AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Staying home with the kids while she works.” Conor takes a long gulp of the beer and winces, looking at the glass bottle. “It’s been a long time since I had one of these. I think I’ve lost the taste for it.”
I snicker. “You take your drinks with little bendy straws now?”
“Don’t knock the straw. You can get them notched in the hole so those smart fucks can’t get it out. I thought I was proud of my accomplishments in life till the first time I out-tricked a toddler. A whole different level of feat, man.”
I grin in amazement. “You love staying home with them, don’t you?”
Conor takes another sip before turning to face me. “Fucking love it. It’s stressful, and they test my patience all day. But watching how their little minds work, it’s amazing. Though I will say I got the simple part since Britt says I don’t clean well enough for her, so we pay someone to come by once a week.”
“You don’t miss working?”
He shakes his head before saying, “No, not at all. I miss adult conversations sometimes. The other night Britt had to tell me she didn’t give a rat’s ass what happened on whatever episode of Bluey we watched that day. And that was kind of upsetting, which made me realize how out of touch with the world I was.”
Conor chuckles before pausing at my confused face. “You don’t even know who Bluey is, do you?”
“No, I don’t. I barely watch TV,” I say.
“Or go on your socials. Your Instagram is a graveyard.”
I grimace. “The messages from people were getting weird. I deleted all the apps off my phone. Sometimes I watch some videos on YouTube.”
“Don’t blame you then. I was stunned to hear about you accepting the coaching position here, but I’m glad to have a friend in town again.”
Downing the rest of my beer, I wave for another and sigh. “I don’t know what I was thinking.”
Conor pats my back. “Already regretting it?”
I think about it. I think abouther,the way her brown eyes flashed with anger. And I shake my head. “Not yet, but I don’t know. There’s this player, she has a ton of potential. This morning was the first practice, and she showed up late.”
“Ahh,” Conor says. “You’re getting college flashbacks from when our coach put you in your place for acting like an egotistical asshole.”
Embarrassment has my ears burning, and I sip on my new beer so I don’t have to answer right away and he snickers.
“To be fair, you had the cred to back up your ego. But–wait, that reminds me…” He scoots off the stool, digging for something in his pocket before dropping a yellow bag onto the wooden counter.
A laugh escapes my throat as I pick up the candy. “Lemonheads. I can’t believe you remember this.”
Conor snorts. “How could I forget? I swear you were going to burn a hole in your tongue from them.”
I pull one out and wince as soon as I suck it into my mouth before I’m hit with an overwhelming sense of nostalgia. My third year of college was right after my second Olympics, and Ithought I was untouchable. I partied like I didn’t have a body to take care of. If my coach hadn’t knocked me upside my head for almost pissing my dreams away, I don’t know where I would have ended up.
Instead of a beer bottle or shot glass, I ate some Lemonheads. Instead of a smoke or a quick hit of the nose, I devoured the candy. These sour fucks became my lifeline as I purely focused on water polo. I even turned down easy pussy for my hand.
“As good as you remember?” Conor asks.
I shrug. “It was never about them being good.”
He laughs. “So tell me about this girl?”
Leaning back onto the stool, I stretch my shoulder, the familiar ache of my injury tearing through me as I do. I drop my arm with a sigh. “She’s good. She could be phenomenal with the right resources and coach.”
“And you think that’s you?”
Conor didn’t ask that maliciously, but the small doubt lingering inside me flares up. I’m not sure if it is me, but something is compelling me to try. I’ve been watching her stats for the past year, hearing murmurs and whispers through the grapevine. I was offered multiple coaching positions with clubs and clinics, but a college team was different.
“I’m going to do what I can,” I say finally with a shrug.
“But?”
