I had to admire the sway of her hips. The feisty, not-too-bad-looking Barbie was a firecracker. Her words stung, but I rarely let people affect me. She would be gone after a week. I’d bet a lot of money on it. And I had a lot of money, despite what the tabloids liked to say about me.Fuck those leeches.
The meeting began like I’d imagined. Parents fawned all over me, bringing their kids up to shake my hand with stars in their eyes. I ate it up and made sure Prissy Fiona watched it all. She could try coaching, but I actually knew what I was doing. I enjoyed the extra attention and made sure to give myco-coachpointed looks each time. Yeah, I was being a dick, but what did she expect after her little rant?
And maybe, just maybe, I could run her out. “Mr. Titan. I can’t tell you how excited we are to work with you this season.”
I smiled at the MILF. Shit, she was hot as fuck. Long red hair and perky tits. “Likewise, Ms.?”
“Loretta. My son is Garth. He’s ecstatic he shares your initials. GT. Thinks he deserves a Mustang because of it.” She laughed and I thought of ten ways I would take off her dress. I would start with the silky strap. Shit. She’d said something else.
“What?”
“Is thattheFiona Davis?” Her eyes widened as she took in my fireball of a co-coach. I nodded.How the hell does this woman know her? What the ever-loving fuck?
“That’s her name.”
“Oh my. Excuse me.” She left me. Just up and walked away from me.What the fuck?
I shook another couple of hands but my attention kept going back to Fiona and her long blonde hair. She’d braided it, a personal favorite of mine, but the damn fanny pack got to me. She looked so nerdy. It also annoyed me to no end that she didn’t look back at me once. Not fucking once. Shit—maybe I had pissed her off. A miniscule part of me thought about caring, but then I didn’t. Caring led nowhere.
“Can’t believe the two of you got paired together. Who would’ve thought?” A father maybe ten years older than me stood to my right. His nametag readJack. “My name is Jack. My son will learn so much from the two of you. Can’t wait to see how the season goes, man.”
He patted my shoulder and went to Fiona.Seriously…who the hell is this chick?Why do the parents know about her?Resentment at her persistence and jealousy of the way parents flocked to her combined and I snapped. “Fiona. Let’s start.”
Her dark blue eyes dimmed, enough for me to see, before she smiled at Jack. Fucking Jack was a traitor. But as soon as she met my eyes, she looked away. She motioned her hand for me to go, whisperingdick faceunder her breath.The nerve of this girl.“Hey, everyone. I’m Gideon Titan. I’ll be coaching your kids for this four-month season. I’m looking forward to working with them.”
The MILF winked at me again and I hid my reaction when another mom gave me the up and down. Hell, even the dads present looked excited to meet me. I gave them mysmile. The one I knew got reactions. “I plan—”
“We. We plan,” Fiona interrupted me. She continued to talk, too. But I didn’t hear her. No one interrupted me. No one insulted me. No one hung up the phone on me. Yet thiswomanhad done all three. “We plan on teaching your children the basics of the game but also how to be a member of a team, a community and how to compete at competitive levels.”
“Yeah, as I was saying—”
“I set up a Remind account and I’ll write it on the board. If you could all sign up, it’ll be the easiest way to get a hold of you in case of a game change, emergency, or questions. You just text this number—”
“What? We don’t need a Remind anything,” I interjected and a hushed silence fell over the parents.Great. This bitch made me look like the asshole.“Fiona. Can I speak with you in private?”
“After the meeting,” she replied through clenched teeth. The vision made her a little scary. But I had seen worse. “Now,Gideon, please let me continue providing the contact information. Okay?”
Her smile didn’t mean shit, but I nodded anyway. I swore, if she gave them my number, I would cut off her hair or something. I would get revenge.
“Sorry about that. We didn’t practice beforehand.” She laughed and the parents and players followed her lead and laughed along. I found it annoying. “So, the app prevents two things. First, you all can text us through it without actually having our number because one of us is famously famous.”
Laughter ensued and I imagined her getting hit with a foul ball. Not enough to injure her, but enough to rattle her.Yeah. That’ll be funny when it happens.She kept talking but I didn’t listen. I studied the good-looking moms and their kids. We had some height on the team, which was good. Seemed like a couple of them had strong arms. If I was forced to coach, then I wanted to win.
Hell, if you ain’t first, you’re last.Thanks, Ricky Bobby.
“The second is a mass text format. I’ve already scheduled texts to be sent out two hours before every practice and game, and I’ve set it up so you can text back questions, but it only comes to me.”
What is this nonsense?I rolled my eyes as she continued to explain the app.If she wants to run it, be my goddamn guest.
“Now, I know the season is packed, so I encourage a carpool tree. Our first practice is tomorrow, six to nine. We’ll practice every day next week to prepare for our first tournament in two weeks.” Fiona held up her fist and did a little jig. She looked downright ridiculous. I doubted she knew shit about baseball. “Does anyone have any questions?”
“What about uniforms?”
“How will playing time be disbursed?”
“Do you need extra help? I played for years.”
“We have a vacation this week—will it affect my son’s playing time?”
