Page 54 of Sliding Into Love
“Your mother did not send me here, which, I assume, is what you’re thinking.”
“I— oh.” Well, she wasn’t wrong.
“I applied through proper channels and received this coaching position on my own merit. However. Your mother is aware I’m here now. And she’s worried about you.” Emily sighed.
Ethan scowled.
“How long has it been since you’ve spoken?” Harkness’s icy blue eyes stared at Ethan across the desk.
Ethan did the math in his head, and the realization was… a lot.
“Five years.”
“Ethan Cable Fisher.” Ethan winced at his full name. “Call your mother.”
“No offense, Ma’am, but I don’t think you can tell me to dothat.”
“I’m not saying this in any official capacity, but I am practically family, and Laura misses you. Have you considered how much your absence is hurting her?”
Ethan rolled his eyes.
“Perhaps consider how much it’s hurting you, then.”
He scoffed instead of answering.
“Ethan.” Emily’s eyes narrowed. “Jimmy was in a car accident. Did you know?”
“I did not.”
“You would if you called your mother.”
Ethan sighed.
“I just so happen to have her number. Here.” Harkness pulled a sticky note from a drawer, wrote the number on it, and held it out to him.
His fingers shook as he reached across the distance and took the paper.
“And Ethan? After you call Laura, get your knee checked out again. I’d never forgive myself if you further injured yourself on my watch.”
Bristling, Ethan left the office. Call his mother. After all the shit with Marshall, with the injury, and now with a new coach who happened to be his mother’s best friend?
It was too much too fast.
With his breaths coming too quickly, Ethan practically ran down the hallway to find a secluded place to hide and think.
Except he couldn’t.
The images swirling through his mind left him detached, unable to cement himself in reality. Too many voices from the past were appearing in the present.
Pounding heartbeat, too-quick breaths.
Shaking hands and ice-cold sweat trickled down his spine.
He was too big and too small in his skin.
He wanted to scream or cry or break something.
Whether or not his mother had sent her best friend to be his coach, it seemed like she was meddling. Even if she hadn’t, the flare of anger and confusion remained, and a roiling pit of fear at a new coach.
