Page 26 of The Coach

There was something there, something between us. That much was obvious at the store yesterday. When I’d seen her standing there, she looked like the sign I was waiting for, the one that clearly said, “This is your chance, don’t fuck it up.”

And I’d been about to admit all of that to her, to own it, when her roommate had interrupted us.

“Fuck it, this is stupid.” I finally relent and pull up her contact, already saved in my favorites and hit call.

I hear it ring and then, on the other side of my office door, is the ringing of a cell phone. I pull away from my phone slightly and frown. I’m about to stand when there’s a knock on my door. “Come in,” I call out, already having a pretty good idea of who is there.

Mick walks in, peeking around the door and stepping in quickly, shutting my door quietly. Practice hasn’t started yet. I still had about an hour until then, but there were some players in the weight room, and I wonder how she snuck in. I take in her baggy hoodie and ball cap pulled low and see that she’s disguised herself.

The sight of her, the sweet smile on her face, the confident set of her shoulders, and the nervous twist of her hands brings a punch of relief to my chest. She hasn’t even said anything, but her being here, her making the effort to come see me, it has to mean something.

“Hey,” she says softly, taking a few steps closer. I stay seated in my chair, not trusting myself to keep my hands to myself if I approach her. “I’m sorry to drop by unannounced, I—”

“You can stop by anytime,” I tell her and mean it. I want her here.

She smiles sweetly at me. “Okay.” Her teeth show when she bites her bottom lip, and I set my phone down, grasping the edge of my desk. “I, um, I wanted to talk to you about how we left things.”

I let out a slow breath. “Yeah, I was thinking about that, too.”

“Yeah,” she breathes. “I saw your call just now.”

“Apparently, great minds think alike.”

She grins at me, and I find myself lost in it until her voice pulls me back to the conversation. “Listen,” she reaches up and tucks her long strands of hair behind her ear. “I… don’t know what to do here.”

I lift a brow slightly at her admission. “Okay.”

“Yesterday showed me that I want things,” Mick finally blurts out, and I try to hide my grin. “I want things that I probably shouldn’t want, things that could hurt us and potentially, others around us.”

She looks nervous, more nervous than she needs to be considering we’ve both been thinking about pretty similar things over the last week.

“I want things, too,” I reply gruffly, looking at this amazing, gorgeous woman in front of me.

If you want her, take her, Devon’s voice echoes in my head.

I stand from my chair, that feeling in my gut that urges me in her direction intensifying, until I’m in front of her, and I reach down, picking her up to me, her arms fly over my shoulders, holding tight, and I carry us back to the chair.

She accepts my course of action, settling herself across my legs and keeping her eyes locked on my own.

“I want you, Mick,” I whisper to her, wrapping an arm around her back and reaching up with my other hand, cupping her jaw, and brushing my thumb over her cheek. “I know there are things holding us apart, but I don’t think I can let you go.”

Her eyes shine brightly, and her lips curve into a small smile, but before she can reply, I pull her face to mine and take her lips.

They’re soft and smooth against mine, and I nudge them open, slipping my tongue into her mouth and tangling with hers. She moans, and I grow hard beneath her, reveling in the feeling of having her here, finally, in my arms.

Mick and I were special. I don’t know what it meant. I don’t know what the future is going to hold, but I would not let her go because of some bullshit rules set by the school administration. We could keep it on the down low for a while.

Making out in my office was probably risky, but worth it.

I was finally at a point in my life where I could give someone enough of myself to make them happy, where I could build something with someone. The only problem has been that I hadn’t found the person I wanted to build it with.

Until her.

Her arms wrap around my shoulders tightly, and she turns to straddle my lap when there’s a sudden, hard knock on my door. Our lips rip apart, and we both look at it, the handle twisting.

“Shit,” she hisses and gets off of my lap quickly. I’m barely registering what’s happening, my arms still out in the air in the position I was holding her in, when she darts under my desk, and the door opens to reveal Kevin. I take a breath and scoot my chair back toward my desk, careful not to hit the woman I bared my soul to.

Way to have terrible timing, Johnson.

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