“Then come here.”
She laughs and shakes her head, jumping out of my chair to cross to me. “Bring it on, Coach.”
I fold her in against my body. She squeaks a little, but then presses her face into my neck, breathless. She really does like it.
“You aren’t that sweaty,” she mumbles. “And you smell good.”
“That’s gotta be the love talking,” I murmur into her hair.
“Maybe.” She lifts her face, and up close, I can see there’s a little shadow behind her eyes.
“What’s wrong?”
She makes a face. “Nothing.”
“Molly …”
She takes a deep breath. “There’s asmallproblem.”
My stomach drops. “What kind of problem?”
“Owen Fisker texted me.”
“The little jerk I got fired?”
“Yeah, I didn’t think to block his number, and he didn’t use it until tonight.”
She wriggles in my arms, sliding her phone out of a secret pocket in the folds of her sundress. She turns it so I can see the screen.
Owen
Saw you on the Jumbotron sitting with Coach’s family. Cozy. Does anyone else know you’re fucking him?
You’re way too hot to waste on that old man. When he gets bored with you, hit me up.
White-hot rage courses through my arteries. “That pathetic little motherfucker. I’m going to kill him,” I say flatly. “I’m going to find him right now and?—”
“Breathe.” Her voice is calm, steadier than mine. “Honestly? I don’t care what Owen Fisker thinks.”
“I care.” My jaw is so tight it hurts. “He’s harassing you. This is grounds for a restraining order.”
“It is,” she agrees. “And we’ll handle it. But that’s not the real problem.”
I force myself to focus on her face instead of the phone. “Then what is?”
She pulls up something else—a fan-made social media post. It’s a screenshot from the game broadcast, the moment the camera caught me looking up at the family section. The image is cropped to show just me and then a second image: Sinclaire, Molly, Trick, and Silas.
The caption reads,Who’s the mystery woman with Coach Rosehill’s family?
There are already dozens of comments too. Molly calmly scrolls through them all while my blood pressure shoots up.She’s pretty!I agree.Way too young for him.I do not agree.Probably just a family friend. That person is trying to help, but family friend my fucking ass. I want to claim Molly publicly, and I don’t want anyone casting doubt on our relationship. And then the stunned surprise comments… I don’t know how to react to those.
Coach has a girlfriend???
I thought he was a monk.
He has a kid, dumbass.
Yeah, but that was almost thirty years ago.
