Jacked - The Complete Series Box Set (A Lumberjack Neighbor Romance)

by Claire Adams

  *****

  Monday afternoon, I walked into practice with my head held high, my mind as focused on the game and training as it could be, and got to work.

  The girls were all waiting as I stepped onto the court, warmed up and ready to go. Eryn was there, of course, but she and I both avoided eye contact. Neither of us wanted to make this any more awkward than it was already.

  “Girls!” I said sharply. “Before we get started, I just want to say that you all rocked it on Saturday! That game was a killer start to the season. And for that reason, there's no way in hell I'm letting anyone slack off.

  “We are going to work even harder than before. You're good, yes, but if you let that go to your heads, you'll get complacent, you'll get overconfident, and you won't be hungry anymore. And do you understand what that will lead to?”

  “Losing!” they all replied in unison.

  “Exactly. So, I hope you are all ready...ready to get broken down, and then rebuilt into pure, volleyball machines! Are you ready?!” I shouted.

  “Yes, Coach!” they all replied.

  “I can't hear you. Are you ready for this?!”

  “YES, COACH!” they shouted in response.

  “That's what I like to hear. All right, we're gonna start out with three laps around the whole area here! And I'm gonna make it interesting! The three girls that come in last get to do 20 push-ups! Got it?”

  “YES, COACH!”

  “The start is over by the door. And don't worry ladies, I'm not gonna sit here like a lazy asshole on the sidelines and watch you work; I'm gonna get right in there and run with you!”

  I jogged over to the start area, and the girls all followed me. “All right, three, two, one, go!” I counted down.

  I took off at a steady run and heard the footsteps of the girls pounding the floor close behind me. I started off pretty good; my mind was off Eryn. Well, it kind of was. After all, she was just a few paces behind me, and her presence was almost impossible to ignore.

  But I was focused on the run, focused on my breathing and the way my muscles were working, and I was focused on the rhythm of the pace. It was hard to have scrambled thoughts when you were working out with intensity. I started pushing myself harder as the sound of one girl grew closer, getting right up behind me as if she was preparing to pass me. I felt a pleasant burn in my muscles as I pushed myself harder – but then, I wondered if the girl who had pushed until she was behind me was Eryn.

  Dammit! Why was this so hard to shove to the back of my mind?

  I pushed myself harder, surging forward and breathing hard as I began to out-pace whatever member of my team had caught up to me. I managed to get into a solid rhythm and began surging on ahead. Thoughts of Eryn were starting to fade from my mind as I focused on my rhythm and pacing and how my muscles and lungs were working in tandem.

  I grinned to myself as I passed the door once more to mark the first lap down, and began to think that perhaps I should've made this run longer. It was a bit of a relief to be so intensely focused on the run that my mind was clear. I didn't want it to stop.

  It did, though – and far more quickly and abruptly than I had imagined it would.

  A loud thud sounded followed by shouts from behind me. Several of the girls were calling out, but Leena was the loudest, calling out my name. “Wade! Wade, come quickly!”

  I slowed down and turned around, and saw that all the girls had gathered around someone on the floor. That was never a good sign.

  “Coach, hurry up!” Leena shouted again.

  I jogged quickly over to where they were. The circle of players parted to make a path to the player on the floor. The last person I’d wanted to see was revealed: it had been Eryn who had taken a fall.

  “Oh shit,” I muttered under my breath.

  I quickly moved the other girls out of the way. Eryn was lying on the ground, gripping her right ankle, her face was twisted with pain.

  “What the hell happened here?” I asked.

  “I...I tripped,” she stammered, looking around. Something about it seemed like she wasn't telling me something.

  “Are you all right?” I questioned her, trying to examine the ankle she was holding.

  “I’m going to have to go with not really. My ankle hurts like hell.”

  I glanced up and, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Tammy and Kelly stifling amusement. Something definitely wasn't right here.

  “Leena, lead the rest of the girls around the court to finish up those laps, and then do some serving drills. I'm gonna get Eryn over to the nurse's station to get this ankle checked out. I'll be back in 20 minutes or so.”

  Leena nodded to me and gave a reassuring look to Eryn. “Come on, girls,” Leena called to the rest of the team, “you heard the coach. We have to keep running.”

  They murmured words of sympathy and encouragement to Eryn before they all carried on running. I looked down at her and sighed, my face wearing an expression of worry.

  “Can you walk?” I asked.

  “I can try.”

  “Here, let me help you up.”

  I reached down and positioned one arm around her as she wrapped one arm over my shoulder for support. I couldn't deny that it felt amazing to touch her again, even though it was under these circumstances.

  She tried to walk on the foot and was able to get along by limping, but she was relying heavily on the support she was getting from me. The last thing I wanted was to take a chance she might injure her ankle further, so I insisted on carrying her, instead.

  She didn’t seem to be too keen on the idea, but she didn’t put up too much of a fight, either. She did make me wait until we got into the hallway, though, so none of the team would get the wrong idea, as she put it.

  My heart raced a little having her in my arms and close to me. I wanted to kiss her again and tell her it was going to be okay. Instead, I fought the urge and focused on the situation from a coach’s point of view. “All right,” I said as we headed down the hallway, “now you can tell me what really happened back there.”

  “Not so sure I want to say,” she admitted.

  “Why’s that?”

  “We’re a team. I don’t want to come across as stirring up more friction.”

  “Look, Eryn, if anyone on my team is causing friction, I’m fairly certain you aren’t the culprit. And, if something’s going on, I need to know. I can’t coach effectively if I don’t. Now, tell me what happened, and be honest. That’s all I’m asking.”

  “Fine. Someone tripped me from behind,” she said.

  “What? Like, on purpose?”

  “I felt a foot kick my ankles together as I was running. It was hard and sharp, and definitely not an accident.”

  I nodded. “Any idea who it was?”

  “I went straight down and tumbled. All I could see around me were legs.”

  “But you have an idea of who might have done it?”

  Up to that point, she’d been making a serious effort to look straight down the hall as we walked. I was certain it was because our faces would have been inches apart had she turned.

  However, she paused for a moment, then swiveled her head to look at me, and I could see that she knew. The look on her face told me she didn’t want to rat anyone out, even if they had purposely caused her harm.

  That look also set off an intense, protective instinct inside me. Seeing her suffer was not something I ever wanted to see again, and I desperately wished that there was some way I could take the pain for her.

  “I think I have an idea of who it may have been,” she murmured reluctantly.

  “And? Are you gonna tell me?”

  She bit her lower lip and looked down. It made me want to kiss her even more.

  “Tammy? You think it was Tammy, am I right?” I questioned.

  “Yeah,” she replied uneasily.

  “I figured so,” I replied. “Do you think anyone else saw it?”

  “I don't know, but even if they did, they might be too scar
ed to say anything about it. Tammy can be...vindictive, to say the least.”

  “I see.”

  We reached the nurse's office, and I knocked on the door. The nurse, an older, plump woman named Millie, came out and gave Eryn a motherly smile.

  “Oh no, have you hurt yourself dear?” she asked softly.

  Eryn nodded.

  “See what's wrong, and let me know as soon as you can please, Millie,” I said to her as I placed Eryn on one of the exam tables in Millie’s office.

  “I'll do that. I will take very good care of her,” she replied.

  Eryn and I shared one last look before I left her in Millie’s capable hands – a look in which many things went unsaid. I closed the office door behind me and hurried back to the court, a storm of emotions beginning to rage inside me. I was going to get to the bottom of this – and if Tammy had indeed deliberately hurt Eryn, there was going to be hell to pay.

  I went back to the court, trying to focus on the practice, but at the back of my mind trying to think of a way to find out what had happened. Close to the end of the practice, I had an idea. I called Leena aside while the girls had divided themselves into two teams and were playing a practice match.

  “What's going on, Coach? Have you found out how bad Eryn's injury is?” she asked.

  “No, not yet – but I do want to find out exactly how it happened. Because it seems it wasn't an accident.”

  Her face registered a bit of surprise at this announcement. “It wasn't? Are you sure?” Leena asked.

  “She says she was tripped. She seemed sure of it. Did you see anything?”

  “No, I was right out front, just behind you. So, everything happened behind me.”

  “That was you, huh?” I gave her a half smile. “All right, well tell me this: where are Kelly and Tammy's lockers in the changing room?”

  She looked a bit perplexed by my question but answered me anyway. “They're both together, right at the back of the locker room, by the showers. Why?”

  “Probably best for team cohesion if you don’t know. But, I have a hunch that they had something to do with this and I need to find out.”

  She nodded as she considered this. “If this was deliberate, that wouldn’t surprise me even a little. So, what are you going to do?”

  I grinned. “I have a little plan that I think might work perfectly.”

  “What is it?” she asked, curiosity glowing in her eyes. “Can I help?”

  “I’m not going to put you in that position. Again, best if you don’t know. But don't say anything; don't act like you suspect them or anything like that. Got it?”

  She nodded.

  “All right, get back on the court.” She did as I said and hurried back to the team.

  “Girls, I'm going to take a quick bathroom break! Keep scrimmaging, I'll be right back!”

  “All right, Coach!” several of them replied.

  I hurried out, then ran to my office and got my gym bag. I took my phone out, opened the audio recorder app, started recording, and put it in my gym bag. I then took the gym bag, with the phone recording audio in it, out to the hallway where the cleaning lady Elma was mopping the floor.

  I exchanged a greeting with Elma to see how her day was and then asked her for the favor I needed. “Elma,” I said, “this bag belongs to one of the girls from my team, she's gonna be leaving early today. Could you just put it on top of the lockers closest to the showers for me? It'll be safe for her there since nobody can see it unless they're looking for it. I’d do it, but, I uh, can't go into the girls' locker room myself, obviously.”

  Elma smiled at me and chuckled as she put her mop down. “Sure, I'll do that for you. Have a good afternoon, Coach,” she said as she took the bag from me.

  “Great. Thanks, Elma; you have a good one, too. I gotta run back to practice. Bye!”

  I jogged back to the court, where the game was still underway. I called Leena over again and spoke to her while the others were busy playing.

  “Leena, there's a red Adidas gym bag that's been placed in the girls' changing room, on top of the lockers nearest the showers, where you said Tammy and Kelly would be. Do me a favor and hang around until everyone has left, and then go back into the locker room, get that bag for me, and bring it to my office, all right?”

  “I can do that,” she promised.

  “Thanks. Get back on the court.”

  The girls finished up their game, and then I sent them off to the showers just as Eryn came back into the gym, hobbling along with the aid of a pair of crutches. It wasn’t a sight I was happy about.

  “What's the diagnosis?” I asked as she made her way toward me. I walked to meet her to keep her from having to go too far.

  “It's a sprain,” she said with a sigh.

  “How bad is it?” I asked, looking down and meeting her gaze. Immediately, the spark between us shot through me. She looked down at her ankle to break the connection.

  “The nurse said I'd have to take a week off. She wants me to go get an X-ray just to be sure, but said she didn’t think it was too serious, luckily.”

  “All right, I'm glad to hear that. Well, you'd better take her advice and take it easy. Are you good to drive home with your ankle like that?”

  “Since it’s my left ankle, I should be good. I don't have to press on any pedals, so I'll be okay.”

  I smiled what I hoped was a reassuring smile. “Please rest, Eryn. Trying to do any kind of anything on that ankle before it's healed is just gonna make it worse and prolong the recovery period. I want you better.”

  “I know,” she replied with a sigh, her head hanging low.

  More than anything, I wanted to pull her to me, hug her tight, and tell her that it was all going to be okay, but I knew I couldn't.

  “Chin up, Eryn. You'll be fine in a week or so. Just go home now and get some rest.”

  She smiled up at me, our eyes meeting once more for a brief moment before she looked away again. “All right, Wade. Have a good evening.”

  “You, too.” She was moving slowly on the crutches, and for some reason, it crossed my mind she might need help with her gym bag, so I called to her,

  “Hey, Eryn! Do you need help getting your stuff to the car?”

  She stopped and looked back over her shoulder. “No, but thanks. Leena is going to get it for me. I appreciate it though. I’ll see ya later, Coach.” She never looked directly at me.

  “See ya later, Eryn. Take care of yourself.”

  I watched her crutch off the court and felt more determined than ever to find out who was behind her fall. Then, I went to my office to wait for Leena to bring my gym bag by from where it had been stashed in the locker room. Hopefully, my secret audio recording would reveal who the guilty party was.

  It was gonna be an interesting evening, that much I knew for sure.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Eryn

  Sitting in my car after practice with the crutches on the passenger seat next to me and my ankle bandaged and aching, I couldn't help but feel depressed.

  I mean, this past weekend had been such a great game for me, and it had seemed as if things were starting to truly go right in my life. I'd finally made the starting lineup, and I'd played one of the best volleyball games of my life. And, of course, there had been the amazing kiss with Wade.

  But first, I'd had to let Wade go and try to remove any thoughts of him from my mind. And now this: an injury that would keep me off the court for at least a week.

  At least there wasn't a game this weekend, so it wasn't like I would be missing something important. But for the game the following weekend, it would mean that I wouldn't be in top form. I'd lose fitness because of this forced week of rest, and my skills would deteriorate. Not by any kind of huge margin or anything, but they would, and that thought made me discouraged.

  Another thought, though, made me angry: the fact that I had been tripped up. The fact that this injury had been a deliberate act of maliciousness.

  An
d, I was almost certain I knew who had been behind it.

  Tammy had been in a foul mood ever since she had been taken off the starting lineup, and her little sidekick, Kelly, had been in a similar mindset. And, of course, since I was the one who had replaced Tammy in the lineup, I'd had more than a few death stares and muttered insults from her.

  For some reason I had never understood, she had never liked me, not from the moment we had first laid eyes on each other. I had to say, the feeling was mutual. I didn't know why she had such a dislike for me, or what I had ever done to her to warrant these feelings, but I couldn't deny that they were there.

  I'd been content with simply keeping a distance between us. That's what normal people did, right? If there's someone you don't get along with for whatever reason, you just ignore them. Keep away from them. Not Tammy. She would do everything she could to try to get in my face or make me look bad.

  There had been plenty of snide comments and muttered insults, and of course, the time I’d found the word “bitch” written on my locker in lipstick — her color, nonetheless – but this? This was the first time her aggression had turned physical.

  Of course, like the lipstick graffiti, I had no proof that it had been her, but it seemed unlikely that anyone else on the team would have gone to so much trouble. I got along really well with all the other players. It was only Tammy and Kelly who seemed to have a problem with me.

  The question now was what was I going to do about it?

  Of course, at the moment, with pain throbbing through my leg starting at my ankle and the frustration and anger I felt at being forced to rest for at least a week, I couldn't deny feeling like I wanted a little revenge.

  I knew it would pass. I wasn't one for vengeance, and certainly hadn't taken any for the lipstick incident. I was quick to forgive, even if I didn't forget. This time, however, she had crossed a line, and if I didn't stand up for myself, who knew what she would do next.

  Not that I had any idea exactly what I could do. I mean, I could always take the guy route, and when I was all healed up, I could just go up to her and kick her ass in the locker rooms. But that wasn’t my style. Of course, I admit, punching her square in the eye wouldn’t have hurt my feelings any. I knew my best bet was to talk to Leena and see what she thought.