"Almost. Hands on the ground, belly up. Like this." Both shoulders pop when I get down on the floor, just in time for Molly to sneak in and go sit next to Cass. I try to ignore them giggling and watching me, working on not busting my ass instead. I crab walk for a minute, until they're all demonstrating. When I get up, my body cracks in at least a dozen places, and I make way too much noise doing it.
"That's it. Cricket, go grab those cones over there."
"Okay, Coach!" she runs off, her braids flying behind her.
We set up the cones for a start and finish line, and I have the kids line up.
"Time us!" one of the kids yells, then half a dozen more join him.
When I pull out my stopwatch, they are so impressed, I almost feel cool.
"Ready, set,go!"
They go absolutely feral, as promised.
Roughly half of them do it right. Two little girls bump into each other and go down in a pile of giggles. One kid flops around on the ground, and when I ask what he's doing, he says he's a dying crab. I let him have that, doing my best not to crack while I correct them. I don't know why I'm trying. It's not like form matters. Next is the bear crawl. We end up with about the same percentages. This time, half of them growl the whole way. One speeds by and does three laps. The dying crab from last time is lying on the ground, snoring comically loud. He informs me he's hibernating. The frog hop almost sends all of us over the top--they're hopping and croaking. One cannonballs into my leg. It actually looks a lot like if I dumped out a box of frogs. No one's going in a straight line. The kid who died and hibernated is now wiggling around. I try and guess what he's going to say. He's a tadpole. Should have had that one.
The last round is a medley of all three. And, for the first time, they almost take it seriously. But they're laughing too hard to make much of it, and Molly and Cass are no better. I demonstrated all three moves, and I'll probably hear them eternally snickering in my nightmares.
The kids are laughing and sweaty and red faced, and on their way out with Cass, they line up to slap my extended hand. I make sure to raise it so they really have to jump for it, especially the creative one.
But Molly stays behind, watching me with that pretty smile of hers, ankles crossed and hands on the edge of the stage. When she looks at me like that, the urge to walk over there, slip myhand into her hair, and kiss her until I drown nearly takes me out.
I shake the thought away.
Never quite get over it, though.
CHAPTER 13
TOO MUCH
MOLLY
Grey strides in my direction with a look on his face that makes me flush.
He lookshungry.
A tingle spreads through me, warm and electric. But he stops too far away. The tension between us snaps back so fast, I almost lose my balance.
I feel silly, so I smile and say, "Well, I think we found a new PE teacher."
He scoffs and rolls his eyes, but he's smiling a little. "Never in a million years."
"What? Are they too silly for you?" I jump off the stage.
"Too chaotic."
"Ah, I see. Makes sense. You're an orderly guy."
"Do you have another class coming to the library?"
"No--I was actually about to head out to my car. I have a couple boxes of books to bring in while I have a lull."
"Come on. I'll help you. I've got fifteen minutes before the next pack of animals shows up."
If I've learned one thing about Greyson, it's that he's insistent. If I didn't always want whatever he insisted on, I'd probably be real annoyed.
"Well, if you're sure."
