She blushed, and I kissed her. It was a sweet, comforting kiss that didn’t last nearly long enough. She broke apart and put on her clothes, the silence cutting through the air. “Let me get dressed so we can head out together.”
“Shit.” I made her jump. “I don’t have time to walk you to your door.”
“Michael, that’s okay. You have every single time before. This is different. Just let me know what’s going on, alright?” She slipped on her clothes, and soon enough, we were outside and into the cold morning air.
The chill did nothing to tamp the worry growing in my gut. Things werejustright in my life. School was going well, Ryann and I had weekly calls, and Cal and I were even… friendly. Naomi and I were together. So, this meeting had me on edge. Like it would shift everything after it had just gotten good. We came to the intersection where she headed north toward her place and I went south. She wrapped her arms around my waist in a hug, and my god, I adored this woman.
“It’ll be okay, Reiner, I know it.” She squeezed me hard, like she was giving me her strength, and I fell for her even more. I kissed the top of her head before we parted ways, and I went toward the cafe.
Puck Pastries smelled like coffee and sweetness, and the warmth flooded my face once I walked in. Coach was easy to find with his large frame and dark hair. He sat in a corner with a steaming cup of coffee and his laptop. He didn’t look distressed, like something horrible happened, so that was a decent sign.
“Coach,” I said, my voice scratchy as I sat in the chair across from him. He lifted his chin in greeting and whistled for the waitress.
“Get what you want. It’s on me.”
“Uh, just a coffee for now, thanks.” I leaned forward so my elbows were on the table. “Gotta be honest, Coach, I’m on pins and needles about this. What’s going on?”
Coach leveled his gaze as he took a deep breath. “To put it frankly, I need you to be my new assistant coach.”
“Like next year?”
“No. Starting today.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Naomi
Mona, Kellie, and Lilly all wore grins way too large for their faces when I arrived back at our place. My entire body burned with embarrassment because yeah, we all knew I spent the night somewhere. If this was Kellie, none of us would bat an eyelash, but it was me. Thegoodgirl. The boring one. It was a big deal.
“Stop staring at me,” I mumbled, tossing my keys onto the side table.
“Where were ya last night?” Mona asked, wiggling her brows to the point she reminded me of a cartoon character.
“Michael’s. You all know this.” I huffed out the awkward need to laugh and poured myself some coffee. “I’ve been there how many times the last few weeks?”
“Naomi has a regular booty call, and I don’t. This isn’t fair,” Kellie said, falling back onto the couch with an exaggerated groan. “He’s so hot too.”
I sat in the recliner and tucked my feet to the side as we all positioned ourselves in the living room. This was the best part of sharing a place with these girls. The way we could just sit and hang out. We had our own spots, and even now, I was dying to tell them about Michael and me.“Listen, he asked me last night if I wanted to be together-together.”
“Shit,” Mona said, wrapping her arms around her knees. “Didn’t think the guy had it in him.”
“Shut up, Mona. You’re just cranky because your vibrator ran out of batteries,” Kellie fired back. Kellie smiled at me. “What did you say? You seem happy with him.”
“We agreed we were a thing. Exclusive too.” God, the room was hot.
“We’re happy for you, really. Now we don’t have to pretend we didn’t know you two were hooking up on the reg,” Lilly said, flashing me her cheeky grin. “Bring him over sometime so we can grill him.”
“Absolutely not.” I shook my head and tried to picture how that conversation would go. No way. They knew too much about me and had potential to embarrass me. “Hell no.”
“That’s no fun for us. Seriously. The last guy you dated was a dweeb, and now you have Michael and we can’t interrogate him? This seems like a breach of the friend contract.”
I flipped Lilly off. “I like him,” I said, voicing the thought that had been swirling in my mind the past week. “A lot.”
“He’s an easy guy to like, but just be careful, alright?” Mona said, her tone softer than all the teasing before. “I’m glad you’re putting yourself out there and he’s treated you well. I just… have this feeling. I don’t know. He’s still a hockey guy.”
The need to defend him surged out of me. “Hockey’s not so bad, Mona.”
“Okay, okay.” She put her hands up in the air and blushed. “I’ll say no more.”
