8:30 p.m. — A snack/television/reading time.
10:00 p.m. — Bedtime.
If you really wanted to get down to specifics during practice, you could add: make sure I won daily sprints, fart around with Harlow, have Jenny mother me, help out the younger girls,and stare at the mute that stood in the corner every once in a while. I mean,everyonceinawhile. No one had time to do it all practice, every practice.
I mean, come on.
Then off to burn under the sun, despite wearing shirts and a hat designed to protect against UV rays. The one shower a night was probably the reason I was still single, but what was the point in showering twice if I knew I was just going to get sweaty from practice and work? Nothing said sexy like long jeans, a long-sleeved shirt, and work boots. During work, Marc would harass me about Kulti and if I had any gossip to share with him. Needless to say, he was disappointed I didn’t have anything to complain about.
The man everyone was so curious about hadn’t said a single word to me. Whomp, whomp, whomp.
In between all the ways The King had saturated my life was the annoying conversation I finally had with Eric, my brother, that went along the lines of “blah, blah, blah, that guy is a fucking asshole, blah, blah, blah, don’t listen to a goddamn thing he has to say to you.” I didn’t even get a chance to tell him that Kulti had forgotten how to speak. “Blah, blah, blah, no one here can believe he decided to coach for the WPL. Someone told me he got offered an eight-figure contract to coach for one of the Spanish teams.” More blah and a little more wah.
On top of everything else I didn’t get to tell him, he didn’t find out during that biweekly conversation that I’d begun getting passive-aggressive messages from Kulti fans… all because of him and his damn leg.
“…ANIDIOT.” I looked up at Gardner and noted, “He is an idiot. I’m not going to argue that.” Then I continued reading the email I’d gotten the night before. “Casillashaditcomingtohim.I’mtiredofKultigettingblamedwhenhewasdoingwhatheneededtobedoing.Youseemlikeasensiblelady,soIreallyhopeforyoursakeyoudon’tstarttalkingabunchofshitaboutTheKingandlearntoregretit.”
Gardner sat back in his chair with a shake of his head. “Jesus,Sal. I’m sorry.” He blinked a few times. “Let’s get someone in here so we can come up with a strategy to get this crap figured out, because I’m really over my head here.”
“I’m sorry too, G. I hate to bother you with this crap, but I don’t know if there’s something I should do or if I should keep ignoring the messages.”
He waved me off with one hand, already dialing numbers on the conference phone on his desk. “Don’t think twice about it. Sheena? Can you come down to my office? I have Sal Casillas in here. She’s been getting some strange emails regarding Kulti, and I’m not sure what the best route to take is.” A second later, the phone was back on its cradle, and he raised both eyebrows up to his hairline. “She’ll be over in a second.”
I nodded and smiled at him. “All right.”
Gardner gave me the gentle smile that always reassured me. “How’s your family doing?”
“Good. How’s your fam—”andI’d forgotten I’d heard through the grapevine that his divorce had been finalized in January, “—kiddo?”
“Great. Twelve going on eighteen,” he answered with an easy smile. “You? Planning on taking some time off to have some of your own?”
I stared at him. Then I stared at him a little longer.
Thefuck?
“I’m messing with you, Sal,” Gardner laughed dryly.
“I really thought you were serious,” I said slowly. Jeez. Not that you need a boyfriend to have a baby, but…. My eyebrows went up. “Yeah. No.” I hadn’t had a date in… a year? And I hadn’t had sex in…? A long, long time. Not that I didn’t want to—because I did—but because I had a vibrator, and a vibrator never left you hanging. Or had a wife or a girlfriend you didn’t know about.Anyway.
He snorted. “I’m just messing around. You’re still young.”
I thought about the other girls on the team and winced a little. Not that long ago, I was one of the new girls, the really young ones that had just finished college and been drafted. Now I was one of the girls that the other ones looked up to. I rolled my ankle and letthe stiffness in it answer back, reminding me how precarious its health was.
Someone knocked on the door, and Gardner welcomed them in.
Sheena peeked her head through the cracked door. “Hi.” The door swung open, and a second later, I spotted the head that appeared above hers.
My stupid, stupid, stupid traitorous heart remembered what it was like to be thirteen.
My brain, apparently the only logical organ in my body, said to all its brothers and sisters:Get your shit together and calm down.
I put my big girl socks on, took a deep steadying breath, and managed to smile at the two people who made their way into the office, right toward the chairs next to mine. I swallowed and said, “Hi, Sheena. Hi, Coach Kulti.” All right, that came out a lot dumber than I would have liked. My cheeks decided right then that they were going to get hot, real hot.
Damn it.Getittogether,Sal!
“Hello, Sal,” Sheena greeted me as she took the seat right next to mine, glancing over her shoulder for a moment to say, “I asked Mr. Kulti?—”
Mr.Kulti? Really?
