by M. C. Cerny
“Yeah. And?”
“I was wondering if you might be interested. Coach Calloway is really tough on the Varsity team. Truth is that I think he might have scared off Coach Bower.”
“Ah. I see.” I knew exactly where this kid was going with this.
“Anyway, I thought maybe you might be interested. Maybe since you know Coach Calloway already, he might not be so scary.” James shrugged backing up. If this kid only knew. Coach Calloway’s tough love approach probably prepared me for the military better than boot camp. He was grumpy back then and I was sure knowing Chase that not much had changed.
“I hadn’t planned on coaching James, but let me walk you to the locker room and check in with Coach. He might have other plans.”
“Awesome!” I followed James down the hall to the locker room entrance.
Immediately, I heard yelling from inside and the rattle of equipment being tossed. I pushed James back behind me in case something more than footballs came flying out.
“Whoa, what’s going on?” This was less than awesome. I walked into a locker room filled with kids ranging from freshman to seniors all looking a little shell shocked. Coach Calloway’s face was mottled red and he started blowing his whistle at them waving his hands in the air.
“I’ll tell you what’s going on. These whelps need to get out there and start doing wind sprints up and down the field until they drop. Laziest bunch I’ve had in years.”
“That’s it, you’re suspended until further notice. You run off the assistant coach and now this Calloway! Get to my office now!” Dr. Payne stepped in obviously called down here by another student.
“Fine!” Coach Calloway stormed out ripping his whistle off from around his neck tossing it to the ground. Thirty or so faces watched and I stepped back to let him pass. I saw nothing had changed in the decade plus since I’d been here except for the administration’s tolerance.
“I recall you played football in your interview, is that correct?” Dr. Payne looked at me as he picked up the whistle.
Before I could explain James piped in. “He did, Dr. Payne. I checked the yearbook and he was here the year they won Regionals back to back.”
I looked over to my helper and his classmates half in practice gear. “Thanks James, it’s true.” I didn’t elaborate further.
Payne tossed and caught the whistle seemingly thinking for a moment. “Can you take over? Temporarily until get this worked out? There’s a generous athletic stipend for the position.”
The boys looked at me with hope and a mixture of relief. I couldn’t say I was cut out for this but I also didn’t want them let down with whatever was about to happen with Coach Calloway.
“Alright. For now.” The boys cheered and clapped. “Temporarily.” I growled but I doubted anyone heard me. Payne handed me the whistle and said we talk later. I looked at the whistle remembering my years on the team. What the heck had I gotten myself into?
“We’ll practice all together right now until things get worked out. I want to see ball drills and those wind sprints. We have a game on Friday?”
“Yes, Coach.” The lot of them parroted back.
“Let’s go then.” I grabbed a clipboard and walked outside with the boys who loaded the equipment and water onto the golf cart for the field. Andy was going to love this.
I grabbed the cart keys and drove out to the field with a herd of boys trailing after me. I parked by the field house wishing I had some sweatpants and sneakers but like Payne said, this would be temporary, I hoped.
“Hey, check it out! Girls are running the track.” I heard one of the senior boys shout and glanced behind me. Sure enough about dozen girls were on the track running laps while a certain familiar femme fatal held up her stop watch.
I nudge the senior named Seth, “Isn’t it cross country season?”
“Oh yeah, but Coach Roberts, she brings them to the track twice a week for a track workout. We kind of like it.” Seth remarked and I saw a blush bloom on his cheeks under his summer tan. Yeah, I bet this horny kid liked it. Too bad I wasn’t permitting ogling of the young ladies currently sprinting around the track.
“Alright, listen up guys. I want you to partner up and show me your long throws. I know Coach Calloway probably had ideas about things, but for right now show me what you got.” I sent the teenage monsters out to the field while I watched them from the fifty yard line throw the ball back and forth. There would be time to see them run plays tomorrow, but for now I needed to settle in to this impromptu situation. I had a feeling tequila was frowned upon for first days but I needed something stronger than coffee and cocaine was still illegal last I checked.
“Coach!” I swung my head around and watched the current train wreck leave the station in slow motion. Fuck. Shit. Fuck.
“Kia!” I yelled across the field watching the object of my obsession turn just as one of the freshman boys took her out running backward to catch the stupid ball. One that I had asked them to throw back and forth so I could judge their passing skills. Fuck. Shit. Fuck.
I don’t make it in time to prevent the accident from happening nor can I erase the look of shock from her face as the kid twice her size takes her out. “Shit!” I grunt pushing myself to sprint harder. Pretty sure I didn’t even run that hard in boot camp.
“Collin get off me, please.” Kiara grumbled, but doesn’t get up.
I slide down on the field next her in my dress pants and start checking her over for broken bones. Panting with worry, I held her shoulder down immobilizing her. “Don’t move Kiara. You could be hurt.”
“I’m fine, David.” She snapped, but I’m focused on making sure she’s okay that I don’t listen. Kiara huffed and remained laying down on the ground. Our eyes meet and I saw the fire in the depths. She’s pissed at me, but I’m not sure why other than the fact that I had the boys do the ball exercise. My stomach rolled, but I don’t think that’s the source of her anger as the kids surround us.
“Should I radio for the trainer?” My junior linebacker pushed through the crowd next to me.
“She’s fine Gage.” A girl grabbed his arm pulling him back. They argued behind us, but the sound of my heart thumping hard drowned them out.
“Coach, your leg.” One of the girls kneeled next to her and Kiara patted her knee attempting to sit up while glaring at me.
“Let me look, I trained as a medic.” Impulsively, I grabbed the leg of her track pants that had little snap buttons and I popped them open gripping the fabric.
“Stop!” Kiara moved to swat me away. I’m quicker, stronger, and dumber once I see what she’s been hiding.
“Oh, Kiara.” Shock didn’t cover the stalling of my heart mixed with confusion and something else I couldn’t name. A few gasps behind me broke through and I started snapping those button right back up like a properly outraged Victorian era idiot afraid to see a bit of ankle or knee.
For the most, the kids don’t react at all. The girls made a protective semi-circle blocking out most of the boys and the senior football Co-Captains were already pulling the underclassmen back to the field.
“Are you done?” She ground out taking my hand reluctantly to get on her feet with my help. I realized if we’d been alone she would have dismissed me all together.
“I didn’t know.” What I should have said was sorry and left it alone. I reeled from the uncharted territory I felt I’d been parachuted into unexpectedly. It wasn’t that I was bothered by her prosthetic leg. I’d been around plenty of Vets during my service and found this unfortunately more common than I wanted. I was upset she hadn’t told me on Saturday night. It wouldn’t have changed anything I felt for her, but I would have been gentler. Wouldn’t I?
“Girls, finish your cooldown with a one mile jog and then you’re dismissed.” Kiara grabbed her clipboard and the girls did as she asked heading back out to the track.
“Can I drive you back to the building?” I jogged next to her and waved the boys off who stood between us and center fi
eld watching. They hadn’t taken a golf cart out to the field since they didn’t require additional equipment.
“What you can do is give me a moment.” She glanced behind me and I followed her line of vision. We were being watching by both the boys and girls intently.
“I’m really sorry. Clearly the freshman have some work to do.” I looked down at my wrinkled, grass stained pants and then back at her beautiful face. A smirk edged on the corner of her kissable lips and my gaze strayed there as I swallowed the dry lump in my throat.
“I should apologize also. It’s obvious things are awkward and we should probably talk about them at some point.”
I completely agreed with her. I had so many questions. All the intrusive inappropriate questions like when, how, and why.
“Boys!” I yelled and they came over surrounding us.
“Coach?”
“Practice dismissed.” I waved about thirty confused faces away and they jogged off the field disorganized and probably still panting over the girls circling the track.
“I meant later.” She paused watching the fastest of the girls finish up.
“Well, I’m not good at waiting.” I grinned urging her toward the golf cart and waited for her to get in.
“I can see that.” Kiara finally chuckled and my chest felt like a weight had lifted greatly off me.
This woman made me feel all kinds of unexpected things. “I never did get to have breakfast with you, so how about we try that tonight at the diner?”
“Can you promise no flying balls or freshman?”
Nodding, “I can manage that.”
“Then I will meet you there at six.” Kiara imparted as I pulled up to the back entrance of the school. I watched her take slow steps inside the building and I slammed my head down on the steering wheel groaning. Nothing was ever easy for me.
10
Kiara
The last thing I wanted to do was rehash the past decade of my life. That was the reason I went out on Saturday night. It was the reason I gave in to a reckless, hot, one night stand with no regrets–except for the whole running into each other thing. Kelsey was going to love hearing about this and I’d tell her if I could trust her to not run off and tell Dijah or the Aunts.
Yet here I was sitting in the diner early, sipping on a coffee milkshake. David Easton made me crazy.
He strolled into the diner right on time. Actually, three minutes early by my watch, but who was counting. I got to observe him talking to the hostess giving her a kind smile that melted my underwear and pooled right off my body when he directed that attention to me. He remained a force to be reckoned with and I should not have been having dinner with him. I made rules about this and not because I secretly believed that they should be broken either. Those weren’t the kind of risks I enjoyed taking. I could count on two fingers the number of sexual encounters I had with guys.
Devereaux and David.
Encounter number two slid into the booth opposite me and tucked his messenger bag onto the seat next to him.
“Hey, you okay?” He asked moving his hands over the table to grasp mine in his.
“I’m good. Thanks.” Hello, awkward meet your friend nerves and tongue tied.
“I feel like I need to apologize again for what happened on the field. I got blindsided into coaching at the last minute when Calloway had a meltdown in the locker room.”
“So that explains your presence on the field.”
“Kind of. Payne asked me to step in and I didn’t think he was giving me an option.” That sounded like our principal for sure and part of me felt bad for David.
“I know Collin didn’t mean it, he’s a good kid. Most of them in athletics know about my prosthetic. My girls get a little protective. It’s sweet.”
“Hellcats more like it.” David squeezed my hand before letting go to pick up the menu. I liked looking at his hands. Strong. Capable. I could have trusted him with the knowledge on Saturday and good old regret reared her ugly little face reminding me of that.
“Speaking of…” I started the conversation wincing. “I don’t typically do Saturdays.”
His face remained neutral and I wanted to dig in and figure out what he was thinking. So far he’d been gentlemanly, polite, and professional as I would have expected inside the brick and mortar confines of the school. Out here, in the wild, under the yellowed florescent lighting of the diner with chipped Formica tables and waitresses with raspy smoker voices anything was possible. David took a sip of his ice water before responding.
“You don’t go to bars with friends to drink, dance, have fun?” There was the furrowed brow I’d been expecting.
An involuntary chuckle escaped as I explained, “I don’t do one night stands.”
“Ah, so it’s fun you’re opposed to.” He teased me, but there was an edge to it. David struck me as someone who would fight fair right up until the end even if it made him hold back.
“Tell me more about you and I’ll trade.” It was the only kind of compromise I could conjure in the moment. He shifted in the seat and when he leaned back, I got a glimpse of the tight dress shirt stretching over his chest. If he wasn’t careful, his cute vest might pop buttons one by one. It wouldn’t negate the fact that he manually ripped my pants, because it wasn’t my hands reaching for his chest tugging them apart, but it sounded fun.
“We sort of did twenty questions already, but I have a few new ones I’d like to ask if that’s permissible.”
I watched his big hands flex over the speckled top of the table. My brain went to the place of remembering them on my skin, pressing his fingers in hard to hold me, yet gentle enough to not bruise. David Easton was my conundrum. The push and pull between us was more than just magnets, it was wild, scorching hot, and all-consuming once I’d waded through my denial. And denial–she was a cut throat witch.
“Sure.” I sipped my milkshake focusing my energy on sucking the cold thick ice cream through the straw.
David’s eyes rounded like saucers as he cleared his throat and looked down at the table.
“Why did you leave.”
This guy didn’t pull punches, did he?
“I wanted to go into the school year prepared, and for me, that meant not being in a relationship. I have more classes this year and both girls cross country and track teams to coach.”
The silence between us stretched out. Several times I thought the waitress would come back to interrupt us, but she stayed away pouring coffee at the counter.
David flipping his menu over.
“I can respect that, but disappearing made me feel like I did something wrong.” There was an angry flick of his wrist of the menu, and I didn’t blame him for being mad.
“It’s not you.” I started to say until he held his hand up.
“Please, not that excuse.” He paused again and then started. There was that push and pull I had come to expect. “I actually felt used.”
“Used?” I snorted. That was a new one. Typically I felt like I’d been the used party. Used for my past, used for my connections, used all around which was why I avoided sex like the plague up until David.
“Yeah, because it didn’t have to be about sex, although that was great. I did want to get to know you. The other was a surprise I’ll admit, but in no way a deal breaker.” The look on his face spoke volumes. He wasn’t being mean. He was being real and that witch named Denial knew how to rub it in.
“Wow.” He made me speechless.
“Honey, I don’t what kind of guys you date before.”
I interrupted him. “Let’s see, the last one dumped me because I had cancer, and decided losing my leg to save my life was more important than a failed chemo treatment. Dating has been rough.”
David shook his head. The waitress finally came over to interrupt us and take our orders. Salad with grilled salmon for me, and the Salisbury steak, no mushrooms for David.
“I’m struggling here and I need your help to understand.”
“He
lp with…”
Salads were brought to the table with overly long pours of ice water and my irritation grew in equal measure to the condensation on the glasses. What didn’t he get?
“I’m not the guy that goes for the girl like this. Yeah, I used to be the one who thrived on one night stands, but you ruined me. Don’t you get that?”
“No. What I get is that your ego is bruised because I left, not the other way around.”
“Oh come on, Kiara. Throw me a bone here.” He picked up his fork and stabbed a tomato forcing it to squirt on the plate and my anger popped along with it.
“I’d throw you a leg, but you know, I’m fresh out.” I shrugged pissed off and all kinds of feelings I didn’t like. How dare he.
“Alright, so our sordid histories are off the table. Got it loud and clear. What do you want talk about instead. I didn’t invite you to dinner to fight about irrational ideas around priorities and self-denial.”
“Not quite the apology either.” I leaned back in my seat. I was traversing down a road I didn’t like. I wasn’t fighting fairly and I knew it, but he was getting under my skin and I didn’t like that he cemented himself there so quickly and surely.
“Kiara, why can’t we go back to Saturday night.” He stuck his hand out across the table in a faux introduction. “Hi, I’m David. I live above a pub with my brother, and I got a job at the high school. I used to serve in the military. It was both terrifying and the best experience of my life. I like coffee and apples, and I love my parents. Would you like to date outside of school?”
“What?” I laughed uncomfortably feeling like he put me on blast in the kindest way.
“Come on. Your turn.” He waved his outstretched hand and begrudgingly, I put mine out for him to take.
“Hello David. I’m Kiara. I live in town at an undisclosed location.”
He snorted and muttered, “Hello, faculty directory.”
“Alright, stalker. I’m extremely close with my family. I enjoy working out daily and coffee is okay.”
