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That made Jade laugh. She hoisted herself up and made her way into the bathroom, wrapping her arms around Franny’s waist from behind as the other woman rubbed some kind of thick gel on the tiny Betty Boop tattooed on her hip.

“What exactly is a retirement meal?”

Jade pressed her face into the back of Franny’s neck. She smelled clean, fresh from the shower. The woodsy cologne she sometimes wore was even more delicious on her skin, and Jade made sure to take the time to breathe in deeply.

Franny caught her eyes in the big mirror in front of them. That smirk was back on her face. The one Jade had spent two years cursing and praying to see in equal measure. For so long, Jade had purposefully interpreted that look as being malicious or nasty. She could see it clearly now, though. The twinkle in Franny’s eye. The way her cheeks flushed the slightest bit red. Her pretty pink lips curved ever so slightly. She didn’t look like she was being spiteful. She looked coy. Jade checked the smartwatch on her wrist, cursing when she realized that they needed to be out of the house in less than five minutes. If her ideas around timeliness were even a little laxer, she’d be sliding her fingers into the unbuttoned pants Franny wore and transforming the look on her face from coy to blissful.

“Apparently, chips and salsa are a pretty decent retirement meal,” Franny joked.

Jade groaned again, burying her face into Franny’s shoulder. “Yeah, and cigars.”

“Come on, angel.” Franny patted Jade’s arm. “Let’s go before you end up miserable in the squeaky chair.”

“Are you sure we can’t call it off? I feel like I might be getting sick all of a sudden. It could be the flu. I heard that’s going around.”

“Mmm,” Franny hummed, turning to press her lips to Jade’s forehead. “The sooner we go, the sooner we can come back and watch some gay shit on TV.”

“Fine. But only because I love gay shit on TV so much.”

Sometimes it seemed that when she was out in public with Franny, her brain was almost completely turned off. She held her girlfriend’s hand and trailed behind her with nary a care in the world, following along like the inside of her head was filled with multicolored cotton candy or something. This must have been why she didn’tnotice all the cars parked outside Landry’s house. And why, when Landry opened the door surrounded by a large swath of her closest friends yelling, “Surprise!” at her, the only thing she could think to say was, “It’s not even my birthday!”

That garnered an inordinate amount of laughs from the crowd, which in turn made her cheeks heat up. She clasped on tighter to Franny’s hand as they made their way inside. The normal poker-night guys were there, sure. But so were the rest of the Greenbelt football coaches and some coaches from the other sports teams.

“What the hell is going on?” she asked Franny in a low mumble after shaking hands with the tennis coach. “I mean, Principal Coleman is here with his wife.”

Franny looked at her like she was a fool, yanking on her hand and stopping her in her tracks right there in the middle of Landry’s nautical-themed living room. “You cannot be serious, Jade.”

“What?”

The look on Franny’s face went even slacker. “This is your party. It’s for you.”

“No, it isn’t.”

“Oh, no? Well, why did everyone yell surprise when you came in?”

“That was just a prank.”

“You think your parents came here just to see you get pranked?”

“Wha—”

Franny spun her around by her upper arms, sending her toward the kitchen, where her mother and father were standing in the doorway talking to Miri and Aja.

“You didn’t think we were going to let your big moment pass by without a little fanfare, did you?” Landry’s voice sent her spinning around again. She was suddenly dizzy, though not solely because of the sudden movements. “It’s like you don’t know me at all, Coach.”

“Landry…” Her throat was suddenly thick, and it made her words come out all wobbly. Franny grabbed her hand and squeezed.

“I wanted to throw a pep rally at the school. Bring out the players and the mascots and all that. You’re lucky your girl here suggested something more intimate.”

She looked at Franny, who smiled softly at her. Jade’s belly flipped the way it did the first time their eyes met.

“You didn’t need to do this,” she said.

“Yes, we did,” Landry said, his gaze incredibly soft. “I don’t want there to be any doubt that you’re getting this position, because no one else is better fitted for it than you.”

“Coach, I don’t even know what to say right now.”

“You’d better come up with something quick because our speech is in ten minutes.” He was off then without a word, disappearing into a small crowd of some of the more involved team parents.