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With that realization, I blew the whistle around my neck. “That’s it for today,” I called out. “Hit the weights then the showers. See you back here tomorrow.”
They started jogging for the field house, not a single one of them meeting my gaze as they passed, doing their best to avoid me and my shitty-ass mood.
I gathered my stuff and looped the strap of my gym bag over my shoulder just as my assistant coach came over. “Hey. You good?”
Like the rest of the athletic staff at OU, Bradley Brentwood was solid. He had a good reputation and the patience of a goddamn saint, which made him a godsend for a college team. I hadn’t gotten the chance to know him very well yet, but what I did know about the guy, I liked.
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m good.”
He crossed his arms over his chest, his gold wedding band glinting in the sunlight. “You sure about that?”
I shook my head at myself. “Sorry, man. I’ve been in a piss-poor mood today and I’ve taken it out on everyone here.”
He blew me off with a laugh. “You kidding? Come on, man. This is football. If someone’s not yelling, we’re doing something wrong.”
I appreciated him trying to make me feel better, and while I knew yelling wasn’t unusual, I still felt like a prick. It was different when it was deserved, but the boys hadn’t deserved all the shit I’d thrown at them today, and I didn’t want to be one of those coaches who thought the best results came by being a dick. I’d never responded well to coaches like that, and I didn’t expect the guys on my team to either. I’d meant it when I said I needed to earn their trust, and that kind of coaching style didn’t necessarily breed trust.
“Thanks. I appreciate it.”
He hiked his thumb over his shoulder. “You heading to the weight room with the guys?”
I usually did, but I figured I’d spare them from my mood for the rest of the day. “I think I’ll give them a break from me and head home for the day.” A hard, grueling workout would have probably helped ease the tension coiled into a sack of knotted rope in my neck and shoulders, but I could use the equipment setup at my house to do that. If I felt like it. “I’m not very good company today anyway.”
He clapped me on my shoulder and started walking backward, calling out, “All right. Tomorrow’s a new day.”
“That it is. See you tomorrow.”
He threw me a two-finger salute. “See you tomorrow, Coach.”
I headed out, making the drive back to Whitecap from the college. I could have gone straight home and used the extra free time to unpack more boxes, probably should have done that. But instead, I found myself detouring and going through the main drag of downtown to the local coffee house, Drip. Sam’s wife, Monica, had opened the place years ago, and since then, it had been the favorite coffee house among Whitecappers. Even the tourists preferred it.
It took five minutes to go less than thirty feet from where I’d parked my SUV right in front of the small strip of businesses, to the entrance of Drip. Everyone who had been walking by wanted to stop andcatch up, which basically meant they wanted to gossip.
The frustration I’d been dealing with all damn day had settled behind my eyeballs, stabbing at the backs of them, but I managed to keep my composure as I politely ended the conversations and finally made my way inside the coffee shop. Unfortunately, it didn’t get any better from there.
“Well, if it isn’t Beau Wade.”
The sound of that voice was like nails on a chalkboard, causing my molars to clamp together and an unpleasant shiver to skitter down my spine.
I turned, pasting on a small, polite smile I certainly didn’t feel like giving. “Hi, Larissa.”
My old high school girlfriend stood from a small bistro table tucked beneath one of the large plate glass windows and moved toward me. There was an exaggerated sway to her hips that was completely unnecessary as she walked across the small space that separated us.
She hadn’t changed all that much from when I’d last seen her. She still wore her makeup thick and her clothes tight. She still had that man-eater look in her eye as well, the one she always thought was sultry and seductive but came off as more of a warning to the guy she’d set her sights on. I knew that firsthand. She was more likely to chew you up and spit you out than seduce you.
She stopped in front of me and smiled a smile that would probably have worked on a man who didn’t already know her, but I’d been there and done that, and I had absolutely no desire to go for a repeat. “Heard you were back in town.” She brought a hand up and slowly dragged her long bubblegum pink nail down the center of my chest. “Was wondering when I’d see you.”
I looked down at her hand, noticing the tan line from what could have only been a wedding ring wrapped around her ring finger. I didn’t know if it was an old tan line or if she’d just removed the ring when she spotted me, but I honestly didn’t care to find out. “Should have come to the reunion. It was a good time. We could have caught up then.”
She rolled her eyes and scoffed. “Yeah, I don’t think so,” she said like she was above everything and everyone. “I had much better things to do with my time.”
“Yeah? Like what?” I asked, calling her out, knowing she was most likely full of it. She’d done the same shit back in high school too, acting like she was so much better than everyone around her, even her friends. It was sad to see she hadn’t grown out of it fifteen years later.
I didn’t miss the way she blanched. “Anyway,” she started, shifting the topic without answering my question. “Now that you’re back, we should catch up.” She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and bit down as she stepped even closer, invading my personal space and practically dragging her tits across my chest. “We used to have a lot of fun together. Bet we still could.”
A bubble of laughter burst past my lips. “Is that how you remember it, Riss? As fun?”
She blinked in confusion, falling back on her heels and putting the tiniest amount of space between us. “Huh?”
