"Quinn, Quinn!" Becca calls out from a short distance away. She must have wandered as I studied the room. She standing with two very cute guys and waves me over. It's as if she forgot about my father's mandate and how badly this event would end if he saw me flirting with his players.
"It's ok," Becca whispers when she has to come over to get me, "They work for the school, they're not ballplayers."
Without any other reason to protest, I give in and join Becca in a small circle with these two men. Brent and Tom seem quite nice, cute even, the kind of vanilla guys I'm supposed to meet in college.
"And what do you want to do, Quinn?" Tom asks me.
"Accounting. I want to do accounting," I don't make much of an attempt to sound convincing but Tom appears very interested in my revelation.
"She's a wonderful singer too!" Becca throws in and I try to shush her. Tom doesn't even notice.
"Well, be sure to let me know if you're looking for an internship. At Loubin and Loubin, we're always looking for some good number crunchers!" Tom laughs after he speaks and I die inside realizing that this is my future. Locking down an internship is the first step in ensuring a good start on a career path but I'm not ready, at least not now. I laugh along with Tom and gently touch his arm, keeping him interested in me for the internship for when I finally come to my senses.
When I touch Tom, I feel nothing, like I had touched a chair or another piece of furniture. What I do notice though is that I now have Beau's attention. A buzz runs through my body as I feel him seething as he watches me with another man. My laughter increases as does my kind touches all over Tom's body, all to drive Beau crazy. I don't even know what Tom is talking about but you'll be damned sure I let out a chuckle each time he finishes a sentence. This guy thinks he's killing, that he's completely wooed me. While I should feel a little bad, the rise I know I'm getting out of Beau makes it all worth it. Becca breaks up our fun by asking if I want to join her in the bathroom and I agree.
"That guy Brent is sooooo boring, I had to get out. What's the other guy like?" she asks.
"Same," I tell her with indifference as we walk down the red velvet lined steps to the lower level. She's surprised.
"Oh, looked like you were enjoying yourself," she tells me and I just shrug my shoulders. When we arrive at the bathroom I let Becca know that I don't actually need to go and that I'll wait outside for her. The moment she slips behind the door, I feel a hand grab my elbow and lead me in a different direction. My feet have no choice but to follow and when I look up, I see it is Beau guiding me down the hall. He looks pissed or maybe just concerned and he pulls me into the first door he finds, unfortunately a small, poorly lit closet.
"You have to help me. Your father won't leave me alone," he says as our bodies have no choice but to be mashed up against each other. His heat blankets me and his body begs me to embrace. We're drawn to each other, our lower halves making contact under the guise of having nowhere else to go. He leans into me as he speaks, the power of his manhood making my knees weak.
"What do you want me to do? He doesn't even know I'm here," I tell him.
"Well, make him notice you. Go talk to him so I can get away from him."
"I'm not sacrificing myself for you. If I mess up this dinner, it's all I'll hear about forever," I insist and am telling the complete truth. Beau doesn't appear satisfied but I don't have any other answers. Even in the dim light I can see a gleam in his eyes and began to get nervous.
"What if I made it worth your while?" he asks and presses more of himself into me. My body screams for him as I feel all of him in between my parting legs. His stiff bulge hits the right spot to melt me right there and I struggle to speak.
"Beau..." I say and the words flow out like velvet. His big, strong hands find my sides and guide me up and down his covered cock and I can feel myself getting wetter with each pulse of my body. "Beau..." I say again as he moves hair off of my tilted neck and teases my skin with little kisses, right below my ear. "Beau," I purr when his arms draw me in even closer, enveloping my back and bringing my chest to his. I can't believe I'm struggling to make the decision between hiking up my dress and inviting him in or pushing him away.
"Not now, not like this," I tell him as his mouth is attached to my neck and causing something big to stir within me. He pretends he doesn't hear me and continues to lay kisses on my neck. That's enough to force my decision; I won't be ignored, at least not by him. My hands find his chest and give a hearty shove but not before indulging in a grope of the muscles that lay beneath his shirt. Beau follows my demand and backs off, his hands up in the air as if he's confused.
"I thought we had a deal," I remind him. “You're supposed to be a good player and win for my dad so he gets off my back. So far it's not working.”
"Yeah well, you're supposed to help me get your dad off my back too," he says.
"He'll leave you alone, I promise," I fib, for all I know, my father will never leave his best pitcher alone. “Just go to all the practices and win the games and maybe,” I try to entice Beau with the promise of something we both know I'm not going to give him.
“I'll win, don't you worry about that,” he says before brushing by me and out of the closet. Once I emerge, I find Becca waiting there for me, having witnessed who left the closet right before me.
"Not a word," I tell her and she looks so pleased with herself I worry she might explode.
Becca keeps to the promise I forced on her and doesn't say anything about what she witnessed, about who she saw me with, but I can feel her giddiness. I know she won't believe the restraint I showed so I don't even try to tell her. Like a good friend she stays quiet as we return to the party, slipping back in unnoticed. When I scan the room I can't help but locate Beau, of course he's surrounded and of course my father has him on a tight leash. I feel for him but it's not like I would know what that was like, my father has never shown me that kind of attention. Beau looks trapped and annoyed so I finally give in and decide to attempt to help him in some way, even if I'm not convinced it will work.
"Hello, Dad," I say as I saunter over to my father and Beau having a private conversation.
"Quinn," dad says as he steps in front of Beau, blocking him from my vision as if that's enough for me to not notice him. Beau peaks out from my father's side, gives me a thumbs up and a wide smile and scampers off as quickly as he can.
"How's the party so far?" I ask, attempting to make small talk and trying to pretend my father isn't preoccupied with where Beau has run off to. There's little I can do to keep his attention but I continue to force a conversation in order to give Beau enough time to get free. I hope he runs for the door and never looks back. If he doesn't, my father will find him again and there will he nothing I can do to save him.
"I have to go and...um, find someone," my father says without even looking my way.
"I think I saw him go downstairs," I tell him and he doesn't even question why I think I know who he is after. Dad nods and takes off towards the stairs, disappearing downwards, buying Beau even more time. It's too bad he was too dumb to use it, when I look around the room for Becca, I see Beau standing there with some people, urgently waving me over. Reluctantly I go to see what he wants.
"Oh hey, Mary-Ann, this is who I was telling you about. Quinn, this is Mary-Ann, the chair of the performing arts school."
I've been ambushed. The woman turns to me and offers her frail hand with a lukewarm smile.
"Mr. Tillman here says you're quite the performer," she says and I shoot daggers towards Beau.
"She says if someone comes highly recommended, they just might be able to arrange for an audition. You know, to get into that program instead of something like, oh, I don't know, accounting." Beau is pleased with himself but I want to kill him. Out of the corner of my eye I see my father lumbering up the stairs.
"It was very nice to meet you," I tell Mary-Ann and excuse myself. I can hear Beau apologizing as I walk away to find Becca.
"L
et's get out of here," I tell Becca, holding on to her arm to help her understand I really need her.
"But...but...," she protests but follows me outside.
*****
Chapter Nine
Beau
*****
Father surprises me early in the morning, his call rousing me out of bed without apology.
"We have a conference call to get on with an old scout. He's gonna be able to tell us what we need to do."
The call with the scout takes forever and I'm staring at the clock the whole time, wondering how the hell I'm going to explain to Coach and the team why I've missed half the practice. Father hangs up after the scout does, not even sticking around for my opinion. If he had asked, I would've told him that that was a complete waste of time, nothing in that conversation was new or enlightening. I race to the field as fast as I can, pulling my practice clothes into place as I drive.
"You're late," Coach says as I almost blow right past him. "Again."
I stand in place in front of him, giving him the respect that he deserves and that I truly do have for him.
"I'm sorry," I plead, unsure of how to explain that it isn't my fault. "It won't happen again."
Coach lets a long, terse breath out via his nostrils while staring down at me. "You do realize you've said all of this before, right?"
"Coach I -" I start to speak but he cuts me off.
"Between this team and my daughter, I can't keep everyone in line. All you have to do is show up on time and do your job and my life will be much simpler."
When an opportunity to save your own hide presents itself, you have to take it, no matter the collateral damage.
"Your daughter?" I ask innocently, not showing my cards but instead appealing to a very stressed out man.
"She's not keeping up with her studies like she promised, I just know," he tells me as though the words fall out, away from his control. He needs to vent to someone.
"Coach," I say with the voice of a concerned friend, not of someone with clear ulterior motives. "Have you talked to her about this? I mean, just the two of you, not while you're both surrounded by people."
He ponders my question for a moment. "When? Between you guys running me around, the team dinners..."
A lightbulb goes off over my head. "What are you doing tonight?" I ask and watch as he shrugs his shoulders. "Then why don't you have dinner with your daughter? Just the two of you."
Coach appears to be relieved at the answer being presented to him. He fishes for his cell and focuses on that.
"Alright," he says while typing on his phone, "Have a good practice. I'll see you out there in a bit."
Completely exonerated, I walk out to the field to join my team, feeling zero guilt at so casually and willingly to throw Quinn under the bus for my own benefit.
*****
Chapter Ten
Quinn
*****
Sitting in my hardest class, I feel at least a little better upon hearing the anxious grumbling from my classmates. Nobody is having an easy time in the class, we're all struggling. In an effort to make conversation, I try anything to get the people around me to talk to me and make me feel better. When I ask the girl next to me, Josie I believe, how her weekend was, she just smiles patronizingly. Mitchell, the guy behind me does the same.
"You guys don't go out or anything?" I ask and am met with incredulous stares.
"When?!" Josie demands I explain.
"Seriously, go out? Undeclared students with no future go out, the rest of us need to find jobs," Michell informs me matter-of-factly.
"Maybe I'll have a nice dinner once I secure an internship," Josie chimes in with dreams in her eyes. I choose this moment to inform them of the opportunity I pissed away.
"Actually met someone last night, guy from Loubin? Said I could talk to him about an internship. Actually can't remember his name though..."
While I know it was stupid to be so careless, Josie and Mitchell look as though I had done something way worse, like I had personally offended them.
"Loubin and Loubin would be a dream," Mitchell tries to calmly explain. "Most people would kill to get a foot in the door."
Josie just shakes her head.
"You think I should just call him?" I ask even though I don't even remember the guy's name.
"Yes! Skip this class even!"
My phone vibrates in my pocket and when I check, it's Dad asking me to go to dinner with him which makes me uneasy.
"Well it'll have to wait until I go to dinner with my father," I explain and their heads almost explode. "He is the head baseball coach after all."
"But can he get you a job?" Mitchell asks before turning away, done with me. While my father probably couldn't get me in at a good company, maybe he wants to have dinner to explain how much he loves me and how proud he is of me. I kick myself for not securing the internship and having something to announce to my father over this impromptu dinner. If only I had got that internship and not been so focused on Beau, well then I could've made him really proud.
I just need more time to be the daughter he wants me to be.
*****
Father is in the back of the train-car diner and by the friendly conversation he's having with two of the waitresses at his table, I can tell he's a regular or a really big flirt.
"Hi," I say, my body language apologizing for interrupting their conversation as I slide into the booth.
"Didn't know you had such a hot date, Coach," the older of the two waitresses smirks at me.
"Hottest girl in town," he proudly announces before correcting himself upon seeing my reaction. "I didn't mean, you know what I meant. She's my daughter for crying out loud!"
The waitresses laugh at his embarrassment and leave us be. The two waitresses seem completely comfortable with their place of employment, I couldn't imagine a place like this without two women like them. People like them is why you come to diners like this. This is part of their life, part of what they do everyday and the two are relaxed and at ease with it. I have no idea if this took years of searching to find but I wonder if I can be the same way poured over spreadsheets in some cubicle.
With my father still covering up his poor choice of words, I lay my suspicions on the table.
"So what's the occasion?" I ask, knowing I'll need to draw him out.
"Occasion? Can't I have dinner with my daughter once in awhile?"
If I didn't know him so well, I'd feel bad I accused him of being up to something.
"Ok, fine. I just wanted to check in on you and see how school was going. See if you're set to get your degree, that's all."
I assure him I'm doing ok enough to graduate so he doesn't need to worry.
"But what about after school is done? Where will you work? You know, you should really be doing an internship with the free time you have..."
He'll keep going if I don't stop him.
"How's the team? Championship is it?" I ask and know I'm lighting a fuse. He shifts uncomfortably in his seat, thrown off course. The speeches he has prepared for me are replaced in his mind by the other big stress in his life.
"We're doing ok," he struggles to spit out.
I lean in for added effect. "But Dad, it's the championship. Can your guys win it all?"
My heart feels weak when I see the pain I'm putting him in but the tables have turned; if it wasn't him, I would be the one sweating while assuring that everything is fine.
"They all need to come together, that's all. They need to act as one big unit, a team. If they can do that, then we can win."
"Isn't it the Coach's job to make that happen?" I ask, sprinkling gasoline on the flickering flame. What follows is my father's in-depth analysis of his team and how and where they look best. He's talking to me like a fellow coach and I take it all in, all the way through our meals. I've actually understood only a little of it but enough to make a point.
"Well it sounds like you just need to keep a tighter leash on that Beau guy,"
I insist, tying the cocky pitcher up so I can have him off of my mind for once. Dad just nods, taking in what I told him. He causally leaves money on the table to pay for our meals before telling me that I'm exactly right.
"Tight leash," I remind him after we hug in the parking lot and I head towards my car. He's so wrapped up thinking about Beau, he forgets all about the leash he's supposed to have on me and lets me off into the night without another word.
*****
Chapter Eleven
Bush League: New Adult Sports Romance Page 6
