Rise Up (A Coach's Love Book 3)

by Alison Mello

  “Happy New Year.” I kiss him one more time.

  The kids are all cheering and excited that they brought the new year in with us, and now they’re amped up on sugar from the juice. They all hurry off to Ethan’s room.

  Misty and Lori both yell out to them that they are leaving in ten minutes and to clean up any mess they made. The girls help me tidy up a bit in the kitchen while the guys toss the plastic champagne glasses we bought and help Vincent put the chairs in the garage.

  “Thank you all so much for your help.” I put the last of the platters into the dishwasher and start the cycle. Now when we get up tomorrow, we won’t have a mess to clean.

  Everyone says good night, and Ethan is off to bed. It’s time for Vincent and me to turn in. I’m exhausted, and my feet are killing me from all the standing I’ve done today. I peel off my shoes and rub my feet, trying to massage out the ache. Vincent grabs my legs and spins me so he can sit with my feet on his lap. He massages them for me. It feels so good. His touch instantly relaxes me, and a yawn slips out.

  “Tired, beautiful?”

  I nod, my eyes already closed.

  He undoes the button on my jeans, lifts my ass off the bed, and peels them down my legs. “I love how strong you are.” I smile.

  “Sit up, beautiful.” I do as he asks. He pulls my shirt over my head and unclips my bra. A chill wracks my body, causing me to shake. Goose bumps run rampant over my skin. He quickly covers me in a nightshirt and tucks me into bed before removing his clothes and putting everything in the laundry.

  He climbs into bed, and I take my usual position by his side. “Thank you for all of your help with Ethan and the holidays. I love you so much.”

  “I love you too,” I whisper.

  He goes silent for a moment. I think he’s dozing off when he mumbles, “Move in with us.”

  I’m instantly awake. I sit up and look at him. “Are you dreaming?”

  He laughs. “No. Please move in with us.” He looks me in the eye.

  “It’s lucky for you, I had a great conversation with the girls tonight.”

  He looks at me confused. “Why’s that?”

  “Before tonight, that would have scared me. I would have said no and ran for the hills, but not anymore. I’d love to move in with you.”

  His smile is so big, it lights up his face. “Thank you.” He pulls me down and kisses me gently. “Let’s get some sleep. We’ll give Ethan the good news tomorrow.” I snuggle into his side and fall asleep with a proud smile.

  I’m so thankful that everything has gone back to normal. The kids are back to school, Amber and I have finally had a full day of work, and we are back to practice tonight. I do need to leave work shortly to take Ethan for a follow-up. We want to be sure it’s safe for him to practice. To be a little extra cautious, I sent a note to his gym teacher along with his medical papers so he could sit out for today. It’s only been about ten days. When I called the doctor to discuss the situation with him, he asked me to bring Ethan in, so he has an appointment at three.

  I buzz my assistant. “Ellie, can you come here please?”

  “Yes, Mr. Wilder. I’m on my way.” She enters my office with a notepad in hand. “What can I do for you, sir?”

  “Here is a list of clients I need appointments with. Please call them and try to get them all in by next week.”

  “Yes, sir.” She looks up from her notepad. “Anything else?”

  “Are you done updating the client accounts I left you?”

  She nods. “I am.”

  “Great, thank you. That will be all for now. I’ll be leaving in a few minutes to take Ethan to the doctor. Call my cell should anything come up.”

  She nods. “I certainly will. You have a great day, sir.”

  “You too, Ellie.” She exits my office.

  I wrap up some things, grab my briefcase, and head over to Amber’s desk. She on the phone and appears to be upset. I give her a minute to finish up. “Amber, what’s wrong?”

  “My apartment was broken into again. The building manager lives on the first floor and heard a ruckus. He called the cops but the person was gone when they arrived. I need to head over there after work.”

  “I have to go get Ethan for his appointment and then be at practice tonight. Can someone go with you?” I really don’t want her going to that apartment alone. Clearly this guy is angry and is going to take as much as he can from her.

  She nods. “I’ll call Nat. She should be able to meet me.”

  “Okay, call me when you’re on your way home.” I press my lips to hers. “I love you.”

  “I love you too. Good luck at the doctor. Let me know how he makes out.”

  “I will.”

  I leave the building and head to my car. On my way to pick up Ethan my cell rings. “Hello.”

  “Hey, it’s Laney.” Her voice rings out through the car speakers, but she doesn’t sound right.

  “What’s up?”

  “How’s Ethan?” she asks.

  “He’s doing better. I’m actually on my way to dismiss him from school for a follow-up doctor’s visit. He’s hoping to be able to play at practice tonight.”

  She sighs. “I’m sorry, Vincent.”

  “I’m sure you are.” I’m really not sure what she wants me to say. I’m not going to tell her it’s okay, because it’s not. She’s a mother and a lawyer. She not only broke the law, but she endangered her son’s life. Nothing about that is okay.

  “Will you tell Ethan that I’m sorry, and I promise I’ll make it better.”

  “No. But I will tell him that you called and that you would like to speak to him so you can apologize yourself. This is your mistake, Laney. You have to make it right.”

  She sighs. “So I’ve heard. I’ll call him in a few days.” She doesn’t sound like the confident, sassy Laney I once married. She sounds sad, depressed almost. I guess I can understand. Her son is upset with her, and she’s probably jeopardized her career with her mistake.

  She goes silent. “You can fix this.” She still says nothing. “Well, I guess I’ll talk to you later.”

  She cuts the call. I’m not sure what else to say to her. We didn’t end on the best note, but that doesn’t mean I wish bad on her. If she’s open to me, I’ll talk to her, but I can’t force her to speak.

  I pull up to the front door of the school and head inside. I ask for my son to be released, signing the appropriate paperwork. He comes out a few minutes later. “Hey, son. How’s the head?”

  “Pretty good. No headaches.”

  I put my arm around him. “Glad to hear it. Let’s get you cleared to play some ball.”

  He climbs into the front seat but asks where Amber is. I explain that she stayed back at the office to get some work done and that she would be missing practice tonight to deal with some personal stuff. I don’t want to tell him her apartment was broken in to because we just told him she was moving in with us, and I don’t want to freak him out.

  When we get to the doctor’s office, he climbs out of the car, and we head inside. The pep in his step has returned, and it’s good to see. He’s happy, and I enjoy seeing him this way.

  After checking in, we both take a seat. “How was class today?”

  “It was fine.” He takes his backpack off and pulls out a notebook. “I have a test in science on Friday.” He reads through his notes. “I figure I’ll study while we wait, one less thing to do when we get home.”

  “Good idea. It looks pretty busy.” There are a lot of people in the waiting room. Most appear to have an illness of some sort. There’s a ton of sniffling and coughing going on. The thought of sitting in the middle of this germ fest makes me cringe. I silently pray that neither of us gets sick.

  It only takes about fifteen minutes before Ethan’s name is called. The doctor talks with Ethan, looks in his eyes with a light, reviews the paperwork from the hospital and says, “I think as long as he takes it easy, he should be fine.” He looks at Ethan. “It is very imp
ortant that you understand if your vision starts to blur, your headache starts to come back, or you simply just don’t feel right, you stop immediately.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Pushing yourself will only further your injury.” The doctor looks at me. “If he practices with no issues, he can play on Saturday. If he gets the slightest symptoms, no game. The last thing we need is for him to get knocked to the ground and hit his head.”

  “I agree.” I shake the doctor’s hand. “Thank you for fitting us in.”

  “No problem. Apparently, I’m fitting a lot of kids in today.” He chuckles.

  “Yeah, there are a lot of sick kids out there.”

  “Lots of colds and stomach bugs, so hurry on out of here before you end up sick.”

  Ethan jumps down from the table and grabs his backpack. “You don’t have to tell me twice.” He walks out the door with us following behind him.

  “I really think he’ll be fine, but keep an eye on him.”

  “Will do. Thanks again.”

  I check out at the desk and then meet Ethan outside. “Let’s get you home, so you can finish that homework before practice.”

  “Yes, sir,” Ethan says, incredibly happy he can play tonight.

  We’re pulling up to practice, but I’m a bit concerned. I haven’t heard from Amber in a while. I hope she’s okay. I sent her one message after the doctor’s appointment to let her know that Ethan was cleared, and she replied that she was at the house with Nat and that she would talk to me later. That was around four, so Paul must have let her leave work early.

  Ethan and I head in to wait for the rest of the team to show up. Trystan and DJ are already here with Mason. Trystan shakes my hand. “No Amber tonight?” he asks.

  I lower my voice. “Nah, her apartment was broken into. She and one of her friends had to go check things out to see if anything was missing.”

  “That sucks.”

  “It’s the second time. The first time the guy knew her. He took her ring, but we were lucky enough to get it back. She hasn’t stopped wearing it ever since.”

  “I hope nothing important was taken.”

  “Me too.”

  The team before us is wrapping up, and most of our team is here. We get them all into the gym, and I ask them to take a seat. “Listen up boys. We have two practices before our first game of the season. That doesn’t leave us much time, so we need to focus and work hard. No messing around tonight.”

  “Is Ethan cleared to play?” Mason asks.

  “For those of you who don’t know, Ethan was involved in an accident over the holidays and suffered a concussion. He is cleared to practice, and providing he has no problems after the two practices, he can play on Saturday.” His team claps and cheers, happy their teammate will be on the court with them. “Okay, let’s get warmed up.”

  Trystan starts them off with some jumping jacks, high knees, and stretches before we get started. “Let’s start with our layup drills.”

  The boys line up the way we taught them, and they work on their layups. “Jump for that rebound, boys,” Trystan calls out.

  The coach who practices with us comes over to me and introduces himself as Tyrel. “How’s it going? I’m Vincent.”

  “Any chance you guys want to do a scrimmage for the last few minutes of practice on Thursday?”

  “Sounds like a good idea to me.”

  “Cool.” He shakes my hand and jogs off.

  “Switch sides, guys.”

  The boys switch to taking shots off the other side of the net. They’re doing well, but I still need to get them to jump for the ball sooner. Some of them aren’t jumping at all. They’re waiting for the ball to drop into their hands. After they go through a few rounds of layups, I blow my whistle.

  “Listen up. You guys are waiting for the ball to come down to you. You have to jump for it, or you’ll never make a rebound.” I toss the ball to Trystan. “Throw the ball at the net but miss.”

  He chuckles. “No problem, I have zero aim.” The boys laugh. He tosses the ball up at the net, and sure enough he misses, but I jump up and catch immediately.

  “You see what I did there. I met the ball in the air. Let’s work on that for the next few minutes. Everyone grab a partner.” I hand them each a ball. “Now be careful, but toss the ball straight up into the air, and your partner is going to jump up to get it. After you’ve thrown it to your partner, your partner will bounce pass it back to you and repeat it. Do this about ten times and then switch off.”

  They’re working incredibly hard, and I’m proud of them. The night is going by quickly. We only have about fifteen minutes left. Trystan and I get to work reminding them of the positions and how to switch between them. Before we know it, time is up, and parents are standing around waiting for their kids. As soon as they’re all gone, I check my phone to discover I still have no messages from Amber.

  Now I’m starting to panic, so I call her phone the second we’re on the road. “Hey, Vincent.”

  “Where are you?”

  “I’m home. Sorry I was busy running around and lost track of time. Nat is getting ready to leave, so I’ll see you when you get here.”

  “Okay.” I cut the call and let out a deep breath. I truly wanted to freak out on her for not calling me, but I know that’s not what she needs.

  I swear because I want to get home and see that my girl is okay, I hit every red light on the way. I need a distraction, and I realize being worried about Amber I didn’t check on my son. Dad fail. “How’s your head?”

  “It’s fine.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah. I feel good.” He goes back to watching some basketball thing on his phone.

  “I’m going to admit, I’m a little nervous about you playing Saturday.” I keep my eyes focused on the road.

  “Why?” He suddenly gets defensive.

  “Relax, buddy. I’m not saying you can’t play. I’m just afraid that someone will push you to the ground, and you’ll bang your head. I don’t want you to have any setbacks.”

  He slouches in his seat. “I’ll be fine,” he groans.

  “I’m sure you will, but understand you won’t be getting maximum playing time at first. I need to bring you in slowly.”

  “As long as I can play.”

  We pull into the garage. The car isn’t even off yet, and Ethan runs into the house. “I’m going to shower,” he calls out over his shoulder.

  I cut the engine and follow him in, hitting the garage door button behind me, but I’m stopped dead in my tracks by piles of suitcases and boxes. “Surprise!” Amber shouts.

  I can’t believe she moved her stuff in. I’m thrilled. I scoop her up and spin her around. “You make me so happy.” She presses her lips to mine. “I can’t believe you did all this by yourself.”

  “I didn’t do it alone.” She shakes her head. “Nat helped. Lucky for me, she has access to a van.” She bites her lip. “I wanted to surprise you.” She blushes slightly.

  I help her move the boxes out of the entryway. Some of them have to go out to the garage, and some go to the bedroom. While we’re moving stuff, she fills me in. Telling me nothing major was taken. The apartment manager asked her if she was taking everything and when she told him no, he asked if he could go through it and keep some of it. She agreed since she was going to donate what was left anyway. He told her he would call for the pickup once he was done. “I offered him some money for his help, but he told me not to worry about it.” She bends over to put a box down, but when she stands up, I’m right there. I grab her and pull her close.

  “That was nice of him.”

  Her eyes bounce between my eyes and my lips. “It was,” she whispers. Her voice is needy. I press my lips to hers and our tongues instantly battle it out, devouring one another.

  “Let’s go to bed.”

  She bites her lower lip. “Let’s.”

  The second we close the door, we’re ripping at each other’s clothes. We can’t undres
s one another fast enough. In between stripping, we’re kissing and touching. She now stands before me perfectly naked. She’s beautiful. She blushes slightly when she realizes my eyes are roaming up and down her amazing body. I slowly walk around her. My fingers gently skim over her sex. She sucks in a sharp breath.

  “What’s the matter? Are we anxious?” I whisper, gliding my lips down her neck. I nibble on her shoulder as I slip my fingers between her folds, rolling her hard, little nub between my fingers.

  She rolls her head back onto my shoulder and groans in appreciation. My other hand cups her breast and pinches at her nipples. “Please take me,” she begs.

  “I need to taste you first.”

  She shakes her head. “I need you inside me.”

  I gently bend her over my bed and drop to my knees. Spreading her ass, I lick and suck at her pussy from behind. “You taste amazing.”

  “Please, Vincent,” she begs.

  “Very needy tonight.” I slip two fingers inside of her while I continue licking at her ass. I haven’t claimed it yet, but I will. She presses back on my fingers, seeking more friction, but I quickly remove them preventing her from getting what she wants. “Stay still. I’m not done yet.” I lick and suck at her sex until she’s on the verge of release and stop one more time. This time, I stand to give her what she wants. I slip my cock inside her, grab her hips, and give it to her just the way she likes—hard and deep.

  “Yes!” She practically screams out.

  “Shh.” I chuckle and playfully slap her ass.

  “I’m sorry,” she moans, “you’re such a tease.” I tease her clit as I continue my punishing rhythm. “Oh my God, yes!” She bites on the pillow to prevent herself from screaming as I send her into an intense orgasm.

  Her muscles tighten, milking me and sending me over with her. I seat myself deep inside her one last time before I lean over and kiss down the middle of her back. “That was amazing,” she pants.

  “And yet you rush me.” I slide myself out and step into the bathroom. She follows behind me.

  “It’s not my fault you’re a tease,” she pouts.

  “Nope, I’m only a tease if I don’t finish what I started. I believe I finished.”