by Claire Adams
“I hope you're all properly warmed up – and ready for some pain! Because you know what they say? No pain…”
“No gain!” they all replied in unison.
Good. They seemed well-trained enough, and that was all most likely thanks to the previous weeks they'd had with Coach Hatting.
We began working through the various core exercises I'd planned for the afternoon, and while many of them started off strong, a lot began to falter as time went by. They were fit, but not fit enough to win a championship – not yet, anyway.
One or two of them, however, powered through the strenuous workouts without a word of complaint. And one of these was Eryn. She seemed to have a seriously intense level of fitness, and whatever I threw at her, she did while barely breaking a sweat. While the other girls were collapsing with exhaustion and pain all around her, she just kept on going.
If I hadn’t already been impressed by her, I was now. And even though I didn’t want it, the more I learned about her, the more attracted I found myself to her.
No, no, no. I could not think about stuff like this. I was the coach; she was one of my players! I'd gone off the rails enough in California. I'd come here with the aim of getting back on the straight and narrow path and playing strictly by the rules, which was how I'd always done things.
Before California, at least…
But I didn't want to think about that now, and I certainly didn't want to think about the gorgeous girl in front of me in any capacity other than professionally. Especially since the more I stared at her, the more my thoughts began to wander into, well, inappropriate places.
Eventually, we were done with the core strengthening routine, and groans and sighs of relief sounded from all around. I sorted the girls into two teams and finished up the practice with a game, a game in which Eryn, once again, managed to amaze me.
I took some notes as I watched the game progress, recording the various players' strengths and weaknesses and writing up possible combinations of players for the final team. The first inter-varsity match of the season was coming up, and I wanted to make sure we started off with a bang.
The scrimmage game came to a close and I checked my watch; it was close enough to the end of practice for the day.
“All right, ladies, well done! You all put in some very solid effort today, and I appreciate that! I know that this fitness stuff I'm hitting you with is pretty hardcore, but trust me, you'll thank me later when this team is kicking some serious ass!
“All right, get yourselves off the court and into the showers. It's Friday, and I'm sure you've all got hot dates later. You don't wanna be smelling like you currently do to impress those boys, right?”
They all laughed.
“Go on, go on, get out of here,” I said with a grin. “Have a great weekend, and I'll see you girls on Monday.”
I walked on down to my office where I could put my notes together over a mug of coffee, draw up some potential strategies on my whiteboard, and then take off. It had been quite a week, and I was looking forward to a cold beer with John later. I mean, I'd come here to live a quiet life and leave all the craziness of the West Coast behind, but that didn't mean I couldn't have a little fun on the side.
After around half an hour, as I was just wrapping things up, I heard a knock on my door. “Come in, it's not locked,” I said.
The door opened slowly, and in stepped Tammy, the Hollywood wannabe from the team. “Ah, Tammy,” I said, “what can I do for you?”
I was immediately suspicious. I had my reservations about why she was here the moment I saw her. She was dressed in a tiny miniskirt that barely covered her crotch and a tight, flimsy, white T-shirt with nothing underneath – which was very obvious. Very, very obvious.
I did my best to keep my eyes away from her chest and her pert, round breasts with their very noticeable, kinda happy nipples. No, no, no! I did not want to look there!
“Hi, Wade,” she purred slowly, grinning cheekily.
I knew why she was here, and I wasn't going to let this go any further. “I prefer Coach Vinson, Tammy,” I replied, keeping my tone as cool and professional as I could. “Is there something I can help you with? I'm just packing up, and I'm actually in a real hurry to get going.”
“Oh, are you?” she asked, batting her eyelids and looking sad. “I was really hoping we could have a talk. A quiet talk, just you and me. Maybe I could close the door? Then we'd have some…privacy in here.”
“No, no,” I said hastily, “let's keep the door open. Seriously, I have to get out of here. I have an, er, appointment that I'm already late for.”
“Aw, Wade… I just wanted to talk to you.”
Okay, this was starting to get annoying now. Yes, she was attractive in a generic, West-Coast-bimbo kind of way, and yes, I was a red-blooded man with desires and appetites and a very high sex drive – but not for her. I'd had enough of girls like her, and moreover, she was a player on my team. I was the coach, and there was no way in hell I was going to cross that boundary. I was here on the straight and narrow path, and that was that. There would be no two ways about it.
“It’s Coach Vinson. And, I'm sorry, Tammy,” I said curtly, standing up and hooking my gym bag over my shoulder, “but if this isn't something extremely urgent and important, I'm going to have to ask you to leave.”
“I, uh-”
Clearly, she hadn't counted on me resisting her sexual advances, and now she didn't know what to do. I pressed home my advantage, not giving her an inch of room in which to maneuver.
“So it's not an emergency? All right, well, have a good evening, and I'll see you on Monday,” I said as I pushed past her and stepped out into the hallway.
She stood, half in and half out of my office for a few moments, and then looked at me with a wounded expression before she turned and stormed off. I shook my head. Drama like this really was the last thing I wanted or needed here.
I reached into my pocket for my car keys, and with a stab of panic realized that they weren't there. “Shit,” I cursed under my breath.
I hurried back into my office and looked all around my desk, but there was no sign of them. This really was the last thing I needed. They had to be around here somewhere. I remembered having them in my hands on the volleyball court, so, thinking I may have left them there, I hurried that way.
When I stepped inside the gym, I was surprised to hear the sound of a volleyball pinging against the practice wall. I walked in slowly and then stopped in my tracks as I saw Eryn practicing her serves over and over again. I couldn't believe it; I'd put them through one hell of a grueling practice, yet here she was, training after hours.
I walked up to the stands, where I saw the glint of metal shining out from under a bench, and there, sure enough, were my car keys. I put them in my pocket and walked over to Eryn.
“Hey, Eryn,” I said as I reached the edge of the court. “You're really pushing yourself, huh?”
“Hi, Coach,” she replied, her tone cool and distant. “Yeah, I am. To get to the top, you have to work harder than anyone else, and that's what I'm doing. Now, if you don't mind, I still have a hundred serves to go.”
She turned away from me and served the ball, and then dashed across the court to grab another ball to serve. I really wanted to stay and talk to her, but it seemed pretty obvious that she didn't want to be disturbed.
“That's a good attitude, Eryn,” I said, my tone one of genuine admiration, “and I think you're going to get to the top. I really do. Keep up the hard work, and I'll see you on Monday.”
“See you then,” she replied quickly as she continued racing across the court.
I turned and walked off slowly, feeling strangely conflicted. A hot, 21-year-old blonde had practically thrown herself at me, almost begging for sex, and I'd easily been able to turn her down. Yet now, with this girl who obviously wanted nothing to do with me beyond a cold, professional relationship, I couldn't take my eyes off of her. I wondered what was going on in my head.
*****
I walked into the bar and quickly found John perched on a stool with a grin on his face. One thing hadn’t changed: when John was happy, everyone around him was happy, too. He had one of those infectiously cheery personalities.
“Hey, buddy!” I said as I pulled up a stool next to him at the bar. “How's the week been?”
“Great man, just great!” he replied. “I just finished a major project, one that I've been working on for like, seven weeks, and the client is super happy with it. I'm celebrating tonight! Celebrating! Let's get some shots.”
“Whoa, now hold up there, cowboy. We're not 21 anymore; we gotta pace ourselves.”
John rolled his eyes. “Come on, bro, don't be an old man. Let's cut loose! It's your first weekend back, and I'm celebrating the completion of this gigantic project. A few shots ain't gonna kill us.”
“All right, all right,” I said. “Let's do this.”
John ordered us two shots of tequila each, which we slammed in quick succession. It didn’t take long for me to feel it. It had been quite a while since I'd had shots, and already, it was bringing back bad memories from my West Coast life. I forced the thoughts out of my head and concentrated on the present. I was here now, this was my fresh start, my new life – and I wasn't going to let the past mar that.
“Okay, okay, we've done shots, you happy now?” I asked with a grin.
“For now, but I can't promise that there won't be more shots later!” John laughed loudly and boisterously, and I couldn't help joining in.
“Now for beers,” he said. “Come on, let's hit 'em!”
He ordered us some beers, and we moved off to a table to drink.
“I think, Mr. Vinson, that another order of the night is to get you laid,” he announced. “Seriously, bro, it's your first weekend back. You need to sample some of the local talent.”
“Whoa, now, let's not get ahead of ourselves,” I said. “I just want a few drinks and a nice, quiet night. No craziness.”
“Come on, man, look at you! You could pick up any girl in this bar if you wanted to. Women have always fallen at your feet, Wade – and you might as well take advantage of that while you're still young. Sheesh, man, don't throw a gift like that away! A guy who looks like me would kill to look like you, just for one night!”
I shook my head and smiled. “It's not all it's cracked up to be, pal. And I appreciate you, uh, looking out for my needs, but it's just not what I'm after at the moment. I'm keeping my life as simple and complication-free as possible.”
“And, what's simpler than picking up a chick from the bar here? Wham, bam, thank you, ma'am. You have some fun tonight, she's gone in the morning, and that's that!”
“Ah, man, it's never as simple as that.”
The truth was, I couldn't get thoughts of Eryn out of my head. It felt so wrong…like I was crossing a boundary just by being attracted to her. But I couldn't help it – I just couldn’t get her out of my mind.
“Well, we'll see what happens, old buddy,” I said with a smile, fully knowing that nothing at all would happen. “We'll see what happens. Come on now, drink up!”
Chapter Five
Eryn
A little bead of sweat trickled down the back of my neck. I wanted to wipe it away. It itched, but I was not going to let myself get distracted, not by anything.
I was positioned opposite Tammy on the court, and man, she had it out for me. I mean, she’d always disliked me, and I never knew why. Leena had said she thought it was because she was jealous, which I’d thought was ridiculous. Tammy looked like some sort of, I didn’t know, model or actress or something – the type of girl that every college guy fantasizes about. Me? People always said I was pretty but I thought they were just being nice.
No, I thought it had more to do with the fact that I was simply better than her at volleyball, despite her making the starting lineup every season and me…well, not.
Today, she was really going out of her way to get me, though. She had actually thrown the ball at me, hitting me in the back of the head when I was turned around and talking to Leena after we'd just won a point. Then she'd smiled her super bitchy smile and told me that it was an “accident” and she was “just trying to pass the ball nicely to me.”
Yeah, whatever. The back of my head was still stinging from how hard that moron had hit me with it.
She had also spiked the ball directly at me not once, not twice, but three times this game – going right for my face. Thanks to my quick reflexes, I'd been able to block it all three times, but only just barely.
I wasn't going to let her push my buttons or get away with it. I'd had enough because it wasn't like this was the first time. There were always the bitchy comments, the jokes in which I was the object of her so-called humor, and that time someone replaced the towel in my locker with one that had been soaked in witch hazel because I was allergic to it. It took my skin a week to recover.
I'd never been able to prove that Tammy was behind it, but I was absolutely certain that she had done it. After all, who else would have had any reason to? I got along great with everyone else on the team. Everyone except for Tammy and her equally bitchy friend, Kelly.
And now? Now I was at the point where I'd simply had enough, and I was just waiting for the perfect moment to strike. It soon presented itself.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Tammy moving closer to the net, preparing for a counterattack setup as their team sent the ball over the net. Leena popped the ball up to me, expecting me to spike it into the open spot at the back of the court, which would have been an easy point.
Except, I wasn't after an easy point.
I was after something else. I was after a little payback.
I spiked the ball with as much force as I could muster – right into Tammy's face. She was just across the net from me. She had no time to react.
The ball popped her right in the nose, and she fell down with a shriek of pain.
“Oh my God, I'm so sorry, Tammy,” I said.
She glared up at me with absolute wrath burning in her eyes, and I couldn't help but feel a little shiver of satisfaction rush through me as I saw a little trickle of blood running out of her left nostril. The other players on her side of the net gathered around her, offering words of sympathy, but the girls on my team remained tight-lipped. I even saw a few smiles of satisfaction cracking on their faces; they knew she deserved it.
Still, despite the sudden rush of satisfaction I'd experienced, I felt a twinge of regret starting to seep in. As bitchy as she was, and as many times as she'd tried to hurt me, I felt pretty bad for having done that to her. For one, I felt as if I'd degraded myself by stooping to her level, and for another, it just felt bad to hurt another person, even if she was horrible.
Just then, however, Coach Vinson stormed onto the court, and everyone could see that he was pissed.
“Tammy, Eryn, off the court. You two are out for the rest of the game, and we'll be having a word about this after practice.”
“But, Wade,” whined Tammy.
“For the last time – it’s Coach. And no buts!” he snapped. “Off the court, now!”
He turned to me, and his tone softened immediately; it seemed almost like he was feeling guilty about taking me off the court. Nonetheless, he did it.
“You, too, Eryn,” he muttered.
Tammy and I slunk toward the bleachers and sat at opposite ends of the bench next to the court. Now I felt dreadful. I couldn't believe that I'd let myself get drawn into her childishness. She and I didn't say anything to each other, and I didn't even look in her direction, but I could feel her anger burning brightly next to me.
Eventually, the game was over and with it, practice. Coach Vinson sent all the other pl
ayers off to the showers and then he came over to talk to us. Once again, as he stood in front of the both of us, I couldn't help but notice he had such intense, beautiful eyes – eyes that one could get lost in for days…if they were into that kind of thing.
But I'd been played by a guy exactly like him before. Great looking, charming, cool, athletic – and he'd been a total narcissist and a manipulative, game-playing liar. And Wade Vinson, from what I'd read in gossip mags, wasn't exactly a model citizen. No. It would just not do to look at him that way.
But those eyes, that dark, thick hair, swept so stylishly back, those hard muscles that showed so clearly through his golf shirt…
Stop!
He looked at me first, and then Tammy. “Would you girls like to tell me just what in the hell is going on?” he asked. “Seriously. What was that about on the court there?”
“She started it!” snapped Tammy immediately.
I was about to object, but Wade stepped in before I could.
“Do you think I'm blind, Tammy? Or maybe just that I'm stupid? I saw you throwing the ball at Eryn or trying to spike it at her face multiple times before she did it to you. Don't try to say that she was the one who started it.”
He then turned to me. “And don't think it means you're off the hook, Eryn. She may have provoked you, but that didn't give you the right to do what you did. When you're out on that court, I expect you to act like professionals, and professionals do not fight on the court. Ever.”
I slumped my shoulders and bowed my head. “I'm sorry, Coach Vinson,” I murmured.
“And, what about you, Tammy?” he asked her. “What do you have to say?”
“I'm sorry,” she whispered, the words crawled out of her mouth like creeping cockroaches.
“Now, whatever the hell is going on between you two sort it out like adults, do you understand? This isn't high school. Don't ever bring these petty squabbles onto my court again. Ever. Do you both understand me?”
“Yes, Coach Vinson,” I replied.
