Page 76 of Her Coach

I dropped my clipboard at my feet, scooping her into my arms just so I could feel her against me. With the team chattering up a fucking storm, the sound fading as they moved out of the stadium, I crashed my lips to hers. Stealing her breath. Stealing her warmth. Stealing everything about her just so I could incorporate it into me. Her tongue laved against mine. Her hands slid up my chest, gripping my windbreaker as she tugged me closer.

I tilted my head to the side, wanting just a smidge more of her as she stood onto her tiptoes just to get closer to me.

“Couldn’t wait until tomorrow night to see me?” I asked as I broke our kiss and smirked down at her.

She swatted at my chest playfully. “Oh, now you ask questions instead of demanding answers.”

My head fell back with laughter, but the next voice I heard wasn’t Brynn.

“The team ready for tomorrow, Coach?” Victoria asked.

I had just enough time to release Brynn from my grasp before Victoria’s heels moved off the carpet of the hallway and into the tile of the locker room. Usually, I heard her coming before that. Well before that. She walked with a heavy cantor, as if she wanted the world to know she was on her way.

“More than ready,” I said with a nod of my head as I quickly snatched my clipboard up from the floor at my feet.

Victoria’s eyes followed my movement before Brynn cleared her throat. “I watched their practice.”

“You did?” I asked, snapping my attention to her.

Brynn continued looking at her mother, though. “They’re more than ready. They’re more ready than they’ve ever been, Mom.”

Her praise hit me somewhere I wasn’t expecting. Something in my chest shifted. Felt bigger. Not that I never felt that way. It’s just…

Damn it, I was so fucked in the best of ways with this woman.

“Uh huh,” Victoria said as she dragged her eyes down my body. But when she moved her attention to Brynn, she smiled softly. “Good. Glad to hear it. See you two at the game.”

Brynn took the smallest step closer to me. “See you at the game, Mom.”

With one last glance in my direction, Victoria turned on her heels and clip-clopped her way out of the locker room. And just as I heaved a heavy sigh…

“Heeeeey, Miss C,” I heard Rhett say.

“Stone!” I bellowed out his nickname. “Shut it and go home! If I see you in that weight room, you’re benched for the season!”

The stragglers from the team lost themselves in laughter as Rhett poked his head back into the locker room. He wiggled his eyebrows, and I cocked my clipboard back like I was about to throw it at him. Brynn grabbed my wrist just as Rhett ducked out of the locker room, cackling as he rushed down the hallway.

I just chuckled and shook my head as I let Brynn lower my wrist.

It brought my attention back to the only person I wanted to give it to. “So, you watched us practice?”

She shrugged. “Can’t a girl come visit her man at work?”

Something akin to a growl bubbled up the back of my throat and died at the roof of my mouth. I liked how that sounded. No, not like. Love.

I fucking relished how her calling me her man sounded.

I scooped her back against my chest again until she threaded her arms around my neck. “But if you really must know, I came in this morning with Mom to help her with some paperwork and filing. We’re hiring a new maintenance man for the stadium, and she wanted me to help her go through the second round of applications now that she’d whittled them down.”

I pressed a kiss to her forehead before tucking her beneath my arm. “Sounds like a plan.”

“What does?” she asked as she walked alongside me.

“Food.”

“Food?”

I nodded. “Yup. Sounds like we’ve both been working hard. Let’s go get some food.”