“Let me get right to it,” he said. “I gave some thought, in light of everything, to quitting the team and letting Ryan’s mom finish out the season. Or letting them see if they wanted to hire somebody else, if she couldn’t coach full-time.”

He sighed.

“But then when I thought about it a little more, I decided that there’s no one in this town better than me at coaching these boys,” he said. “I may be a lot of things. But a quitter sure isn’t one of them.”

“Okay,” Lucas said.

“Wasn’t asking for your okay,” Gramps said.

Lucas started to say something, but his grandfather held up a hand to stop him.

“I love you as much as I ever did, son, even knowing I let you down,” he said. “I love you even knowing that things have changed between us and might not ever change back. It’s because of things I did that I can’t go back and fix, and that’s on me. But what I’m not here to do is ask your permission to coach the Wolves.”

Suddenly Lucas felt himself getting angry all over again.

“I never said you needed my permission,” Lucas said. “That’s not what this is about, and you know it.”

“Then what is it about?” Gramps said.

“It’s about you!” Lucas said. He wasn’t shouting. But he was close. “Not only did you cheat, you hid what you did from Mom and me. And you thought you were hiding it from Dad when he was still alive.”

Lucas saw Gramps’s face redden. He’d never seen his grandfather angry. But he looked angry now. They both had things they wanted to get off their chest today, neither one of them willing to give an inch, like they were fighting for a loose ball.

It was Gramps who backed down first.

“You know something?” he said. “You’re right. Hiding it was wrong. And I can see why you think that’s even worse than what I did when I was in college. Because hiding it just made things worse.”

“A lot worse,” Lucas said.

“But now we’ve got to figure this out, you and me,” Gramps said. “As good a player as you are and as good a teammate as we both know you are, you let your feelings about me get in the way of what was best for your team today.” He paused, but only for a second. “Do you understand what I’m telling you? That if I’m still going to be the coach, I’m the one who has to be in charge?”

“I do understand,” Lucas said.

“And you’re good with that?”

“Yes.”

“Is that the truth?”

“I tell the truth,” Lucas said.

“Lucas,” his mom said. “Please watch your tone. I know there’s a lot going on here. But he’s still your grandfather.”