Page 29 of Wildcat
“Oh. I think Anna usually made the coffee. She was always the first one in.”
Scarlett groans and tips her head back. After a few seconds of looking like she wants to throw herself to the floor, she moves to the cabinets and opens two, looking inside.
Without saying anything, I move forward and pull a filter and coffee packet from another cabinet while Scarlett watches my every move. Once I’ve dumped the water and flipped the coffee maker on, I lean against the counter. “It’ll be ready in a few minutes. Do you think you can survive that long?”
“I knew I should have made my dad stop at Starbucks. He was all, “Five dollars for a cup of burnt coffee is ridiculous.”
Her impression of her dad loosens a laugh from my lips. “There’s a coffee shop next door, for future reference.”
Coffee starts pouring into the carafe. She leans in and inhales.
“Looks like you’re going to make it.” I push off and start toward the door.
“You don’t want to wait for coffee?”
“Nah. I don’t drink coffee.”
She looks appalled. “What kind of monster are you?”
Her innocent words make me think all sorts of dirty things. She must read it on my face because her eyes widen.
“See you around.”
After my meeting with Blythe,we have practice and then conditioning. It’s lunch time when I file into the media room with the rest of the team. Lunch is catered and we fill our plates and take a seat.
Coach comes in with Scarlett. The way she holds herself so stiffly, eyes trained on her dad, I know she feels me watching her. She’s dying to look and find me amongst the other players.
“What’s dream girl doing here?” Ash asks with a nod in Scarlett’s direction.
He and Jack, on his other side, look to me for an answer.
“She’s the new Anna.”
His head moves slowly up and down. “That explains why the coffee in the break room was burnt this morning.”
Oh shit. I forgot to tell her to turn off the burner.
Coach introduces her and tells us she’ll be coming around to get our sizes for the new warmups and other gear, as well as updating our travel preferences.
She heads to the opposite side of the room and Coach starts the film.
“What’s your move, Romeo?” Ash leans closer and whispers.
“I don’t know. Looks like she’ll be around though.”
“Might want to clear your intentions with Coach and Blythe, get ahead of any drama.”
He’s mostly joking, but it wouldn’t be the first time a player hooked up with someone that worked here and caused a shitstorm. It isn’t strictly against the rules; relationships just need to be disclosed.
“What am I going to say? Hey, Coach, I’d really like to take out your daughter, but she’s still pissed that I didn’t call her after the last time we hooked up.”
Ash’s chest shakes with laughter. “Needs just a little tweaking.”
“No shit.”
He angles his body toward mine and leans on one elbow. “Are you sure about this?”
“About what?”
