Page 11 of Crossing the Lines for Love

The way I saw it, I didn’t need anything from her; she needed information from me. She would be the one looking foolish when she didn’t know anything about the players.

“I love it! Kudos to Coach Crawford for hiring the best person for the job and not allowing her gender to make a difference,” my mother said.

“It sounds like you have an issue with having a woman coach,” my father commented.

“Umm, I do.”

“Niko! We didn’t raise you to have those kinds of views,” my mother fussed.

“What kinds of views, Ma? I’ve never had a female coach, and the idea of having one has never crossed my mind.”

“First of all, don’t call her a female. She’s a woman. Secondly, as long as she’s qualified for the job, you shouldn’t have an issue with what’s between her legs.”

“And if you do have issues, get over them by Monday. She’s the person who was hired to do the job, and you’d better give her the respect she deserves. You’re the team captain, and your teammates will follow your lead. If you’re an asshole toward her, they will be as well. As your mother said, we didn’t raise you that way.”

I sighed and released a deep breath. My parents were right. I was also surprised by my feelings, considering I had been in the Navy and had plenty of women as my superiors. Not once did Ihave a problem with them or feel any kind of way about taking orders from them.

As I gave it more thought, it wasn’t that I had a problem with being coached by a woman. I just didn’t like that it was a woman who I’d been fighting my attraction to for several days. How would I take instruction from someone who was the object of my fantasies?

“Y’all are right. I don’t know what got into me. I’ll admit, I wasn’t expecting Coach Lisle to be replaced by a woman. Coach Crawford wouldn’t have hired her if she wasn’t qualified.”

“That’s what I like to hear. I knew it wouldn’t take you long to remember who raised you,” my mother said with a satisfied smile.

“I feel kinda bad, though. Coach Crawford asked me to meet with her to review the roster and positions we play, but she walked out before we could get that far.”

“What did you do?” Ma accused me.

“What makes you think?—”

“Because I know you, Son. You did or said something that offended her, and she didn’t tolerate it. Spill it.”

“Spill it, Daddy!” Deuce said out of nowhere, making us laugh.

He’d been sitting in the middle of the family room floor, playing with his toys since I’d arrived, but obviously paying more attention than I thought.

“I may have said something to upset her,” I admitted.

“Sounds like you owe her a meeting and an apology,” Pops said.

“I’ll—hold on. This is Coach Crawford calling. Wassup, Coach.”

“Nothing. I wanted to make sure everything was okay. Coach Sampson said you had an emergency you needed to take care of, so you didn’t have a chance to meet.”

“Oh, yeah. Umm, everything is good. Something came up with Deuce that I had to take care of.”

“I figured as much. If you can reach out to her over the weekend and see if she has time to meet with you, I’d appreciate it.”

“No problem, Coach. I’ll take care of it.”

The call ended, and my parents looked at me expectantly.

“Well, what did Coach Crawford say?” my mother questioned.

“Apparently, the new coach told him we didn’t get a chance to meet because I had an emergency. He wants me to reach out to her to see if she can meet this weekend.”

“Hmm. So, she could’ve thrown you under the bus and chose not to?” my father pointed out.

“I guess.”

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