Page 43 of The Silent Count
This can’t be about her…
I shake my head from side to side, but Coach doesn’t seem to show any relief. If anything, his posture seems to have gotten sharper. His shoulders pulled back the slightest bit.
The next words he says are like a dagger to the heart.
“I know you’ve been hanging out with Lea a lot lately. There’s nothing I should be concerned about, is there?” He narrows his eyes at me, his gaze burning into me like I’m in the ninth ring of the inferno.
My heart drops to the pit of my stomach.
He knows, doesn’t he?
* * *
I storminto Lea’s office, my pulse racing as I breeze through the doorway. “I just had a meeting with your dad.”
She peers up from her computer screen with a squint. We don’t have a meeting scheduled, and we agreed a few weeks ago that I wouldn’t come to her office unless we had something on her shared calendar that everyone on staff could see. It’s an easy way for us to mitigate risk and not raise any red flags.
I stand in the doorway, my chest rising and falling frantically.
“Shut the door,” Lea orders, and I follow. “What happened?”
I pace in the small space by the door while trying to gather my thoughts. How am I supposed to sit here and tell her that everything we’ve been working to avoid is unfolding right in front of us? After Coach asked if there’s anything he should be concerned about, I asked if he could clarify the question to which he responded with, “You know what I’m talking about, son,” before dismissing me.
There’s a chance he still doesn’t know, but I won’t lie straight to his face. If he’s going to flat-out ask what’s happening between Lea and me, then I think we should tell him. I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to realize there is no getting around her father in this situation. Whether or not I stay on the team, he was going to find out about us being together, and I refused to live a lie by giving him a false timeline. Because knowing Phil Sterling, he’d catch the lie before it left my mouth.
Now I just have to convince Lea that we should come clean to him now instead of waiting six more weeks.
“First, he started the meeting by telling me he was disappointed in me. He beat around the bush, letting me stew on his words.”
“God,” Lea rolls her eyes. “He’s done that ever since I was a kid. It used to drive me nuts, having to guess why he was upset with me.”
“Exactly,” I widen my eyes in agreement. “Then, he all but tells me that the Matrix wants to resign me after my contract ends.” Lea swallows, shifting uncomfortably in her seat. “He follows that up by going on a rant about how he’s noticed that I’ve been slacking during practices lately, and haven’t been living up to my full potential.”
Which couldn’t be further from the truth.
God, I hate how much I sound like some of my bratty teammates right now.
“That’s not true,” Lea scoffs in my defense.
Heat sludges through my veins as I continue to recount the details to her. “I’m not worried about any of that. I know who I am as a player and what I bring to the table, and there’s no reason for my performance to be in question after one shitty game.”
Lea bobs her head up and down with furrowed brows.
“What I am concerned about is the conversation he had with me after. He was questioning me about my personal life. Asking if there was anything that he should know about or that could prevent me from staying with the Matrix long term,” I explain. “Then he asked about you.”
“Me?”
I wipe a hand down my clean-shaven face, not ready to say what I think is actually going on. In part because I don’t want it to be true, and also because I don’t want Lea to freak out.
“I think he knows,” I breathe out the words with a sigh.
“About us?”
I give her a single nod. “I think we should tell him.”
She stays in her seat, not saying a word. I can practically see the wheels turning in her head as she takes in a long breath.
“I think he already knows,” she declares with a huff as she pushes up out of her seat so furiously that it flies backward.
