“Great job, kiddo.” He gave her a squeeze. “The award for best effort goes to you. You’re all sweaty and everything.”
“Thanks!” She turned and waved to another kid leaving the gym before giving Rob double high fives. “I got a cupcake.”
“Oh yeah? Where is it?”
“I already ate it.”
The frosting evidence was all over the front of her jersey where she’d used it as a napkin, but he pretended to be shocked. “And you didn’t save a bite for me?”
“It was really good.” She sat down on the bench next to him and took a big swig from her pink water bottle. “Are we going out to eat now?”
Rob looked to me. “I’m good with it. Let me talk to your mom for a minute. Go say goodbye to that kid who kicked his water bottle full of Kool-Aid all over the floor while he warmed the bench.”
“Toby?”
“Yeah, that stinker. He definitely looks like a Toby, that’s for sure.”
After she ran off, Rob asked, “If we go out for lunch, are you bringing the assistant coach along? He’s obviously loitering for your sake.” We both glanced at Dean, who was watching us from across the gym floor. He worried about me almost as much as I worried about what I was doing to him. If anyone needed an award for effort, it was Dean. I didn’t know how to tell him he didn’t need to prove anything to me. Maybe I’d once thought that. I should have known Dean would always give his all when it came to things he wanted. I just couldn’t believe what he wanted was me. I was the luckiest woman in the whole world, and I couldn’t even enjoy it. Thinking about it made my head hurt.
“Are you okay if he comes?” I asked.
“I guess. You’d be daydreaming about him if he wasn’t there. What’s the difference?”
I glanced back at Piper. She and Toby were running in circles in the middle of the gym floor. “Dean and I are not officially together, so don’t make jokes about it in front of Piper.”
“You don’t think she’s figured it out? Let me guess. He’s your good, good friend.” At my responding frown, he held his hands up. “Okay, too far. Now that you show emotion again, I can tell when I’m upsetting you.”
“You’re not upsetting me. So, the three of us will see you at Chili’s in a few?” We were single-handedly keeping that place in business.
“Yes, bring your guy. Your good, good friend. I promise to be nice.”
“Thanks.” I smiled big, which made Rob look at me funny. He couldn’t quite figure me out these days, which made perfect sense, because I couldn’t quite figure me out either.
After calling for Piper, she and I walked over to Dean to tell him the plan for lunch.
“How dumb?” he whispered in my ear, reiterating his question from earlier.
“You just keep these guns put away,” I said, resting my hands on his biceps. I’d meant it as a joke, but our eyes met, and I had to remind my fingers to remove themselves from his fine, fine arms.
“Like I’d get into a fight with your ex in a Chili’s. That would be super classy.” He knelt down to Piper’s level. “I’ll see you two in a few minutes, okay?”
“Okay. I’m gonna steal your fries.”
“Thanks for letting me know in advance, you little munchkin.”
He gave me a wink as he walked off, and it took me a few seconds to realize I was staring after him. Like, a lot staring. Enough that the mom of one of my players gave me a knowing grin, because just like Rob guessed, I’d introduced Dean as my good friend who would be helping us out this season. It seemed like every minute I was at war with what I wanted and what I thought was good for him. Dean needed the space to be able to back away from this if he needed to. The last thing I wanted to do was cling to him.
Piper conked out almost immediately in the car on the way to Chili’s. We’d started the day bright and early at Beautiful Blooms to prep bouquet orders before her game. I was stifling a yawn or two myself.
Next Saturday, Dean would be coaching alone. For Mother’s Day weekend I’d need to be selling as many flower bouquets as humanly possible to everyone I could coax into my shop. Plus, we’d be ramping up for graduation flowers and end-of-the-year school performances. Yay for May.
I didn’t feel like I drove like a grandma, even though I’d been accused of it a time or two, but Rob and Dean were both already inside standing awkwardly next to each other when Piper and I walked in. I was relieved when she ran at Rob and not Dean, putting her arms up for him to scoop her up. It wouldhave been awkward, had she made a beeline for Dean.Maybe someday, a little hopeful part of me whispered.
She was almost too big for Rob to hold, but not quite. Did he see that? Did he see time moving like I did?
She yawned and put her head on his shoulder. “I’m so tired, Dad. Can I have all your fries?”
“Order your own fries, kid.”
