrified, thrilled they were winning, horrified that they still didn’t seem like a team after all this time.
    She enjoyed their talks at night when he walked her home from their standing Wednesday night dinner at the Café. They would have dinner, and he would walk her home. They’d sit on the porch and talk about the team and her guidance counselor job. It seemed like that was the only time they could talk. It seemed like every time she tried to talk to him at school, Stephanie would come and sit down and start chatting with them. Every now and then she’d see that flash of desire shoot across his face, but then it was gone before she could decide what to do about it. It really was better this way, though. She had a job to do and romantic entanglements would just hinder her.
    Annie had been interviewing the team over the past months and had found a few kids that had more information than they were sharing. Teenagers. They always thought they were so smart. In reality, they were so easy to read. She knew they were lying to her the second they started spinning their tales. They were so cocky that they hadn’t even noticed when she tricked them up on their story. No reason to lie about what you did over the weekend or what you do at the gym, but they did.
    Right now it looked like Cade was going to kill one of those kids. Cade had his hand in Austin Colby’s facemask and was forcibly trying to get him to pay attention while he explained something. But even from the stands she could tell Austin was having none of it. His body language shouted defiance.
    “Hey. What did I miss?” Paige Davies slid into the seat next to her.
    “Well, Cade seems to be struggling to get Austin to do what he wants. We were down by ten, but Trey just ran it thirty yards for a touchdown. The fourth quarter is about to start. What were you doing? You hardly ever miss a game.”
    “Cole and I were in Tennessee visiting his mother. I made him turn on the siren so I could catch the end of the game.” She grinned and Annie instantly saw the family connection. She had gotten to know Paige over the past couple of months. They sat together every game and sometimes McKenna joined them. It was strange to have girlfriends. She had never had any before.
     
    “Colby! Jesus, are you trying to kill me? I called a running play! Are you blind?” Cade screamed. He could feel his blood pressure rising more than it did when he was under enemy fire in Afghanistan when he rescued an ally prime minister who should have known better than to enter a war zone without having the area secured.
    “I thought I was open for the run, so, it was still a running play.” Austin refused to look at him. Instead he kept his eyes on the cheerleaders. He had refused to take any criticism and instead blamed every other player on the team.
    Cade looked at the clock. There were two minutes left in this game and they were down by three. “Okay, now listen. I want you to call a slant rout to Hall. Got it?” Austin didn’t bother to acknowledge him as he ran onto the field after practically tripping over his ego. Cade took a deep breath. They hadn’t been covering Hall very closely, and if Colby would actually pass the ball, Hall would make good yardage.
    The ball was snapped . Austin stepped back to throw to a wide open Hall and tucked the ball and ran instead. He barely made it back to the line of scrimmage before he was taken down.
    “Time!” Cade yelled to the referee. The whistle was blown and the team made their way toward the sideline. Cade took a deep breath and counted to ten. He would not kill Austin … he would not kill