AMARA: Do you want to be friends with Shay?
LANA: I don’t NOT want to be friends
AMARA: Well…why don’t you see if she wants to grab coffee sometime during the week and see how it goes
LANA: How did you get so smart?
AMARA: I literally deal with people all day long
LANA: I do too but you like them
AMARA: Correction, I like the dogs
Smirking,I put my phone down as Coach Turner pokes his head out of his office. “Lana, do you have a minute?”
“Of course.” I nod, grabbing a pad of paper and a pen and walking down the hall. He motions for me to sit, so I do then wait while he studies me from across the desk.
“As much as I love seeing your smiling face each morning,” he says with a smirk because we both know thatsmiling faceis a bit of a stretch, “what is it you want to do here? While I enjoy workin’ with you and you’ve done a great job, I want to know what you want to do.”
I stutter, “I…I don’t know what you mean.”
He sits back in his chair, his expression softening. “I won’t begin to wonder what it’s like being a stay-at-home mom and then trying to reacclimate into the workforce,” he says simply because we talked at length during my interview about my history, about why there had been such a gap in work for all those years I’d been at home when Jacob had worked.
Life has changed so much since then.
“What do you like, Ms. Richards?” he asks, and I shrug.
“I had thought about getting my real estate license. That was a long time ago, though.”
He nods. “You need more classes for that? Certification? A full course?”
I laugh as I watch the wheels turn in his head. “I think that anything that I’ve taken is long since expired.”
“Well, you find something here that you like, and we’ll make it happen.”
My heart squeezes. The idea of doing anything beyond the nine to five job that I’d set out to do to offer stability to my family is something I couldn’t begin to fathom.
Not when I started.
But months have passed and maybe he’s right—maybe it’s time.
“Oh, Coach,” I manage instead of giving voice to everything running through my mind. His kindness is unparalleled, and I’m so incredibly grateful that I landed here when I’d been at my lowest.
“You don’t have to give me an answer now. But if you’ll let me, I would like to help you figure out what you’d like to do.”
“Kicking me out, Coach?” I say, infusing some levity, because even if he doesn’t, I need it.
“Miss Lana, I’ve seen many people come through these doors. Most don’t have the kind of potential that you have. It’s a restless kind of energy. You’re damn good at your job, and you’ll be damn good at the next thing. But I won’t be the one who holds you back from that. And I’d like to see you doing what you want to do. Awfully brave what you’ve done already,”—he sits forward and levels his gaze at me—“but you’re no longer simply surviving here, and I’d love to see you thriving.”
I don’t react because nobody’s called me brave. I wouldn’t call myself brave either. But being with Mason, meeting new friends here… it does feel kind of brave. Moving somewhere new where I didn’t know anybody, didn’t know what would happen day after day.
But we made it.
And Coach is right.
I knew in my heart that this job would be temporary—a stepping stone—and now that he’s forced me to open my eyes to the possibilities, I don’t want to wear the blinders anymore.
I wipe away the tear that slides down my cheek as the enormity of this conversation settles over me.
