by Erin Hayes
I played it in my head before I barked a short laugh. “Oh, no!”
"It gets worse. Her wife's last name is Berrymoore. They were going to hyphenate and be the Drew-Berrymoores."
"Glad they decided not to."
He sighed dramatically. “My family has terrible names.”
"Bless their hearts."
"You've been in the South too long." His tone was like a caress.
"Been spending too much time with y'all."
He laughed, and it took me a minute to realize what I’d said. Dammit, I had never used y’all before. And it just slipped out like nothing at all.
I got his aunt’s information and hung up still laughing, feeling better than I’d felt all day.
It doesn’t matter what Mack says. We will make this team great.
Starting by hiring a coach. STAT.
Chapter 6
“Thanks for meeting with me.” I shook Carrie Drew’s hand, then gestured for her to the seat across from my desk as I sat down. “Clancy speaks very highly of you.”
“Thanks so much,” she replied in her gravelly voice. “He has a lot of good things to say about you, too.”
Carrie Drew was an older woman, probably in her mid-fifties, with the same blue eyes as Clancy, and blonde hair faded partly to gray that she kept pulled back in a low ponytail. She wore black slacks and a nice white button-down to meet with me today. Her broad face was as open and guileless as Clancy’s, although I could see the wrinkles around her mouth that showed that she had been around the block a few times.
I liked her instantly.
“So,” I continued, “I asked you to meet with me today because Clancy told me that you might have some ideas for people to approach about the head coach’s position for the Yellowhammers.”
“Oh. I... Yes, of course.” A strange expression flitted across her face, and it occurred to me that I hadn’t been entirely clear when I called her and asked if she would be willing to talk to me about the coach’s job.
Shit.
She thought this was a job interview.
She collected herself quickly, though, and had already begun talking about various coaches she knew who might be looking for positions. I listened to her speak but kept thinking back to her original intent coming here.
Well, why couldn’t this be an interview?
She clearly thought fast on her feet. If she had been expecting a job interview and been asked for recommendations instead, she’d dealt with the situation appropriately. She hadn’t balked, and that was a good sign.
“Actually,” I interrupted her, “would you talk about what you think the Yellowhammers need in terms of a coach?” I paused, and she blinked once, obviously gathering her thoughts to change tack again. “I mean,” I added, “if you watch the Hammers’ games, of course.”
“I never miss a game. After all, that’s my favorite nephew out there playing.” Her brilliant smile reminded me of Clancy’s, too.
I pulled out my notes from my meetings with the assistant coaches.
“I think the team’s biggest problem is leadership,” she began.
I felt my shoulders start to tighten. I trusted Andre, and it would kill me to have to remove him as captain.
“Not that I think your current captain isn’t good—he is. Andre Williamson is an excellent player and a good leader. But without a strong coach behind him, there have been some players who have bucked that leadership, I think, and it’s showing up on the field.”
“How much has Clancy talked to you about what’s been going on with the team since Mack left?”
She gave a tiny head-shake, negating even the idea of Clancy’s influence. “Not much. He’s only mentioned once—maybe twice—that all the assistant coaches and Andre put together still don’t add up to a good full-time head coach.”
I looked down at the notes in front of me. “What you know about Jonas James?” I asked.
“You’ll never pry him away from Texas. He’s an excellent coach, but that team was his goal for his whole life.”
“Tyrell Brown?”
She nodded slowly. “He’s been a solid assistant coach in Tennessee for about six or seven years now. He’s probably looking to move up in his career. I don’t know if he’s got quite the temperament that he would need to really keep a handle on a team like the Hammers. But I think interviewing him would be a good starting place. You should definitely put him on your short list.”
We went through all the coaches I had made note of after the first game. Carrie Drew knew a lot about all of them—details about their preferences as coaches, about their strengths and their weaknesses. When we had gone through the entire list, having culled it down to a much shorter list of five candidates, I tapped my pen against the paper for a good thirty seconds. Finally, I set the pen down, leaned my elbows on the desk, and interlaced my fingers to rest my chin on them.
“And what about you?”
Having apparently resigned herself to the idea that she wasn’t here for an interview, after all, Ms. Drew blinked several times in surprise.
“Me?” She straightened her shoulders and sat up a little taller. “I have a solid record as an assistant coach for the university’s football team. I am the assistant head coach, in fact.” She paused, weighing her next words carefully before finally speaking. “And that’s pretty much the top of my career possibilities in most of the country. Football coaching is still very much considered a man’s job, no matter what we might prefer to think about how far we’ve come. Few owners would be interested in hiring a woman, to be honest.”
“That doesn’t concern me at all,” I assured her. “Do you have a resume that you could send me?”
“I have one right here.” Reaching into her bag, she pulled out a small USB drive and handed it to me.
I plugged it into my computer and pulled up the document. Parts of it didn’t make any sense to me—Clancy was going to have to make me notecards about more football terms, apparently. But I did know how to read one important aspect—her career trajectory. She had moved steadily up through her chosen profession, year after year, starting as an assistant coach at the high school and working her way up to her current position at the university.
Could I really do this—hire a coach for the team without consulting anyone else at all?
People.
This is what I’m good at, I reminded myself. I liked her. She was smart, her resume showed that she had been liked and trusted by plenty of other people in the profession—enough to shirk the stereotypes of what made a good coach—and I knew she was never going to turn into a misogynistic asshole around me. All of those were good things.
Just do it. Wasn’t that what we were supposed to say in sports?
“I can only pay 1.5 million.” I turned to look at her again. “But if you want it, the job’s yours.”
Her eyes were shining. “I accept. I need to give my two weeks’ notice. Technically, I’m on contract, but the head coach and I have a good relationship. He’ll want me to take the position. I may have a few overlapping duties with the university to wrap up until their semester ends, but there are plenty of other coaches over there. I will start whenever you’re ready for me.”
“Talk to the people at your current job and then get back to me. We’ll figure it out.”
As we said goodbye, I couldn’t help but grin.
This was going to be a great hire. I could just feel it.
“WAIT, WAIT, WAIT.” Andre’s arm tightened around my shoulder, holding me closer to his naked body. We were laying in my bed at my apartment later that night. I put a hand on his bare chest to push myself up high enough to look him in the eyes.
“You hired Clancy’s aunt as the Head Coach right on the spot?” he asked.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “What’s wrong with that?”
He sighed deeply. “Well...” He put his palm to his forehead, thinking for a moment before he burst out laughing. “Lots of things, Madison.”
“What things?�
�� I propped myself up on my elbow to look at him as I traced the planes of his chest with my finger. I saw his hesitation, so I prodded him further. “Tell me.”
He groaned. “Fine. You should have taken recommendations from the assistant coaches.”
“I did that. I didn’t see anyone who fit the bill.”
He snickered. “You didn’t even see her coach a game.”
I raised my eyebrow. “You think that I would know the difference in how she coached?” Other than her team playing well, my only other metric was the team winning a game, but even then, I wouldn’t know any nuances about her coaching style. “Besides, Birmingham is undefeated for the past two years.”
“Usually, you have to interview more possible coaches.”
I shrugged. “It’s the worst time to hire coaches. No one else was available.”
“You have to arrange it with their agents.”
Carrie and I had this very conversation as I called up my lawyer, Daniel Reiss back in San Francisco, to write up the contract. “Carrie doesn’t have an agent, so that part was easy.”
“And the biggest thing,” Andre said.
“What?”
He bit his bottom lip, although there was bit of playfulness to the gesture. “I really don’t know how the guys are going to take it.”
“Take what?”
“Having a woman coach the team. Now,” he added, just when I opened my mouth to protest, “you have to think that they’re coming from Coach Mack to her. It’s going to be a change.”
“A good change,” I said. “She’s a remarkable woman.”
Andre watched me for a long moment. “You’re a remarkable woman, Madison. It’s going to be interesting, but it will work.”
Be still my beating heart. “Thank you.”
I hadn’t realized until now how much I needed his stamp of approval on this. A lot of this football stuff, I went blindly into it by myself, so to hear him say that, I just wanted to melt into his arms.
“And I’m sure Coach Mack will be mortified to know that he was replaced by a woman,” Andre added. “He’ll probably call her some sort of nickname.”
I laughed, delighted to imagine Mack’s face once the news got out. And I had no doubt that Carrie Drew would be good for the team.
Just like Andre was good for me.
“This deserves a celebration,” Andre said. He tilted my chin up to kiss him, and I relished the feeling of his mouth against mine. Every kiss with Andre was a touchdown.
I was pretty sure that was the right term.
He pulled me astride his hips, and I felt his sizeable cock between my legs, hard and ready for yet another round of sexual Olympics. He waggled his eyebrows temptingly at me and grasped my hips.
“You’re insatiable,” I teased, gasping as he rocked his pelvis against mine. The tip of his cock rubbed deliciously against my clit, and I was already wet for him.
“I’m insatiable,” Andre rumbled, “you’re remarkable.”
I’ll take that.
He tweaked my nipples—something that I loved—and positioned himself at my entrance, teasing me as he slowly, achingly guided me down his length.
Fuck, I could never get enough of that.
Once fully seated on his cock, he gripped my hips and started moving beneath me. Somehow, I kept myself above him, my breasts bouncing with the rhythm of our bodies, the rhythm of my panting. I started saying both his name and, “Oh, God,” before I lost myself. Whatever else I said, I didn’t know.
I didn’t fucking care, either.
Sex with Andre was always amazing.
He called out my name as he came, and I came a second later, the orgasm riding through me like a tide.
Later, I laid in his arms in the afterglow of our sex.
Things were looking up.
Chapter 7
As it turned out, Carrie was able to start almost immediately. And of course, word about her new position leaked to the media before we officially announced it. I cringed when I saw that, sure I’d get yet another dressing-down from Sydney Knowles, the director of our PR team.
I had hoped to introduce Carrie to the team before it became public knowledge, but that didn’t work out. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to start working with the team until after the away game the week after I interviewed her.
I watched that game on television in the living room, my knees pulled up to my chest, clutching a glass of wine to myself. I think I expected them to lose, though, because when it happened for real, all I could muster up to say was, “Well, shit.”
All in all, it was a huge relief to have Carrie step in to take over as coach. She slid pretty easily and quickly into the position, too. I’d worried a little bit that she would have trouble taking over a team Mack had run.
I should have known better. She had been in this business for a long time and knew how to deal with football players.
We had three days of beautifully coordinated practice. Everything was going perfectly. My team was coming together, Ashley loved her new job, Clancy was delighted that I had hired his aunt, Andre was incredibly affectionate, and even Rodney managed to keep his snark to a minimum.
Three whole days of bliss before my life crashed down around me.
My days had become incredibly busy.
On day four of Coach Carrie’s new job, I spent the morning hosting a breakfast for sponsors. I still thought of them as investors, like the people I had worked with in the startup. And really, the idea was the same. In this case, I had something more than just a tech idea to sell.
I had the image of wealth to convince them to buy into. The more sponsors we got on board, the higher the Yellowhammers’ profile would get. And I wanted a sponsorship of the Hammers to be seen as a ticket to a better life—as well as a real ticket to the kinds of social events I was beginning to plan in my private suite at the stadium.
I’d been working with the PR team to begin planning a few upscale events for the next year, including a charity event for Christmas the following year, a sponsors’ dinner catered by a James Beard award-winning restaurant here in Birmingham, and a private stadium party. My dream was that tickets to all of those would be limited and in high demand. And I was setting them out like bait for Birmingham’s elite.
I moved through the potential sponsors that morning dropping comments about the various events and so far, the reception was good. Three other sponsor-wannabes had approached me before the pastries were gone.
So when I met Carrie in my office during the team’s lunch break, I was flying high and more than a little full of myself.
“So, Coach, how are our boys doing?”
“Honestly, the team is in better shape than I had feared. They only went a few weeks without a coach, and for all Mack’s unpleasantness, he knows his football.”
“So why were they losing so badly before?”
She shrugged. “I think they needed something to pull them together. I’m pretty sure you’re the glue that holds this team together.” She glanced at me out of the corner of her eye. “Assuming, of course, you don’t tear them apart first.”
“You mean Rodney, right?”
“He’s a great player, but that boy has anger issues. And who he’s angry with is Andre.”
Suddenly, my amazing morning seemed less perfect. It was exciting to have my professional life going well. But I needed my personal life to work, too, if I was going to be happy here.
I shook off the worry. I didn’t have time for it today. “We can deal with that later. The reason I called you up here today is that I have an idea I want to run past you.” I pulled my laptop toward me and flipped the screen open. “You know that I was in tech development before, right?”
Carrie gave a perplexed shrug. “Vaguely. Clancy mentioned something about it. I didn’t think that had worked out so well for you.”
I heaved a sigh. “Well, the startup folded.” Actually, my ex had voted me out of the company in a nasty breakup, but I wasn’t going
to bring that up. Carrie wouldn’t care about my romantic woes. “But I had an idea about adapting a program I started a long time ago with a friend of mine from college.” I keyed in a few commands on my laptop and pulled up the program itself. “It’s a virtual reality program that was originally meant for a military application.” I turned it around so that she could see the prototype.
Carrie frowned at the 3D characters on the screen. “Those look like Army men.”
I nodded. “That’s because they are. The idea is that soldiers in real life can learn their maneuvers from the safety of a VR headset.” I held up my hands around my eyes, in the shape of a headset that would go around my eyes. Carrie looked at me like I was crazy. “And the AI could exploit out any weaknesses within those maneuvers.”
“AI?”
“Artificial intelligence.” At her horrified expression, I added, “It’s just a computer program.” Terminator really scared people off the idea of AI, so this was a conversation I’d had plenty of times. “But it was immersive enough for the soldiers to really learn different things outside combat.”
“What does this have to do with my team?”
I was delighted to hear her refer to the Hammers as her team. “Well, it wasn’t picked up by the military for security reasons, because we couldn’t guarantee that the maneuvers wouldn’t be hacked by another country.”
That had been a bad day at the office, actually. I didn’t mention it to Carrie, but we were essentially muzzled by the government after they cancelled our contract. It had been a small subset of our startup and my own passion project, but it still shook the faith of our investors and contributed to me being voted out.
“I kept the program in the company split.” That had been pretty much all I’d kept—easy to get, since no one else wanted to touch it by then. “But I’m seeing now the possibility for turning it into a kind of virtual trainer for the team.”
Carrie looked skeptical. “But football’s about the physicality of the game. These guys need muscle memory for working together. I don’t think they can get that from virtual reality.”
