Page 64 of A Heart Worth Finding
Coach D?
“Seb!” Jack yelled when he turned to face one of his students. “You better hurry up.”
The two participated in some complicated bro handshake, and Seb hurried toward the locker room, leaving Jack staring wide-eyed at Jessica.
“What’re you doing here?”
“I’m Seb’s tutor,” she said. “We had a session before practice. I…I didn’t know you were his coach.”
“Yeah…” Jack trailed off, nervously running his hands over the crown of his ball cap. “I’ve been doing this since freshman year. It’s a nice way to pass my knowledge on to the next generation, and it keeps me out of trouble.”
“I find that hard to believe,” Jessica said. “I mean about you staying out of trouble. I’ve heard all about your team’s little dares.”
“I wouldn’t consider themlittle,” Jack said with a smirk. “One of them did get Fuller suspended.”
“That’s true.”
“How long have you been tutoring?” he asked. Jessica waited to respond while another boy walked past and Jack paused to fist bump him.
“Since freshman year,” she said. “I want to be a teacher, remember?”
He nodded, like he did in fact remember but hadn’t wanted to assume she’d remained on that career path.
“That’s great,” he said. “Seb is a good kid.”
“He really is. He’s becoming one of my favorite clients.”
“He’s really coachable, isn’t he?” Jack asked knowingly.
“Yeah,” Jessica said with a smile. “Makes it really easy on me.”
“Me, too,” Jack said.
Then, Seb came out of the locker room, shooting them a shit-eating grin as he walked by. “I knew you two would hit it off.”
“You have no idea,” Jack said under his breath as Seb skated away.
There were six kids gathered at center ice, all clad in goalie gear in a variety of colors, staring expectantly at their coach, who had yet to set foot on the ice.
“I gotta go,” Jack said, hooking his thumb over his shoulder. I have a rule that the last one on the ice does line to line sprints, and…well, I have to lead by example.”
“You’re going to do sprints?”
He nodded solemnly. “I can’t expect these kids to do anything I wouldn’t do,” he said. “That would make me a bad coach.”
“That makes sense and, as a future teacher, I appreciate that approach.”
Jack gave her a small smile, stepping one skate onto the ice. “I’ll see you around, Jess,” he said, then skated off to join the group.
Jessica had always known Jack had a big heart, and that he cared deeply about others. So to see someone of his status and talent taking the time to pass the skills he’d learned onto a younger group of guys—and girls, Jessica realized as a ponytail swished along the back of one of the players—had butterflies taking flight in her stomach.
Which was the absolute last reaction she should be having to Jack DeLuca.
Still, she couldn’t stop herself from sitting in the bleachers, far away from the few hockey moms and dads gathered to watch their kids, and stayed for practice.
As a semi-elite high school volleyball player—who could’ve played at a division two college but never wanted to—Jessica had been around plenty of coaches in her life. Good ones, bad ones, mediocre ones, great ones; she’d seen and worked with them all. And right off the bat, she knew Jack was a good one, a great one even.
He was attentive and kind, never shouting orders or getting pissed off when one of the kids messed up. Instead, he calmly explained to them, not what they’d done wrong, but a better way of doing what they already had. It was a subtle shift in mindset. Kids were infinitely malleable, but they were also fragile, their psyches not yet hardened by real world lessons. And honestly, Jessica didn’t know anyone who learned best when someone yelled and screamed and raged about their flaws.
