A text appears at the top of the screen.
Fable:See you at soccer later. ??
A soft knock rattles against my office door, and I click off my phone and shove it in my pocket. “Come in!” My voice sounds hoarse and too high at the same time.
Garrett pushes the door open. “Have a second?”
“Of course. What’s up?” I scoot closer to my desk, trying to hide how Fable in lacy lingerie has left me with a semi in the middle of my workday. My flustered brain scours the office for any sign of the photo. Ididn’t accidently print ten copies and hang them on my wall, right?
With a smile, Garrett takes a seat across from me. “Wanted to see if we could have an impromptu check-in about the adopt-a-thon. Only two more weeks,” he says excitedly.
“Absolutely.” I bring up my email, scanning through them until I find one from yesterday. “I did get a reply from Havenbrook, and as of right now, they’re coming with eight dogs and three cats.”
“That’s great. And any word from that rescue in Juniper?”
“They’ll be here too.”
“Perfect.”
“I did get an email that the Robinsons won’t be able to make it. And they were bringing most of the animals from the Paws Out rescue, so I’m a little worried we’re going to need more volunteers. With the number of animals we potentially have, we may have to scavenge for more help.” I tap my fingers on my desk, trying to think of where we could find them.
“Also, I’m concerned about food,” Garrett adds. “The taco truck will already be at the event, but I think we need to organize lunches from somewhere else for our volunteers. Iwant Carlos to get to concentrate on orders from the public. So we should place an order with someone else.”
“I can work on that,” I offer.
Arthur appears in the doorway, a half-eaten glazed donut in his hand. He shuffles in, sneakers squeaking on the buffed floors. “Sounds like you two are working well together.”
Mentally tracking back through the last few minutes, I rehash everything we talked about. From what I remember it was all fine, but I feel slimy even worrying about it. Ihate lying and being on edge, and I wish I didn’t have to overanalyze everything around Arthur. Iwish he just trusted me enough without this whole performance.
Garrett chuckles. “We make a great team.”
“Everything ready to go?” Arthur asks, taking a bite of donut and looking to me for an answer.
I sit up straighter. “We’ve run into a couple small issues, but we’ve got it figured out.”
“Good, good.” Arthur nods in acknowledgment, licking glaze from his thumb. “And will we be seeing Fable at the event?”
A hint of nausea rolls through my stomach. “Yep. We’ll be there together,” I assure them, even though I’m just digging my nails in further with the lie.
“Yes!” Fable shouts, giving Priya a high five. “That was a great kick!”
I jog around the goal to grab the ball she just kicked hard enough that it went flying to the other field, and when I punt it back to Fable, she catches it easily and lines it up for the next player.
Despite the dreary skies and drizzly spring rain, she’s shining bright. It’s almost like someone turned up the saturation on her over the last few weeks. The same woman who was sitting on the sidelines for most of our first practice is now running around in her unicorn T-shirt, mud splattered on the fabric and a huge smile on her face. And those little girls are obsessed with it. Obsessed withher.
I can’t blame them.
“Goalie ready?” she calls to me.
Positioning myself in front of the net, I give a thumbs-up. “Come on, Emmy! Can you get it past me?” So far, the balls are either not making it to me or missing the goal entirely. Ithink I’m getting more exercise here than anyone, with all the running I’m doing to fetch balls. But we’ll get there.
Emmy steps to the front of the line, pushes her bangs back, and kicks as hard as she can, letting out a feral scream. But the ball rolls to a stop about five feet in front of me. Her bottom lip pokes out in a pout.
Fable gives her a hug. “That’s okay. You’ll get him next time.”
I kick the ball back to her and she catches it under her foot, waving the next player forward.
But Emmy pauses and stares in my direction. “Can you get him, Coach Fable?”
