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“Yes, I am.” She beams at us. “I had a good day.”
Her eyes drift up to mine, and I smile like an idiot. “Why was it good?” I ask quietly.
She gently grabs my arm and I stop moving, turning to look at her. “You know that girl I told you about the other night?”
After she talked with Miles for a bit, the two of us went to grab food for everyone, and she told me about the girl who came in and needed support. She also told me the range of emotions she went through. But even with the complexity of what she was feeling, I could see the pride in her eyes. It made me damn proud, too. I knew she would rock this internship.
“Yeah.”
“Her mom called this morning, wanting to personally thank me.”
My eyes widen. “Seriously, Rae? That’s incredible.”
“Sounds like you both had a good day.” Joel smirks at us and walks off, purposely setting us up to have an in-depth conversation alone.
He pisses me off sometimes, but I could kiss him for that. Things may be incredibly confusing between Rae and me right now, but I will take any chance I get to have some time with her, especially if we get to support each other. The truth is, part of why I didn’t want to talk much about practice with Joel is because I wanted to tell Rae first. Forget anything else we are or have been or could be. She’s my person.
“What was good about your day?” She starts walking again, then turns to me. “Wait, first day officially coaching, right? It was good? I don’t need to kick anyone’s ass, right?”
I laugh a little. “They gave me some shit, but I held my own. It was actually pretty fun. But I also earned some respect when I found and corrected an issue with the pitcher that no one else caught.”
“Ace, that’s awesome,” she says, leading me into her room.
We both strip off our boots and coats and head over to the couch. She plops down and pulls a blanket up over her.
“So how did it feel?” she asks, diving right in.
My eyes meet hers. “So good.” Shit, that came out sounding sexual.
She smirks and bites at her lip, holding back a laugh. Then she playfully punches my arm. “I’m glad. Seriously. You freaking deserve it, A. You’ve always been good at this stuff. I can remember you in middle school bitching about a major league pitcher’s bad form when we were watching a game on TV.”
I slide my hand up her arm and give it a little squeeze. “You’re one to talk. After all you went through, you took your desire to help others and turned it into a career. You know exactly what you want to do with your life, and you are damn good at it. I might have figured out baseball, but I haven’t figured out a career.”
She squints at me. “You are getting paid to coach, yes?”
I let out a little laugh. “Yeah. Not much. And without getting into a D1 school or minor league team, you aren’t going to make enough to live off of. And if I did that, I’d be traveling like crazy and I wouldn’t want that. I want a life, too. I hope coaching is always a part of my life, but I need to figure out a career, too. Not only for my future, but for right now. I hate feeling like my classes aren’t leading me anywhere.”
She grabs my hand and pulls me a little closer, throwing the blanket over me, too. “What do you think you might want to do? Not, like, a specific job, but a general idea.”
“Honestly? I wish I could be a coach but for life stuff. And I don’t mean one of those hippie-ish life coaches. I mean, like… the pitcher I helped today, I was helping him figure out the root of his problem and finding the practical solution. I’d love to do that in a real-world way. Especially with middle or high school kids.”
She chuckles lightly and smiles at me. “You know, there’s a name for that.”
My brows dip in confusion. “Huh?”
“A counselor. Whether it’s more general mental health or academic advisement at a college level or guidance counselor in middle or high school… there are lots of options.”
Guidance counselor?
Suddenly, something clicks.
“Guidance counselor? Don’t most people hate them?”
She shakes her head, smiling. “I think they’re actually called school counselors these days, and people only hate the bad ones. Remember Mr. K.? He was awesome and everyone wanted to switch to him. Mine?” She trills her lips and waves a hand in annoyance. “She told me I’d be lucky to get into a four-year school because I was a solid B+ student. She was awful.”
“School counselor. Huh. And yeah, yours was terrible. Mine was okay, but he’s only a few years out from retirement, and I think he’s mostly checked out. If I was a counselor at a school, I could definitely get involved with the baseball team. I wouldn’t even care if I got paid or not. I could be more involved with student’s lives and help them.” My voice drops, filling with emotion. “Maybe stop other kids from spiraling like I did.”
Rae’s smile is stunning as she takes me in. Her breath catches. She quickly closes her eyes and shakes off the emotion. “I think you just figured out your major.”
