Page 102 of Her Coach

I wanted to give her the world.

“Brynn,” I said, forcing my voice to lighten for her sake, “are we ever going to talk about the fact that both you and I understand that you’ve put your entire life on hold for a problem with your mother that isn’t yours to solve?”

She quipped back without hesitation, which told me she’d thought about this conversation, too. “Depends. Are we going to talk about how I’m basically just the owner’s daughter that you’re fucking?”

Not even I was prepared for the answer she gave. It ripped the fucking air out of my lungs.

Almost immediately, regret crossed her face. “Colton, I’m so sorry, it’s just, right now? With Mom? It’s⁠—”

I held up my hand, silencing her words. “You know what I think?”

She shook her head softly.

“I think it sounds like we need to have this conversation out loud, instead of the two of us having it separately in our heads.”

She sighed so hard her shoulders slumped. “I’m sorry.”

I held out my hand for her. “I know.”

She put her phone back to her face. “Just let me send⁠—”

“No, Brynn,” I said. “Put the phone down and come here, please.”

I knew that word would catch her attention. Please. I never used it. Not often enough, anyway. At first, I wasn’t sure she was going to listen. For the smallest of moments, I braced myself for the idea that she might scoop her clothes off the floor, flip me the bird, and march out of my life completely.

But instead, she sighed again as she came back around to her side of the bed, tossing her phone onto the bedside table, and crawled back in with me.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered as she crawled into my lap.

I enveloped her with my arms and tucked her head into the crook of my neck.

And before I even took a breath to speak on her apology, she began crying.

So I held her tightly while she wept.

41

BRYNN

I couldn’t help it. Once the tears started, they didn’t stop. I cried so hard, I shook. I cried so hard that I felt snot dripping down my face. I tried moving my head so that I could keep it off him, but all he did was rest his hand against the side of my face and softly push me back.

I let all of it drip onto him.

I wasn’t sure how long I cried. I wasn’t sure how long he held me. But once my eyes finally dehydrated themselves, he slid us down into bed. He pulled the comforter over us, his shoulder alone mounting it so high that it felt like the world was blocked off from around us.

I felt safe.

Safe for the first time in years.

My mouth moved a million miles a second.

“I never should’ve said that, Colton,” I said, wiping at my eyes and nose. “It’s just… people always give me such a hard time about Mom. And I know they have every right to. But grief isn’t just a one person thing, you know? It’s a whole family thing sometimes.”

I felt him tuck a rogue strand of hair behind my ear. “I’m proud of you.”

“Huh?”

He gripped my chin and tilted my watery gaze up to his. “I’m proud of you for finally putting a word to it. You’ve danced around that word for a while.”