Page 26 of Her Coach

"Sure."

"Dani."

"Brynn." A pause. I could hear her crocheting. "How's the new coach?"

I leaned back in my chair and looked at the ceiling. "Fine. Good. He seems like he knows what he's doing."

"That's it?"

"That's it."

"You're doing the voice."

"I don't have a voice."

"You have a voice," she said. "It's the one where you're being very deliberately boring about something that isn't boring."

I pulled my feet up onto my desk. "He's tall."

"How tall."

"Has to duck in doorways tall."

The crocheting stopped. "Okay."

"It's not a thing," I said. "I was going to set him up with Mom."

"Were you."

"I was. Mom already shut it down."

"Of course she did." A beat. "So now what?"

"Now nothing. He's the team's coach. I work for the team. That's the whole story."

"Sure," Dani said, in the particular tone she used when she thought you were lying but had decided to let you figure that out yourself.

"It's not a thing, Dani."

"I didn't say it was."

"You were thinking it."

"I'm always thinking something," she said pleasantly. The crocheting started up again. "Tell me about practice."

So I did. I told her about the drills, about Moose's shoulders dropping when Colton moved on without making a thing of his mistake. About Jett getting called before his skate had fully pivoted. About forty minutes turning into an hour without me noticing.

I did not tell her about turning around at the door.

"He sounds like a good coach," Dani said when I finished.

"He is. I think he might be exactly what this team needs."

"Mm." A pause. "Just the team?"

"Good bye, Dani."

She laughed. "Good bye, Brynn."