‘So, let me get this straight.’ She waves an arm at the entire backyard, goals and all. ‘He made you all of this. A new field. This was all him?’

‘Is it some kind of outrageous, like, unconscious method acting?’ I grumble around a sip of tea. ‘I mean, we laid the rules for this. We have a game plan. What, is this part of it?’

‘Oh, honey.’ Jordan sets her Mason jar down and shoots me a matter-of-fact glance that tells me she’s seen right through my layers of infinite BS. ‘You know this was always a part of it. As much as you love to deny that you’re affected by Colt coming back … not to mention by having to pretend you’re in a relationship with him …’

I nearly choke on my drink. ‘I’m not – well, I am unaffected. I’m not affected!’

‘It makes it easier to believe when you say it, right?’

And she’s got me there. I plop my jar down next to Jordan’s with a thud. ‘Jor, but why? Why is the universe trying to bring us together like this, like whatever is happening between us right now, if he’s just going to leave again? Because we’re going to plough towards the end of the season, sooner or later, and poof, CJ Bradley tears right out of town like he was never here.’

‘I get the feeling that’s what’s on his mind, too.’ Jordan raises an eyebrow. ‘I get that you’re worried about him leaving. But May, every second, even when you’re not on the field, when he doesn’t have to be looking, he’s looking. And I’m willin’ to bet he’s thinking about how he’s gonna make this thing work without hurting you again.’

An uncomfortable feeling – that I am heavily wrong and Jordan may just be right – squirms into my chest. I think straight back to the emotional minefield from that night in Albuquerque, and then to the confession in the kitchen after family dinner. And, of course, everything Rod told me about Colt’s time in New Haven, his injury, and the photo. My team picture in his locker.

As if she reads my mind, Jordan adds, ‘I’m also putting my money on the fact he’s probably been brainstorming ways to come back home and make it work with you again since the second he got up there, for the record. But it’ll take you a few years to wrap your head round that thought, if you ever do.’

She just sits back and stares straight into my soul, the way friends do when they’ve just read you up and down so hard you want to shrink into your shell out of embarrassment, arms crossed, legs kicked up, everything. As light-hearted as Jordan is, she has that down pat.

‘You saw what he did, though.’