Page 79 of Her Coach

“Shit,” Colton hissed as he snatched his hand from mine, picking up his bourbon, and downed it in two gulps. He grimaced and growled softly with the burn and I pushed my lemonade toward him a bit. He gave me a thankful look before taking a few deep gulps, and he set the almost-empty glass down just before Rhett, Jett, Moose, and Frank stepped around the corner.

“Hey, hey, hey!” Frank exclaimed with his arms open wide. “Look who decided to get out of town for a little bit!”

Rhett walked up to us, setting his forearm on Colton’s shoulder, and grinned. “Heeeeey, Bry.”

I giggled and shook my head as I mocked his tone of voice that he always used when saying ‘hello.’ “Heeeeeey, Rhett.”

Jett pulled up a chair, flipping it around, and straddled it as he sat. “So! Team meeting, Coach? Or, uh,” Jett wiggled his eyebrows, “team meeting?”

I couldn’t help the giggle that bubbled up the back of my throat, but it had nothing on the laughter throwing my head back when Colton shot daggers through his stare as the four men from the team pulled up chairs, gathering around us, and yelled their orders over our heads to the waitress who scrambled back to our table.

And while Colton didn’t look all too pleased at the intrusion, I didn’t mind. The team was always Dad’s happy place, even though the team had since been switched over and turned out at least half a dozen times. It didn’t matter who played for the team, though. No matter who came in, they always seemed to carry a sliver of something that reminded me of my father. Something that made me smile.

Something that made this team feel like home.

31

COLTON

“So. Bry,” Rhett said as I stared the men down, “how’s your mom getting along? She seems to be in good spirits today.”

That tore my attention to Rhett. Did he know about Victoria?

“She’s doing well,” Brynn said, “ready for the season to kick off.”

Moose snickered. “Aren’t we all? Took everything I had to walk away from that goal line this morning.”

“That goal line needs rest, too,” I finally said as the waitress came back with a round of water Brynn insisted the entire table have. “Otherwise, you’ll carve a fucking moat with your blades around that damned thing.”

Moose chuckled and clapped me on the back before Jett piped up. “You coming to the game, Bry?”

Brynn scoffed. “The hell kind of question is that? Of course, I’m coming to the game.”

Jett shrugged. “Just that you usually watch the season opener on the TV from home.”

That pulled my gaze back to Brynn. “You do?”

Her cheeks blushed a little bit before she looked over at me. “Dad loved season openers.”

I nodded slowly, already understanding. And yet, she was willing to come with me? What the hell had I done to earn someone so precious?

“Well,” Moose said as he leaned back in his chair and flashed that blinding smile of his, “it’ll be good to see you in the stands. You bunking with Miss Victoria in the V.I.P. booth?”

Rhett grinned. “Or, uh, you gonna rough it in the back like we do?”

I rolled my eyes. “The four of you wouldn’t know roughing it if it bit your damn nose off.”

Brynn and the guys laughed before they resumed their conversation, and my eyes volleyed between the five of them, taking it all in. Was I happy about the four of them randomly walking into a restaurant twenty minutes outside of town? Not particularly. I’d driven all the way out here just to make sure I didn’t run into any of them while we were eating. And even though I wanted to jump down their throats for coming out here most likely to drink without getting caught, isn’t that exactly what I had done?

You have to do better by these boys.

Their laughter pulled me out of my head, and the way Brynn’s head fell back, exposing her softly-tanned neck like that, made something inside of me roar to life. I shifted in my seat, not bothering to take in the aimless conversation around us as I watched her. Studied her. Drank her in. I sipped my water and stabbed mindlessly as my chicken marsala; at the way her entire face lit up whenever Jett said something that made her laugh. I watched the way her eyes crinkled with her smile as Rhett talked her through some sort of workout routine he chugged along with, or some other such nonsense.

I wanted to tell her that she didn’t have to care about their shit.

But I liked that she did.

Watching it all unfold? It felt… surreal. Like a dream. Like something I didn’t want to wake up from. I felt locked in, like someone had shackled me to the ground of this city. I’d felt that way ever since I breached the city limits two weeks ago to take this position just before the start of their season. I’d felt that way the instant I laid eyes on Brynn. And now? Sitting here at lunch with her and the team laughing and getting along?