Page 20 of Her Coach

BRYNN

Get information for Mom. You have his attention. Now’s your chance to learn about him.

I wouldn’t fuck this up. These two were perfect for one another. It didn’t matter that I enjoyed the way his brown eyes policed me behind the bar. It didn’t matter that his gruff exterior made my skin tingle. It didn’t matter that I felt safe, blanketed by his shadow and tucked beneath his wandering stare.

My mother deserved someone who made her feel this way.

So I shoved my own feelings aside and got to work. “You know, Mom took Dad’s death really hard. It took her so long to pull herself out of her grief.”

Colton nodded slowly, his gaze studying me. “I can only imagine.”

“Oh, I’m sure you watched it with your own mother. You know, the absent glances out the window. The monotonous routine she autopilots on her bad days.”

He nodded slowly. “Still happens sometimes.”

I snapped my head toward him. “Really?”

He nodded. “Yep. Been thirty-something years since his death. I don’t think she’s ever even dated.”

I refused to let my mother be like that. End up like that. She deserved more. She deserved better. She deserved her happiness. And I wasn’t going to be the one to take it from her when the perfect man sat right at my bar.

“Well,” I said as I mindlessly took someone’s order and walked to the beer fridge to get them a glass bottle. I popped the top off against the inner edge of the bar before handing the glass bottle to one of my regulars, Cherrie, who gave me the sweetest smile. I gave her a head nod before I turned my attention back to Colton. “Mom’s done a really good job for herself since Dad’s death. I mean, she built the team into what it is now. Works out of our home. She pours everything she has into that arena and the team. It’s her whole world.”

“So, the office I found her in earlier isn’t her actual office?”

I shook my head softly. “It’s Dad’s old office.”

“Ah.”

I nodded. “It all started with Dad. Even after he retired from playing he never stopped loving the game. They’d pick up food and go sit in the empty stands to just watch practice sometimes. It was their thing. I think that’s part of why she can’t let go of it now. It’s not just a business to her. It never was.”

His grin made my heart go whump-whump, but I ignored the feeling. “Sounds like they were really good together.”

My voice is softer than I wanted it to be by the time I spoke. “The best.”

I felt myself getting lost in the memories. The way Mom used to smile and laugh all the time. She doesn’t do that nearly as much as she used to. Not since…

Well…

“Hey! Coach!” Rhett exclaimed as he came buzzing over, only to slide to a stop at Colton’s side. “Here’s your money back.”

I watched him slap a wad of cash into Colton’s hand and he pocketed it without even looking at it. “Thanks.”

Rhett balked, just like I wanted to. “Aren’t you gonna see how much you won? Everyone put their money on Jett once you put your money there. It must’ve⁠—”

Colton grinned. “Given him the confidence to do his best?”

The two men looked at one another before Rhett’s head fell back in boisterous laughter. He clapped Colton’s upper arm, guffawing as if the funniest joke was just told to him. And as Rhett walked away, laughing his head off for reasons we’d probably never know, Colton turned his attention back to me.

I must’ve had a look on my face, because all he did was smirk. “What? Chirpers are always at their best when they’ve got an audience. Just had to give him one.”

I shook my head as a smile spread across my face. “You’re something else, you know that?”

His eyes darted down my body before sliding back up to my face. “I’m sure you do, yes.”

The way his lips curled around the edge of his glass without that stare ever wavering from my face did something to me. My toes physically curled in my work shoes, and I had to force my gaze away from him just so I could concentrate on work. A few people flocked to the bar, pulling my attention away from Colton long enough to watch him go strolling over to the pool tables.

Maybe it was for the best that he’d left.