His eyes are filled with challenge. What he doesn’t know is that he’s challenging the most competitive person he’ll ever meet. I wasn’t the Marinos coach for nothing.
“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m suggesting.”
14
BUBBLE
Coach grabsthe handle of my suitcase, picks it up like it weighs nothing, and starts walking to his cabin.
I look at Harrison, who shrugs. “Don’t look at me. Last time I argued with a dude, I ended up falling in love with him. Let me get the rest of your stuff.”
He goes back inside his cabin, and it takes me some time to process the situation.
Did Coach just say…what I think…he just said?
Surely not. “Must be the cold, and the longer I stay out here, the more brain damage I’ll sustain. Next thing I know, I’ll be imagining Coach saying lunch is almost ready and we need to decorate a Christmas tree,” I mutter to myself.
Harrison comes back out with the box containing my mixer and most of my groceries and walks past me toward the cabin next door.
I hurry after him, fresh snow crunching under my boots. Okay, maybe it would be areallybad idea to drive in these conditions, but I can’t stay with Coach.
That would be horrible and wonderful all at the same time. I’m not sure I can handle it.
Hell, I’m not sure he can handleme.
I run up the steps of his porch and almost bump into Harrison as he comes out.
“Be back in a sec with the rest,” he says.
“If I’d known you were so eager to get rid of me, I wouldn’t have baked the cookies,” I say in his direction.
He laughs. “But then you’d have to answer to the two little people in my cabin who still think you’re Santa’s elf. I’m not sure if I should thank you or hate you for that because it’ll be impossible to tell them one day that Santa doesn’t exist when they’ve seen a real-life elf.”
I roll my eyes and go inside Coach’s cabin.
“What’s going on, Coach? First, you’re running away from me, then you’re coming to apologize, and now you’re asking me to move in?” I put my hands on my hips, trying to look indignant, which I know is hard to pull off when you’re dressed head to toe in pink with a Christmas tree print.
He ignores me and fills two cups with coffee before turning around and handing me one of the cups.
“I’m only trying to stop you from killing yourself out there by freezing to death. Case in point, you’re shivering and you look like a strawberry popsicle.”
“I wasn’t supposed to stay outside that long. Just long enough to load the car and go.”
Coach points to the couch, so I sit and drink my coffee. Harrison comes in a moment later with the rest of my groceries, my coat, and my smaller suitcase.
I feel my face warm at the thought of Jeremy in the middle of Coach’s living room. He’ll probably kick me out when he realizes, so I keep quiet about it. The coffee is not only delicious, but it’s also doing a great job of reversing my frostbite.
“You have a lot of food here,” Coach says, looking inside the boxes.
I sag into the couch.
“I was going to cook all of Juju’s favorite meals.”
He puts away everything that needs to be in the fridge and leaves the rest on the counter.
“I’m sorry the weather has ruined your Christmas plans,” he says.
I shrug. “It shouldn’t really surprise me. Bad things come in threes. That’s what my grandma used to say. I have the first two down.”
