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Chapter One - Brenda
“I don’t know what I’m going to do.” I paced up and down my dorm room, kicking dirty clothes into the hamper while venting to my baby sister Liz who’d come up for a weekend visit. “The partial scholarship barely covers my living expenses as it is. It’s not like I can ask Gram for more money. She’s already done so much for us.” I flopped onto my bed and buried my head in my hands. “How could they increase the fees? There’s no way I can pay without starving to death.”
“Bren, come on, think. There has to be something. We’ll figure it out together.” Liz was always the calm and sensible one while I was the worrywart.
Money wasn’t a luxury we had. Our parents died in a car accident when we were too young to understand we would never see them again. Our grandmother had raised us ever since. Someone she trusted had invested the insurance payout poorly. Needless to say, there was nothing left to put my sister or me through college. I wasn’t bitter about what we didn’t have and what we’d lost, but I did worry.
To earn money growing up, I babysat local kids, and when I turned sixteen, I took whatever job I could. I did everything from serving ice cream at the country club to walking dogs and scooping up poop, but there were only so many hours in the day. Right now, I had two waitressing jobs on top of studying for my B.S in Sports Science.
I lifted my head from my hands. “I’m already working a million hours a week. I don’t know if I can fit one more thing in. I also have to find an internship to pass this year.”
She seemed thoughtful. A few seconds later, Liz’s eyes widened, and she looked like she’d come up with the meaning of life. “Actually. There’s one thing you can do. I’m surprised I didn’t think about it sooner.”
“I’m not stripping.”
She threw a pillow at my face, but I caught it before it hit me.
“Goofball. Coach Gordon is looking for a part-time intern to work for the rest of the school year. The last one jerked off in the girls’ locker room, leaving spunk everywhere. We set up cameras to catch him. You could apply. It’s a paid position, and you could give up waitressing for a while. You were always his favorite.”
My nipples hardened at the thought of working with Coach Gordon. “You girls still call him Coach Cutie?”
“Behind his back. There isn’t a female alive who doesn’t think he’s hot. All the girls have a crush on Coach.”
I knew that feeling well. For all four years of high school, I’d crushed on him hard, and still did, but he was my teacher and fifteen years my senior.
My cheeks heated at the memories of how often I’d climaxed to fantasies of him taking my virginity, of him loving me, and of him one day marrying me.
With his rich Southern accent and sky-blue eyes that could see into my soul, he was my dream man. As well as being stacked with muscles on top of muscles on top of muscles, he had a trimmed beard and floppy hair with strands that always fell over his forehead.
Whenever he got frustrated by work, he would shove the strands away and tell us we were making him tear his hair out. But not once had he lost his cool, no matter how far his hormonally challenged students pushed him.
Neither had he ever acted inappropriately or stepped out of line. But one time, I swear to God, he almost kissed me. It was the Monday after a weekend track victory.
I’d dusted the competition and brought the meet of champions trophy home. He’d called me into his office to congratulate me.
It was as if it had happened yesterday. He’d been sitting on the edge of his desk wearing his usual khakis and a navy t-shirt that showed off his biceps. I’d stepped a little too close and ended up standing between his spread legs.
He’d swallowed hard, and his lips parted. Our eyes locked, and we were so close, our breaths mingled. We were seconds away from overstepping the student-teacher line.
Unfortunately, he’d closed his eyes, and with a small shake of his head, firmed his lips. Coming to my senses, I stepped away. Neither of us acknowledged what had almost happened.
After that, our relationship changed. He wasn’t unfriendly, but he was no longer my friend. He was one hundred percent my coach.
I’d be lying if I said my heart hadn’t broken a little over how standoffish he’d become. By graduation, I couldn’t get out of St. Brigid’s and out of his orbit fast enough. Leaving Whispering Falls in my rearview mirror, I figured I would get over my crush and meet someone my own age at college, but I hadn’t. Coach Gordon’s face was still the one that filled my dreams.
