“Absolutely not.”
“Aw, come on! It’s hard to watch you pine after her like a lost puppy. Let me help.”
“No,” I repeated.
“But Kean, think about it. Just for a second. I help you talk with Kodi better. Y’all get to a nice place where you’re actually friends and can get close. You bring up something small from your childhood, like a restaurant y’all went to or your school. She remembers the kiss. And then y’all are together and can live happily ever after.”
“What do you know about happily ever afters? You don’t even date, you just … sleep around.”
“True. But you’re nowhere near dating, let alone getting her on a date. And date, singular, is my specialty. You’re not gonna get that as things stand.”
He was right, but I couldn’t stomach gettinghishelp with this.
“Forget about me and focus on not letting the kids down today,” I told him before quickening my pace to join the coach and my teammates for the day.
An Actual Smile
Kodi
“But have you seen the goalie on field six?” some gossiping mom said behind me at the concession stand. Being nosy, I pulled out my phone to see who was playing there. And once I saw who it was, my nose wrinkled.
“You know that guy isn’t even old enough to drink, right?” I asked, tilting my body towards them to look over my shoulder.
“Well, he’s over eighteen,” one said, elbowing the other as they chuckled.
“Ew.” Appetite gone, I left the line, ignoring the ladies' huffs, and went back to the field where Kean and Brooker were gonna play next.
Their first game went great. The kids took to Brooker really well and Kean … well, when he tossed the ball back into the field, he made sure to give each kid a pass, which was more than Iexpected. In the rare few minutes I had during the week to think about something other than Kean’s insane task list, I worried about how he’d be with kids. I pictured him being a hard-ass, not letting them score on him, not tempering his passes.
But that’s not what happened at all.
He might not have smiled like I asked him to, but he was good with the kids. He gave them little fist bumps when they scored on him, he pulled his cross-field kick, he was even careful when sliding to make sure sand didn’t get in their eyes.
He was a much better thirsting option than a fucking twenty year old, that’s for sure.
“Yo, Kodi!” Brooker shouted at me, jogging away from the coach, Kean, and the kids in a pregame huddle.
“Uh, hey?” I slid my phone back in my pocket and looked at Brooker with my brows pinched together. We’d interacted a handful of times since I’d been hired and while he got a little flirty, I considered him a friend, or like possible friend if we ever hung out outside of work. That said, it was kind of suspicious for him to call me out across the field and run over.
“So, I hear you’re coming to Nashville with us. Excited?”
“Oh, yeah. It should be fun. That is if Kean keeps his errand list light and I have time to do some sightseeing.”
“I’ll see what I can do to get him to lighten up.”
I threw my head back and laugh.
“All right, all right. I’ll pester him so much that he’s too tired to be an asshole.”
“That sounds more realistic.”
Brooker hummed, chewing his lips as he looked me over. I raised an eyebrow at him, curious what it was he was trying to work out.
“So …” he started, dragging out the word. “You single?”
“For you?” I asked cocking my head to the side and Brooker laughed.
“Nah, I clocked that you’re not interested. I just …” He paused to look out the corner of his eyes. “That was a bad way to phrase it. I was just thinking that we normally go out as a team when we win away games and I’d invite you, but if you’ve got a partner or whatever, they might not like you hanging out like that.”
