Page 66 of Her Coach

If I wasn’t careful, I’d become addicted to this man.

“Well,” I said as I took another bite of my steak. I groaned at how the filet practically melted in my mouth. “I suppose a few things contributed to it.”

He took a bite of his food, but his attention was solely on me. I squirmed a bit in my chair beneath his heavy gaze, but having the attention of a man like him was addictive.

"Like?" he finally prompted.

I blinked. Christ, how long had I been staring? "My mom needed help. And the arena needed someone in the community relations role." I shrugged. "It made sense on paper."

Colton nodded slowly. "And off paper?"

"Off paper it still made sense." I reached for my wine. "Mostly."

He stabbed at his food and took another bite. "Why do I get the feeling that you're not being entirely honest with yourself about why you came home?"

“It isn’t that I’m not honest with myself,” I said as I reached for the glass of wine that had been poured for me earlier by the waiter. “It’s just…”

He waited patiently, and I squirmed yet again underneath his scrutinous gaze.

“Want to know what I think?” he asked.

I grinned. “Are you going to give me an option?”

He chuckled, but my question didn’t deter mine. “I think you came back for someone else’s benefit, and now you can’t figure out how to reconcile your own life because of it.”

I swallowed hard. “Sounds like you speak from experience.”

He shrugged. “We all do stupid things when we’re in love.”

I searched his eyes. “Story for a story?”

He grinned as he leaned back into his chair. “Ladies first.”

I stuck my tongue out at him before I settled back into my own seat with my glass of wine. I swirled the rich, red liquid around in the glass before I peered down into it.

“Mom’s grief got pretty bad my junior year of college,” I said as I recounted the memories. The numerous phone calls where I’d call to check in on her and catch her crying. The questions people bombarded me with about her every time I managed to come home from college on a break. The memories left me breathless, but I continued to speak. For some reason, I wanted Colton to know, even if it wasn’t my issue. “Crying all the time. Ducking work. Never leaving the house.”

He didn’t offer anything. Instead, he merely sat there, giving me his undivided attention as I sipped my wine.

I relished the burn before I continued. “I mean, I knew she was still grieving ever since Dad’s death. But she just kind of threw herself into work and…”

“Work will stave things off for a while.”

I shrugged. “However, my senior year? That was when she gained her first foothold in her business. She was able to buy the arena, and…”

I felt his gaze searching me. Again, he didn’t prompt, but it was clear he wasn’t letting me out of this conversation until I talked.

It felt good to talk about it for once. “And…all of that extra time seemed to go toward her grief.”

Colton nodded slowly. “She chased normalcy instead of help, and then it sunk her when she finally stopped.”

I pointed my wine glass at him. “Exactly. Not that I held any of that against her.”

“I never thought you did.”

“It’s just,” I took another sip of my wine, “I want more for her. I want more for my mom, Colton. Always have. She’s been through so much, and she works so hard, and she built an empire on the back of her grief, and she should be prized for that. You know?”

He nodded slowly. “You know her grief isn’t your responsibility, right?”