“Time out!” Haddie cried after the teams began to reset following the goal. “Coaches’…um…coaches’ conference!” she added, then grabbed Levi’s elbow and pulled him onto the track.
“What’s going on?” she whisper-shouted.
“What do you mean?” he replied through gritted teeth, which told her he knewexactlywhat she meant.
“Levi.” She backhanded him on the shoulder. “That wasnotsoccer out there. That was… That was…”
“Theworst,” he admitted. “They’re going to get their asses handed to them.”
She threw her hands in the air, keenly aware that all eyes were on her wild gesticulations and that all ears were probably straining to hear what they were saying. She knewLeviknew nothing about soccer, but she couldn’t believe Coach Crawford tossed him a team where almost every player seemed to know even less.
He lifted his visor again and scratched the back of his neck. Sweat glistened on the dark hair at his temples.
Why, of all thoughts that could possibly be roaming around in her head right now, was she thinking about how the combination of a sweaty, frustrated, vulnerable Levi was one of the sexiest things she’d ever seen?
Shut. Up. Brain.This was a man in crisis with ateamin crisis, and Haddie wanted to help. Instead she found herself wondering where else he was sweating and how a man like him might like to—ahem—work out his frustrations.
“Your players need to work on their positioning. They’rebunching up too much, making it easy for my team to intercept the ball,” she blurted out, forcing her thoughts back toward soccer.
He nodded once. “Are you coaching me, Coach?” he asked, but he wasn’t smiling, and Haddie couldn’t gauge his tone.
She crossed and uncrossed her arms, then cleared her throat. “Don’t youwantme to coach you?”
“I thought it was going to be one-on-one,” Levi replied. “If my team finds out…” His voice trailed off as he lowered his visor back on his head and mirrored her crossed-arm stance. “I’m a good coach,” he assured her. “And I know the basic rules. But I know football better than I knew my own name. I can coach it in my sleep. Hell, sometimes I do. I’m not used to…uh…” He sighed. “This is going to make me sound like a real asshole, but I’m not used tonotbeing good at something.” He winced. “See?Asshole.”
Haddie laughed. “It took some verynon-asshole vulnerability for you to even admit that, so I’m going to have to disagree, Coach Rourke. Tossing the asshole call out.” She shrugged. “Sorry to disappoint you.” She took a step closer, just to make sure no one trying to eavesdrop could hear what she said next. “Look, if we keep up this scrimmage like we’re doing, my team is going to wipe the floor with yours. But if you follow my lead, let me give you some pointers, I think we can give your guys a fighting chance to hold their own.”
Levi held out his hand, and Haddie gave it a firm shake.
“Deal,” he told her.
Haddie grinned, then grabbed the whistle around his neck, tugged it between her lips, and blew. “Let’s play!” she called toward the teams still waiting on the field. Then, whistle still in herhand—and still wrapped around Levi’s neck—she glanced at her fellow coach whose eyes were still squeezed shut.
She winced. “That was loud, huh?” she asked.
Levi nodded.
“And I didn’t give you any warning, did I?” she added.
He shook his head.
“Should I step away now?” Haddie asked with a nervous smile.
Levi finally opened his eyes. He raised his brows as he stared down at the instrument of ear torture still pinched between her thumb and forefinger.
“Right!” Haddie dropped the whistle. “Sorry!”
He shook his head and let out a rueful laugh. “I can’t believe you did that.”
Haddie snorted and backhanded him on the shoulder, and Levi laughed too. Just like that, they’d somehow leveled the playing field, pushing Haddie’s less-than-roommately thoughts into the recesses of her brain.
Together they pivoted back toward the field and strode toward their teams.
“Today we’ll focus on positioning and studying your opponent,” she told him as they strode toward their teams. “No one is so good yet that they need to be double-teamed or anything like that. So tell your defense to follow whoever they are guarding rather than the ball and to study that player’s strengths and weaknesses. Tomorrow we’ll work on passing. Wednesday, setting up and running plays. Thursday, we’ll record our scrimmage, and Friday we’ll kick it off by watching and analyzing the recording. Sound like aplan?”
Levi stopped mid-stride and stared at her for a long moment.
“What?” she asked, stumbling to a halt herself.
