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There was never a response and eventually, I had to get ready for kick off. I was standing in the center of the field with the other officials getting our last pregame talk from Martin. Then we broke and made our way to our positions–me jogging directly toward Levi.
He and Cam Nichols were standing side by side, looking at a play chart, but Levi glanced up at me as I got closer. He started with a small nod of acknowledgement, but I must have still had the worry in my eyes because he did a double take and stopped listening to Cam.
He took two steps forward and met me by the line, jerking his headset from his head. “Are you okay?”
I looked up at Cam who heard Levi’s concern and even though he told me he thought Cam knew something, he didn't know it was me, and we agreed to keep it that way for a while longer.
“Good Coach,” I nodded. “How are you today?”
He caught my overly pleasant response for what it was and looked over to Cam. He didn't seem to care. Before getting back to Cam and the game, he turned back to me. “Don’t worry about him, tell me if you need me.”
I nodded, “All good.”
He knew it wasn’t, but he let it go as the kickoff was moments away. I turned and got into position and the game started without any more worry.
For the entire first quarter, I could hear Levi behind me barking into his headset and yelling at the players about positioning and effort. He was in his coaching zone and now that I wasn’t afraid to admit it, listening to his coaching was incredibly sexy. He was an amazing coach, and the guys responded to him like a father figure.
By the second quarter, the Jets were close to scoring and I was on the goal line. On a quarterback sneak, I couldn't see Cam cross the goal, so I called it down on the half yard line, making them kick a field goal instead. Levi was irate, thinking his quarterback had the touchdown, but he didn't throw his red flag. He chose to chew me out instead.
“He had that, Stripes,” Levi yelled.
“You should have challenged it if you thought so,” I replied while walking down the sideline, back to midfield. “We’ve been over that already.”
“I shouldn't have to use it for that obvious of a play.” His voice was high, and his anger was real. He was Coach Peyton at that moment, not my Levi, and I loved every second of it. I almost smiled hoping that when we got back to his place later, we found out that I did blow the call and he took it out on me in the bedroom.
“You think this is funny?” He yelled again, completely oblivious to my train of thought.
“Throw the red flag, Coach,” I repeated and kept walking.
He threw his headset and his clipboard, stomping like he was having a tantrum. When he settled himself down, he settled back behind me and barked some more. “Get your glasses on, Stripes.”
I ignored him, but he made me momentarily forget about Richard. He wasn't even thinking of me as his girlfriend or lover–whatever we were. I was back to being his coaching nemesis. The referee that he stood closest to and got every single piece of his wrath.
The next play, I called pass interference on his defense and again, he was in my ear, fuming more than I had ever heard him.
“There was a whole foot in between them!”
“Pay attention!”
“Fucking idiot!”
On his final insult, I couldn't help it, I looked back at him and smirked. His insults should have pissed me off, but I just got more and more turned on. Richard was a long-lost memory and by half time, all I could think about was Levi spanking my ass again because we didn't agree on the calls.
You need some therapy, Charleigh, I thought to myself.
I sat in my locker room alone during half time, knowing Levi wouldn’t show up to fuck some sense into me. We had agreed we wouldn't take that risk since we had started sharing a bed almost every night.
When I made my way out, back into the corridor, I fell alongside Levi as he too made his way out. I didn't risk giving him a look, just walked while he listened to someone talk on the other side of him.
But right before we left the corridor, he stopped me, and the look on his face made my heart fall to a painful death. Something had changed, something was wrong.
I started to ask what was up, but he stopped me from speaking until the final player passed us to get back to the field.
Then he ran a hand down his face and looked me in the eye.
“I can’t do this.”
Chapter40
