by Nana Malone
She also knew her mother’s actions came from a place of trying to be agreeable. She didn’t want to inconvenience the kitchen staff of the club, when they were—in all likelihood—a good way into cooking their meals.
She also wanted to keep things on schedule because of her dad’s doctor’s appointment. A doctor’s appointment Cole knew nothing about.
But in Cole, Echo recognized the resentment of someone watching another command power and influence with no regard for him or what he thought or desired.
And it left Echo staring at the glass of soda before her, watching the condensation dribbling down the glass, torn between two sides, neither of whom had asked her what she wanted to drink. With a sigh, Echo reached for her soda and took a polite sip, wishing for the day to be over already.
Nine
Cole physically vibrated as his emotions warred inside him. Right now, anger was winning. He thought the Coulters would never leave. He held his tongue when he saw the pasta dish the waiter set before Echo. She didn’t honestly eat like that regularly when she was planning on running right after, did she? At least it had chicken and vegetables as part of the meal, and she only finished about half of it.
Wasteful, utterly wasteful. But then, she hadn’t ordered it for herself, had she? Listening to her parents answering for her and ordering for her and watching her going along with it all was making him nauseated.
When they’d been together, she’d been far more independent. Right now she was acting like…Missy. He wanted take-charge Cece, who’d brought his head back down to her wet lips and asked for what she wanted.
Shit. No. He couldn’t think about her the way she’d been with him that night, because it wasn’t really her. The whole thing had been a lie. She’d probably done it specifically to throw him off his game, to have something she could hold over him, use to undermine him. Forget design school or whatever that load of crap had been, Echo Coulter should’ve been an actress for how well she’d had him fooled. And she’d been quite dedicated to the role she’d played as well.
When the meal was over—charged to the Coulters tab, of course, so he couldn’t even make the gesture of offering to help pay for it—Brent and Julia Coulter excused themselves.
“You two have some plans to run through, I’m sure,” Brent had said in the lobby of the club. “We’ll let you get to it, and will come by to pick you up, Echo, in, oh…a couple of hours.”
“We might stop and do a bit of shopping, and you know how I can get once I get going,” Julia had joked. “We’ll give you a call when we’re on our way. Give you plenty of time to clean up.”
Echo briefly hugged her parents. Cole couldn’t hear whatever it was she’d whispered to them, but they headed out to their waiting car without any further comments. “I’ll go change and you can meet me by the entrance to the track when you’re ready.”
Did she actually plan to ignore it all? To pretend it hadn’t happened?
“I think we should have a little chat first, Echo,” he snapped, following her down the corridor that led to the locker rooms.
She turned on him, shocking him into taking a step back.
“You think?” Her voice was heavy with sarcasm. “I, for one, would rather have that conversation out on the track, where we can have a bit of privacy,” she said under her breath, glancing up and down the hall and fighting to keep her voice down.
“Don’t want to make a scene, huh?” He’d been able to keep his anger contained in front of her parents. But he shook with it now. He and Echo had done more than just see each other naked. Maybe Dylan was right, and he’d ignored it all. Despite the deception, a certain level of intimacy had been established that couldn’t be undone. “Maybe you should have thought of that before—”
“I didn’t know,” she bit through clenched teeth.
“Well, you didn’t look as taken aback by our little revelation as I was, that’s for damned sure,” he spat back.
There was a moment of hesitation before she answered. “I saw you from across the dining room. I only had a few moments’ warning more than you, that’s it.”
“Like I’d trust anything you say.”
“Just…shut up and change. We’ll figure this out when we’re outside.” She turned, muttering to him as she stalked off. “I need to run.”
She disappeared into the women’s locker room. He turned and went back out to his car to retrieve his own workout clothes. When he made it out to one of several tracks on the club’s extensive grounds, he saw Echo already running laps. He hated to admit it, but she did have good form. He could appreciate how controlled she was in her speed, clearly holding back, but still progressing at a decent rate with no one alongside her to push her on, either. Well, that’s gonna change.
He stretched a bit as he walked before picking up the pace to a light jog out to the track, meeting up with Echo as she rounded the back corner. She ran right past him, leaving him to speed up and run alongside her. Every time he started to pull ahead, she tapped into something deeper and pushed ahead again.
They went twice around the track, and Cole could feel the aching starting in his knee. He’d be walking with a limp for days if he didn’t let up soon. He was supposed to be coaching Echo, not flat-out racing against her. There was a reason he was a coach and not a competitor.
He slowed his pace, heading for a bench along the side and planting his foot on it, so he could pretend that he needed to adjust his laces while he massaged his knee. Echo went one more time around the track before slowing to a walk and heading for him.
She was breathing heavily, her face pink from the exertion, and a light sheen of sweat standing out along the bridge of her nose and at her temples. She had pulled her hair back into a ponytail to run, and a few wisps had escaped and curled against her scalp from the humidity.
It was chilly for September in San Diego, and Cole could feel it in his aching joints.
Echo didn’t look cold at all though, which meant she was nice and warmed up.
“Why didn’t you say anything?” With her brows down and the furrow on her forehead, she looked hurt.
“What? You think I knew?” he sputtered.
“You said you were starting a fancy job. Why didn’t you say what that meant? Why didn’t you mention your new bosses were the Coulters?”
“How is it you’re mad at me?” he shouted. “I’m the one you lied to.”
“The only thing I lied about was my name, and I didn’t have much choice,” she said, refusing to back down.
“Don’t give me that bullshit,” he snapped. “You lied about who you were because you were slumming it. Picking up a townie for a little fun.”
“I had to protect myself and my family.” If looks could kill, the glare she shot at him would have him in the morgue. “I’ve never done anything like that before.”
“Protect yourself? Really?”
“You wouldn’t have been the first guy who was only interested in me because of my name or my family’s money,” she shrugged. “Even if it weren’t for my family and my reputation, I would have still used a fake name. I didn’t know you, I can’t really trust anyone. And that’s to say nothing of the media. The dutiful Coulter daughter out on the town, looking to hook up? The press would have a field day. There’s been more than one guy. Never know when a guy might be looking to get past the ice princess’s defenses.”
Cole’s jaw locked with a flash of shame for his entire gender. Before he could open his mouth to defend himself, Echo continued.
“And don’t bother getting all high-and-mighty about me lying to you about my name that night. I only found out that day that my parents had hired someone to coach me. They didn’t tell me who, and they didn’t tell me ahead of time. But they should have, because I can already tell that you suck at your job.”
“You can tell that when you’ve known me for less than a day?” He crossed his arms over his chest, still indignant about her lies but intrigued at her unilateral dismissal of his
undemonstrated capabilities. It was a shame such a promising athlete should also be a giant pain in the ass.
“Well, what day was it my parents hired you? You knew you had the job when we met at the bar, so that day at the latest. And yet, you apparently didn’t bother doing any research on me before now. My family perhaps, but certainly not me, or you would have recognized me that night. I gave a false name but didn’t wear a wig or anything. And you didn’t do any research about me in the days since then, either, or you would have realized Cece was really me before I showed up at lunch today.”
Anger coursed through his veins. But he let her finish.
“My parents might not have read much into your questions about my racing history during lunch but if you’re half the coach you’ve been selling yourself as, then you wouldn’t have had to ask. Oh, and whatever you do, don’t bother trying to shame me for going out to relieve the tension. Not when you’ve already told me you’re using me, and my family’s name, to make your career for yourself. So I suggest you quit lecturing me about lying to you that night and just…suck it up.”
She pulled her cell phone from her pocket.
“I have to head back and clean up,” she informed him. “You said this is your big shot to make a name for yourself. Well…you’re going to have to do better than what I’ve seen so far. I’ll meet you here tomorrow morning and you can try again.”
Spunk at last. Why did her giving him shit make him hard? You have problems.
“Princess, you’re delusional if you think that I don’t do my research before I start anything. First, let’s be really clear that I did, in fact, tell you that you looked familiar to me. But—” He shrugged. “We’ll let that part go for now. You’re Echo Coulter. You posted impressive times all through high school and all through college, but now you seem to lack the motivation to do anything other than fluff around with charity races. Things that don’t take any real work to run. Which is crazy, because with a little bit of work you could be amazing.”
She narrowed her gaze. “Where do you get off?” Anger had her body radiating tension, and had tinted her face a nice lobster color.
“My bedroom, remember?” He laughed, the sound lacking humor. “But just so you know I’m not dicking around, your 1500 time is 4:10 at last check, though in high school I happen to know you posted a 4:08, which is Olympic-qualifier standard, but you never did it again.”
She frowned.
“Oh, let me continue. This is fun. Your quarter-mile time is good enough for the Olympics, at fifty-two flat. But again, you never seemed to run it except occasionally. Your 800 is even more impressive. I mean, two minutes flat. Why aren’t you competing? I know your 10k time of thirty-four minutes is good. Hell, it’s great, but it’s not stellar, but you continued to compete in that in college. Makes no sense to me. Unless you did it to make someone else happy, or your coach told you to. In which case he should be fired, as it’s not your best event.”
“You can stop now,” she muttered.
“Had enough? Have you, Echo? Or shall I say, Cece? I know how to do my job. Granted, you wouldn’t know anything about that, since you’ve never had to work a day in your life.”
For a moment he wondered if she would slap him. But instead she shook her head, her gaze killing him slowly as she backed away, leaving him where he stood. They’d both been right and they’d both been wrong.
He’d done his research on the things he’d thought were important, but he’d been sloppy. He should have grabbed a photo or a video, and not just her stats. Whatever she might think of him as a coach, he doubted she would go running to her parents to get him fired. At least, not yet.
Or you could quit. But that wasn’t happening. He had too much riding on this. He should never have listened to Dylan about going out that night. Getting lucky. The luck he’d gotten that night with Echo was the worst luck of his life.
Ten
Echo crouched by the basin of the toilet, her arms and legs shaking as she heaved up her lunch. She was pretty sure it was a result of stress, and not the fact that she’d eaten more than she should have for how much she’d just run. Or seeing Cole.
She’d barely been pushing herself at all until Cole joined her on the track. She could have run more, except that she’d figured out exactly what she needed to say, and she needed to say it before she lost the courage to. Once it was off her chest however, she’d made it to the toilet just in time.
She coughed a bit to make sure there was nothing left in her throat, the acid from her stomach burning, and she spat one last time before flushing the toilet and moving to the sink to rinse her mouth out. A quick glance in the mirror showed that there were tears in her eyes and on her cheeks. She swiped them away in frustration. Everything had backfired on her in the last two weeks, and she had no idea how to right the slip.
She sent Jen a quick text before hopping in for a fast shower, and had her reply by the time she was dressed, her wet hair dampening the back of her shirt. Come over whenever.
Echo didn’t even bother brushing her hair before she headed back to the club entrance to wait for her parents; she just shrugged into her coat and stuck her hair under her beanie.
“Echo!”
She heard Cole call to her from where he’d emerged from the men’s locker room, but she ignored him and dashed through the doors and into her parents’ waiting car.
“Hey, could you drop me by Jen’s on the way home?” she asked. “She’s dying to hear about how things went today. I’ll have her bring me home in time for dinner.”
“Why don’t you invite her to join us?” her mother suggested.
“I’ll be sure to do that,” Echo agreed. There was an optimism in her mother’s tone that Echo found reassuring. “So…how did the appointment go?”
“The appointment itself was fine. Mostly just drawing some blood to run more tests,” her father explained with a nonchalant air. “Won’t have the results for a while.”
“What kinds of tests are they running, exactly?”
“We’ll wait to see how they turn out before we get into that,” her mother said.
Way to shut the door on that line of questioning, Mom.
“Honestly, I’m not sure I really understand them all myself,” her father joked in an effort to soften the evasion. “How did things go with Cole after we left? How’s this plan of his shaping up?”
“We didn’t really discuss much,” Echo said with a shrug. She could be just as evasive as the two of them. “I ran a bit while he watched, but we’re going to meet up for a more proper evaluation tomorrow. I think I gave him a lot to think about, and that he’ll be making some revisions to whatever plan he told you about.”
“Sounds like a start to me,” her mother said cheerfully.
Of course she could be cheerful. No one was forcing her to work with her one-night stand.
They pulled up outside Jen’s building and Echo grabbed her duffel bag of gym things and her purse. “I’ll see you guys in a bit.”
Jen opened the door before Echo finished knocking.
“You look…terrible,” she said, looking Echo up and down. Echo pulled off her hat and shook out her still-damp hair. “Do you want to use my hair dryer?”
“Please.” Echo dumped her duffel bag by the couch and followed Jen to her bedroom where her friend plugged the hair dryer in and handed Echo a brush along with the machine.
“What the hell happened?” Jen asked, as hot air began to warm Echo’s scalp.
“My one-night stand that you talked me into? Turns out he’s my new coach.”
Jen’s jaw dropped as the implications hit her, followed by a brief burst of laughter.
Echo turned on her. “It is not funny. It is horrible, and mortifying, and…humiliating. Which, yes, I know is the same as mortifying, but it’s embarrassing enough to be repeated many, many times.”
“Sorry, I know,” Jen agreed, choking on her laughter. “It’s not funny. It’s…everything you just said.”
“How am I supposed to listen to the guy when I know he’s seen me naked? I lost my virginity to him. And he has no clue. And it’s not just the sex thing. Which is also ruined for me now, because it was that good, but…I told him about design school. I told him about my parents, and my dad being sick. Oh, and he is pissed at me for lying to him. As if I had some sort of say in any of this. The only thing I had a say in was how many orgasms I had, and even he took charge on that. And now he’s never going to let me live this down. He’s going to make my life miserable.”
Her friend’s brows shot up. “Wow, so that good, huh?”
“Jen!”
Jen laughed and shook her head, sending her russet waves spilling over her shoulders. “Sorry. Look, I think…you might be overreacting…” Jen said gently.
“The guy hates me,” Echo assured her as she switched the hair dryer off and ran the brush through her hair. “He basically said as much that night when he was talking about his new job. He talked about how much he loathed the people he’d be working for. Of course, he didn’t go into specifics about what his job was going to be or just who he would be working for. No, no, that would have put me in a position where I could have avoided the whole thing.”
“He doesn’t know you,” Jen emphasized. “He knows of you and your family but he has no idea what you’re capable of. If he thinks you’re some poor little rich girl who runs because she looks cute in a track suit…”
Echo had to laugh at that.
“You’ve survived your parents and your grandparents, not to mention your brothers,” Jen reminded her. “You can handle this guy. I promise.”
“Thanks.”
“It’s what I’m here for,” Jen said with a shrug. “And not only can you handle whatever he throws at you, I think there’s plenty you could throw at him if it comes down to it.”
“I’ll have to see how things go,” Echo muttered. “But it’s good to know I’ll have you there to help if they go in that direction.”