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Four sets of eyes flash up at me, and I realize that probably wasn’t the best thing to say. To these people, this team is their life. But I just started in this role and all I know is the information presented in front of me. The document telling me our best player, our quarterback, just transferred to another college…for a girl.A fucking girl. Well, it doesn’t say that’s the reason, but it’s common knowledge. Good luck to him, I say. Yes, I’ve let girls fuck with me before, but come on…she’s just going to break his heart into a million pieces and he’ll miss out on a championship.Trust me, I know.
“Is there any way we can talk him into staying?” I ask, hoping we can change his mind. Our offensive coordinator raises his eyebrow, his expression the answer I need. It’s done. There’s nothing we can do but move on.
I want to call him a dick, but he’s actually a nice guy. They all are. It’s a good team and that pisses me off even more.
I huff out a sigh. “All right, what options do we have?”
“Your ex-teammate’s little brother could step up?” one of the guys says, acting like he knows me.
But what?!“Who?”
I get a glare from the team manager and it’s probably deserved. I should know the entire roster by now and I mostly do. I just don’t have their siblings memorized.
“Bennett,” he says with a pointed look.
Bennett. Now that I picture the kid, it all makes sense. I should have known the two of them were related. First time I saw him he had his arms around two girls, something I’ve seen several times with Luke.
“Okay. One for the list. Anyone else I should look at?”
It should be as easy as moving our backup into the position, but he’s not ready. He’s great but he’s not a superstar. We lost a superstar, and we need a replacement.
After bouncing ideas around for a while and getting nowhere, our recruitment head suggests we seriously consider the freshman we just secured, but I’m not sure a seventeen-year-old is the right choice for us. Nonetheless, I add him to the list, and by the end of the meeting, I’m over it.What a fucking mess. All for a girl.
As soon as I get back to my office, I drop down onto my chair and throw my feet up on the desk, the motion sending paperwork flying to the floor. Not that I worry with my care factor set to zero right now.
Closing my eyes, I lean back until I’m pretty sure the desk chair’s at a breaking point and sigh. This was always my plan after retirement. I always wanted to coach. Sure, I’d planned on spending my time as the receiver coach, not the head coach, but it’s coaching all the same. And Heartwood U is a good college with a great football team.Why can’t I be happy?
I’m lost in thought when my office door slams open and I flinch, causing my chair to crash to the floor. “Jesus Christ!”I am going to murder someone.Rubbing my head, where it just connected with the wall behind me, I wince at the pain. “This better be good. I’ve had a shit start to my day and—”
“That’s a bad word,” a little voice says from somewhere in the room, and I freeze.What the fuck?
Scrabbling to my knees, I look over the desk and see a tiny little human staring back at me. “I won’t tell.” She shrugs.
Who the fuck let a kid in?
I stare at her in bewilderment, not really knowing what I’m supposed to do. Am I meant to report a missing child? Do I have some sort of duty of care here? Or can I politely tell her to leave?
She smiles over at me, rocking on her heels with her hands locked behind her back, and I soften…a little. Because even I have to admit it’sfuckingadorable, and anyone that doesn’t think the same would have to be heartless. I have a heart; it’s just frozen over at the moment.
My lips pull up into a grin, and when she notices, her eyes light up as she opens her mouth to talk.
“Katie, where are you?” Dani, our marketing manager, calls out before popping her head into the room, her words sending me reeling. “Ah crap.Sorry, Wes. Katie, please say goodbye to Mr. Johnson and come with me. Your mom will be done in a few minutes.”
“Bye, Mr. Johnson,” she repeats with a tiny wave before skipping out the door. I wave back absentmindedly even though she doesn’t see it. Dani does though, and she offers me an apologetic yet confused grin.
As soon as she closes the door behind her, I fall into a heap on the floor, my head crashing back into the wall.Katie.Fucking Katie. My eyes sting as I rub them, before shoving my fists in the sockets to stave off any emotion threatening to come. I do not need this now. Or anytime, really.Could this day get any worse?
Why the fuck would I ask myself that question?Of course it can get worse, and it did. On top of everything else, I’ve got the university president on the phone to complain about some scandal between a player and one of ourmuch oldertrainers.Fuck my life.And with that in mind, they’re going to enforce a ban on dating within the workplace, including players dating staff—a given—and staff dating staff, because, and I quote, “we need to set an example,” or some shit. I personally don’t care, but I’m pretty sure my defensive coordinator is going to have a thing or two to say about it since rumor has it he’s dating our travel planner.Can’t wait to see that blow up.
The rest of my day runs somewhat smoothly by comparison, but by the time I get home, I’m in desperate need of a beer. The only bonus about no longer playing professional football—I don’t have to worry about my food or alcohol intake.
I’m sure I’m just overly stressed because I never signed up for this responsibility. When I signed my name on the dotted line, I was accepting a role as the receiver coach for the Heartwood University Lions, nothing more. But of course, shit happens and now I’m the interim head coach and everything is fucked-up.
Thank God my private life is lacking because I don’t have much more head space for anything else.
Beer in one hand and chicken salad in the other—because okay, I do still think about my food intake a little—I fall onto the couch and sigh.
It’s been one hundred ninety-two days since I blew out my knee during a championship game. If I wasn’t so close to retirement, I would have worked my ass off to get back on that field, but considering I was already pushing my limits, it ended my career. I’m certain I only had a year left, max, but I wanted to go out on my own terms. With all the retirement fanfare and all the glory. Instead, I hobbled off the field, never to return again.And it’s fucking sucked.
