Page 9 of Her Coach

I ignored the heat crawling up the back of my neck as I cleared my throat and nodded. “Coach.”

“Call me Colton,” he said as he held his hand out for me to shake.

I looked down at his behemoth hands, covered in calluses. I slipped my hand into his and shook it, and I couldn’t help but stare at the way his thick digits wrapped around the expanse of my hand. His dwarfed mine completely, which was impressive, given the fact that I’d never once considered myself a small woman by any means. Average height. Average build. Average weight.

Average, in general.

Yet, the way he looked at me felt anything other than average.

“So, Colton,” Mom said, and for some reason, I hated her calling him by his first name. He didn’t say that she could call him that. Wait a second, what the hell was wrong with me? “Follow me, and I’ll give you the formal tour of the stadium.”

He nodded, pulling his gaze back to Mom. “I appreciate it, thanks.”

Mom took the reins, marching out of the office with her head held high and her heels clicking softly against the tiled floors of the office hallways and spaces in the corridors of Caldwell Arena. But I certainly didn’t miss the way Colton looked back over his shoulder at me before following in pursuit of my mother.

I found myself chasing after them, despite the fact that I needed to get geared up for work.

“Down here and to the left is the weight room,” Mom said as she reached down for the two door handles and threw them open.

All three of us grimaced at the stale smell of sweaty feet that permeated from the room.

“Jesus,” Colton muttered.

“As you can smell,” Mom said as she closed the doors, “the boys run rampant and rarely clean up after themselves.”

“Yeah, it won’t be that way for long,” Colton practically growled.

It sent a shiver down my spine that made me thankful that neither of them paid attention to me. I certainly didn’t like how smiley Mom was, though. I mean, she giggled. Giggled! Granted, it’s not like my mother was belly-laughing, but she certainly didn’t give polite giggles to people. She wasn’t that kind of woman.

Cleary, she was just as smitten with the coach as I was.

Which was the point.

Right?

“I’m glad to hear it,” Mom said as she kept clicking down the hallway. I noticed that her hips swayed a bit deeper with her steps. “I’m tired of picking up after grown men. And while you’re whipping them into shape, you can talk to them about the state of the locker room. Which is right here.”

And when she threw open the door to reveal locker doors open with gear sprawled out all over the floors, I saw Colton bundle his fists up at his sides. Mom’s eyes kept raking over the man like he was a slab of meat.

I mean, he was built like one.

But, still.

Cut it out, Brynn. The hell’s wrong with you? This is what you wanted. He’d be good for Mom, too. It would finally get her out of the house.

It’s not that my mother never left the house, per se. It’s just that the only other place she came was this fucking rink. Not that it was a problem, but I knew why. I knew she came here to remember Dad. To reminisce on her bad days. Or even her good days. Or just in general. It was like she enjoyed being haunted by things.

Like if she forgot, she somehow betrayed him.

“Jesus Christ,” Colton’s gruff voice ripped me out of my trance.

I drew in a quick breath and realized that both Mom and Colton entered the locker room without me. I didn’t like that one bit, either. I quickly slipped into the room, ignoring the sweaty smell of disgusting jerseys and jockstraps.

I found Mom smiling softly up at Colton, and my heart whump-whumped in my chest.

This is good, I told myself, this will be good for Mom. You need to support it. You need to smile back at her.

Mom turned her smile toward me before Colton sauntered off toward the showers, and she fanned herself lightly. I couldn’t help but smile back. I’d never seen her like this before. She seemed almost…giddy. Like she could conquer the world if given the chance. I hadn’t seen that twinkle in her eye in a very long time. Not since Dad was killed.