AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He grins devilishly, ignoring my blatant insult. “You looked me up?”
I jerk my head back, mortified. “N-no. It was just a saying.”
Fallon steps closer, everything around us melting away. “It’s true. I was blessed. I was very fortunate that my parents paid for it. That’s why it’s impressive what you’ve done without everything I was given. I meant that honestly, but talent only gets you so far. I want you in the gym with me at least once a day when we have practice. We need to build your core.”
My heart pounds in my chest as he moves on to the next girl, leaving me stunned at the sort of compliment he paid me. And the extra time he just forced us to spend together.
Chapter Six
Sage
“Holy shit,” Emily hisses, her wide eyes taking in the tan and toned bodies of the men’s water polo team. Most of them are wearing dark blue speedos with the school’s mascot on the back, giving away which ones aren’t freshman. It also gives us a very real glimpse of which ones are show-ers, not grow-ers, since some of them haveveryimpressive bulges.
I nod slowly, agreeing with her as I tilt my head to the side to get a full perspective.
Holy shit is right.
While a few of the guys at my high school’s team took good care of themselves, there is no comparison to the men standing before us. Each of them proudly display ripped muscles, glistening as they wait by the shallow pool they just hopped out of.
Fallon breaks my gawking as he walks onto the pool deck with the men’s coach. They whisper hurriedly with each other before Fallon grins. His smile makes me catch my breath. It’s like the soft warmth of sunshine after a long thunderstorm, overtaking the heavy gloom.
He taps the men’s coach on the back before turning to us, but his smile drops when his gaze meets mine, and my stomach dips. I want to be the source of his smile, not the disdain that bleeds into his green eyes.
I shift, moving closer to Emily and nudging her shoulder. Her head snaps away from the men’s team and focuses on our coach with flushed cheeks.
Fallon clears his throat. “Start stretching, ladies. We’re going to scrimmage the boys.”
The men standing behind Fallon start whooping and hollering with wide grins. I can’t stop the smile that spreads in agreement with their excitement. If it’s anything like the scrimmages we had at my high school, we are in for an afternoon of pure fun.
Anna claps her hands twice, looking more like a cheerleader than our water polo captain. She moves to stand before us. Emily sighs and I agree with her sentiment as the team moves into a large circle and we lounge on the ground, stretching as Anna leads us through each one.
Fallon and the other coach bring out the caps and balls and start dragging the goals into each end of the deep pool. Excitement hums through me. Fallon has had us only running shooting and passing drills for the last few weeks, outside of the ones he worked with me, but it’s not the same as the motions of the game.
We stand and go through arm stretches before Anna waves us off to strip out of the clothes covering the one-piece suits and put on our thin silicone swim caps. Emily bounces on her feet asshe pushes the cap towards me and I hold it open for her as she ducks her head and I snap it over her hair.
“I think I’m going to cut it this week. I’m so sick of the headaches from pushing all my hair into the cap,” she gripes.
I run my fingers through my shoulder-length brown hair with a grin. “I honestly didn’t notice a difference.”
“You mean besides not having a large cone at the back, making your head look all deformed.”
Laughing, I hand her my cap to do the same and gather all my hair into a quick twist before shoving it all into the vital piece of swim equipment. Emily lets the band go as it snaps against my forehead and I hiss, glaring at her. She throws me a wicked grin before skipping towards the pool. I adjust the cap where I want it resting at my hairline, pull it over my ears, and then tug down the tight swimsuit where it has slid up my ass cheeks. For something that is so tight against my body that it makes my breasts nearly flat, it sure has a bad habit of trying to give me a wedgie.
“I didn’t know you were on the team.”
I blink, turning to a familiar smiling face. I can’t remember his name, but I know we’ve practically become unspoken seat neighbors in our English class. “The sweatshirt I basically live in didn’t give it away?”
He laughs. “Clearly, I lack observation skills.”
“So do I since I didn’t know you were on the team either.”
He shakes his damp hair and shrugs. “It doesn’t get me as many cool points with the ladies when they find out I’m in a speedo sixty percent of the time.”
I snort loudly, clapping my hand over my mouth as he grins at me. A laugh only escapes because I’m reminded of a conversation about how uncool water polo was with a certain six-year-old.
“Peters! Stop flirting and get your ass in the pool.”
My cheeks burn in mortification and I glare at Fallon as I walk briskly towards him, the guy from my class following silently behind me. He doesn’t wait for me as he jumps into the pool and I pause, standing a couple feet away from my coach and fixing him with a saccharine smile. I can’t let it go.
