Page 68 of The Coach

I click my tongue, tapping a fingernail on the console between us and raise a brow at him. “So?”

“So, what?”

“So, can we get a dog?”

He laughs and leans close, pressing a kiss to my lips and leaving me wanting more. “Yes, we can get a dog.”

I squeal and shimmy in my seat. “Yay! I’ve wanted another dog forever.”

When I look back at him, he’s gazing at me with happiness shining in his eyes. “What?”

But he just shakes his head, still smiling, and says, “Nothing.”

I lean back over, letting him kiss me again and realize, I don’t remember the last time I felt this happy.

twenty-eight

TANNER

The laughter that still wheezes out of my best friend is only slightly grating as I watch the door of the karaoke bar we’re waiting in. Devon and Robin invited Mick and me out for fun in Denver, which was supposed to just be drinks and dinner but is apparently a lot more.

People laugh and drink and dance around us. A live band plays on a makeshift stage, and people take turns belting out their favorite tunes.

It’s only good when the actual singer takes her turns and sings and my ears get a break from bleeding.

My surliness comes from my so-called friend laughing his ass off at me while we wait for Mick to arrive.

I never should have mentioned the babysitting thing.

“I mean.” He gives a little cough, trying to catch his breath. “I knew she was younger than you, but damn. You robbed that cradle hard.”

I glare at him. “Will you shut the fuck up?”

“I can’t,” he wheezes before breaking out into another round of laughter.

“I think it’s sweet!” Robin defends, whacking him in the arm. “You found the girl you always liked and fell in love.”

I wrinkle my nose. “It is not like that. I didn’t even know who she was when we met. At a bar,” I clarify, pointing my finger at the table to reinforce my point. “Where she was legally being served.” I sit back in my chair before sitting up again and tapping the table. “Legally.”

For whatever reason, that makes Devon’s laughter worse, and Robin grins broadly, like she’s trying to hold in her own laughter.

“Why are you two here, anyway? Don’t you have children?”

“They’re with our new sitter,” Robin says. “We’ve got the nanny cam on, but two out of three are already in bed.”

“Hopefully, she doesn’t fall in love with them,” Devon quips before barking a loud laugh and smacking the table.

“You’re hilarious,” I grouse, glancing at the door and wishing I’d just picked Mick up, but she was coming directly from work and didn’t know when she was going to be off.

Thankfully, she walks through the door then, and I stand quickly. Both to get to her and to get away from my friend, laughing at my expense.

“Hey,” she says breathlessly, smiling at me and accepting the crushing hug that I give her. “Mm, you smell good.”

Her long brown hair swishes behind her, a slight kink in it from where she wore it in a ponytail all day, her skin is flushed from Colorado’s winter—almost spring—wind, but she took the time to put on a low-cut sweater over her jeans.

“So do you,” I reply, holding her hostage near the door for a minute longer. I bend down, pressing my lips to hers. “You want to skip this and go to my place?”

She furrows her brow and laughs. “No way! I love this place. Where are Robin and Devon?”

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