“Oh my word.” She huffed and smoothed out her shirt. And ohmyword, I wanted to take her in my arms and kiss those pouty, annoyed lips right there in front of everyone. She was so beautiful it put an ache in my lungs.
Then she looked at the footballers who were smiling in deep adoration and shook her head laughing. Probably half of them had crushes on her. I know I did. “We got you, P. Thorn,” one of them said. “Always.”
Which made her blush. Which made me want to kiss her even more.
I released them from their duties with the tip of my chin. “Thanks, guys.”
I even offered Blue a generous fist bump. He walked away proudly. I had to give it to the kid. He took our razzing like it was nothing. If he could hang onto Anna hard enough, they just might make it.
Christy’s arms folded and she blew a wisp of hair out of her eyes so I could see her glower. I wanted to boop her on her adorable nose that was crinkled in irritation, just like I had that night in her office. Just run my hands up those thighs and… Good gracious.
But she might slap me if I tried that after my behavior at Spartan training.
“C’mon,Coach.” I took a playful jab at her shoulder. “You know this is where you want to be.” I gestured at the bench seats so she’d know I wasn’t talking about with me.
“Fine.” She sat down with a huff. But her twinkling eyes said she was thrilled. “But I might get in trouble for this.”
I sat next to her and leaned my mouth right by her ear. “We’ll blame it on Alvarez. He okayed it.”
She let out a little shiver as I pulled away. And I may have preened a little. Then she sat up straight and glanced over. “You’re moving here and running for D.A.?”
I swallowed. “Oh. Yeah.” I took a shrug straight out of Blue’s playbook like it was no biggie. “Nobody will hire me up north so I decided it was time to come home.”And I want to be wherever you are,I didn’t say. “Jedd wanted to retire anyway.”
“That’s…” She ran a hand over the back of her neck. “That’s huge. Congrats.”
“I mean, I have to be elected, so it might not happen. But I thought I’d give it a shot. Why not, you know?”
Her brows puckered. “You think there’s someone else around here that could beat the great Holden Dupree?”
I was about to point out the fact that she’d just called me great when her phone buzzed. She flipped it over to check but purposely blocked my view with her other hand. Not that I was trying to see. I wasn’t. It was just kind of weird. She didn’t usually do that.
Throughout the game, she kept flipping her phone over to read what was there, and then she’d scowl. And then it would take a few minutes for her to relax again. And just about the time I could see her getting back into the action, she’d check her phone again and the whole thing would start over. By the third set, she looked haggard, and like she was about to cry.
Who was she texting? And then I remembered. She was worried about the meeting. Had she heard something? I pulled my phone out of my pocket to see if Silas had texted and I’d missed it. Nothing.
“Everything okay?” I asked.
She chewed her lip and grunted an indecipherable response. But the worry on her face was so intense that it took everything in me not to take her phone from her and see who it was.Hands to yourself, tool. You’re not her boyfriend.
Just as that set ended, which we lost, Silas, in a navy suit and his cowboy boots, came barreling into the gym and bulldozed the team to get to us. Ming accidentally squirted Alyssa in the eye with her water bottle when she jumped out of the way.
“Christy!” Silas practically shouted, his expression wide-eyed with shock. “Why did you do that? I was trying to get you your job back, not get you demoted.”
She stood and put a hand on his arm, not looking at all surprised by his very out-of-character outburst. “Whoa, cowboy,” she said in a hush, her lips turning up in a smile. “Let’s make this a you and me conversation instead of an entire gym conversation, if you don’t mind.”
“What’s going on?” I felt my right brow crawling into my hairline.
Silas shook his head at the ceiling. “I’ll tell you what’s going on. I’m the principal. And Christy’s the assistant. Permanently.” Before I had a second to process the news, he aimed his ire at me, like somehow this was my problem to fix. “I’m standing there reading the letter she wrote to the board and I’m completely sideswiped as the words are coming out of my mouth.” Then he thrust his hand at her while still yelling at me. “And it was her idea!”
“To switch positions?” I asked.
“Yes.” I thought his head might pop off from the frustration.
She sighed. And then laughed. “Why are you so upset? You’re a way better administrator than me and we both know it.”
“That is not true.” But there was a micro twinge in his tone that said he might agree.
“Yes, it is. You tell the kids to do something and they snap to like it’s basic training. I tell them to do something and they’re all, ‘Yeah. Okay, P. Thorn. We’ll get to it if we feel like it.’ She sounded just like the footballers when she said it. “They do not take me seriously. And I don’t care because I’d rather spend my time listening to what they need or encouraging them in their dreams than disciplining or putting out fires.”
