by Mari Carr
Ellie looked over her shoulder, watching Trey try to bump and grind with Cheryl. They were both laughing more than dancing. Ellie was envious of the close friendship this group shared. After spending the past school year alone and miserable, she wondered if her private hell would have been so unbearable if she’d had friends like this group in her life. “Oh jeez. More like Carlton from Fresh Prince of Bel Air,” she joked.
Jamie, Lucas and Grace laughed loudly.
“Oh man, you totally fit in with us,” Grace said between chuckles. “So, tell us all about yourself. Are you dating anyone?”
Ellie’s matchmaker alarm went off and she repressed a groan when Grace glanced in Trey’s direction. “No. I just got out of a relationship, so I’m not really interested in dating right now.”
Grace was undeterred. “Oh. How long has it been since your break-up?”
“Grace,” Jamie said softly. “Let it go.”
Lucas laughed at Jamie’s warning to his girlfriend. “You know I’m starting to get my feelings hurt. You’re always looking for a woman for Trey. How come you never try to hook me up with anyone, Gracie?”
“How do you know I’m scouting out eligible bachelorettes for Trey?”
Lucas perked up. “Were you asking for me?”
“Hell no,” Grace responded.
“Yeah. I figured as much. Why not?”
Grace picked up a hot wing from the basket in the middle of the table and dipped it in ranch dressing. “Because you are a hopeless player. Trey can be redeemed.”
“Redeemed?” Lucas asked. “Is that what you women call shackled these days?”
Grace looked at Ellie, gesturing with her hand. “See what I mean?”
Ellie nodded. “Hopeless case.”
The music changed once again and this time Jamie and Lucas stood, heading to the dance floor. All three men high-fived and started twirling Cheryl to some country song Ellie wasn’t familiar with. “It’s like you guys have a playlist.”
Grace agreed. “The Cougar Club has been together too long. That’s one of the reasons why I invited you to join us. We need some new blood.”
“Cougar Club?”
Grace shook her head. “That’s the nickname Cheryl gave us. The forty-something women with the thirty-something men. Another reason I invited you. With a younger woman in our midst, maybe the damn name will die a painful death.”
Ellie topped up both of their beers. “I don’t know. I kind of like that name.”
“Oh jeez. I thought you’d be on my side. So about Trey—” Grace started.
Ellie interrupted her with a laugh. “You’re relentless.”
Grace didn’t bother to apologize for her persistence. “Trey’s very special to me. I want to see him find a nice woman.”
“Believe me, I’m not that woman. Besides, I’ve heard Trey’s as big a player as Lucas. What makes you think he even wants to settle down?”
Grace leaned back in her chair. “He turned thirty this past school year. We all went out to celebrate. It was late in the evening and he and I were sitting alone at the table while everyone danced—just like you and I are now. He’d had quite a bit to drink—”
“Shocking.”
Grace chuckled. “He said he was jealous of my relationship with Jamie. Said he was tired of the dating scene and all the games and—”
“He was drunk,” Ellie interjected.
“He was wasted,” Grace clarified. “Which is why I believed what he was saying. He tries to play it too cool most of the time. That night he let down his guard and genuinely spoke what was in his heart.”
“I’m not the woman for him, Grace. I’m sorry, but I’m just not.”
Grace nodded. “I understand. Really. You can’t blame a girl for trying.”
Ellie was relieved by Grace’s easy acceptance and wished she could believe her own denials as effortlessly. Then she wondered about Grace’s relationship with Trey. It was clear they were good friends, but Ellie sensed there was something a bit deeper. She dismissed the wayward thought.
The rest of the gang came back to the table and reclaimed their seats.
With Trey sitting so close, Ellie felt her resolve wavering again. He was simply too hot for words. Damn him.
“Hey, Hunter,” Trey said, leaning closer. “I’ve been thinking.”
She pretended to be shocked. “Seriously? I didn’t know you PE guys were capable of that.”
Cheryl giggled. “Holy crap, Ellie. Where have you been? We could have used your help keeping these boys in line the past few years.”
“Very funny.” Trey balled up a napkin and threw it as Cheryl, who dodged it.
“What were you thinking about?” Ellie asked.
“You were wrong when you said there weren’t any positions coaching basketball at Preston.”
Ellie’s heart stuttered for a moment. The absolute worst thing about losing her job had been leaving her team. Coaching basketball had been the best part of her life and when she’d walked away from Harper’s Ridge, she left a large part of her soul behind. “What do you mean?”
“My assistant coach turned in her resignation this week.”
Trey’s words left her speechless as her mind whirled over what he was saying. There was a position open…as Trey’s assistant. She tried to recall if she’d ever felt more torn in her life. The opportunity to coach—even in an assistant capacity—was too good to pass up. However, she was pretty sure signing on for long hours spent by Trey’s side was a very stupid idea. There was no way she could resist the daily temptation, no matter how freaking resolute she thought she was.
“I’m not sure—”
Trey leaned closer, his next words spoken so low she was certain no one at the table could hear them except her.
“I understand why you don’t want to date a colleague. I won’t press the issue. I promise.”
She pulled away and felt a bit like a fool. She’d revealed far too much on the dance floor. She’d felt his erection and it had triggered her own physical needs. Maybe she’d somehow misread the attraction she thought they’d shared. Her face flushed with embarrassment. She’d been here less than an hour and she’d already made a fool of herself. “Oh. Sure.”
Trey rolled his eyes. “Jesus, Ellie. Don’t go down that road. I want you so bad it hurts. I’m just saying I respect your decision. And you’re an awesome coach. I’d like to have you on my side for once.”
She laughed and glanced around the table. Trey’s friends were fighting like mad to overhear their conversation.
“Should we get another table so you two can have some privacy?” Lucas joked.
Trey smirked at him. “Maybe just you could move to another table.”
Lucas laughed. “Big words from a guy sitting here in a purple shirt. You ever see a show called Barney?”
Everyone laughed and Ellie tried to remember the last time she’d had so much fun with a group of colleagues. Her loneliness began to fade.
She looked at Trey. “I’ll think about it.”
He nodded. “As show of good faith, I’ll even try to set you up with one of my non-teacher friends. There’s a local band playing at Bristols in a couple of weeks. Why don’t you invite a few of your girlfriends and come party with me and my boys?”
“That sounds like fun. Thanks, Donovan.”
“No problem, Hunter. I have a feeling this is going to be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
Ellie laughed, hoping that prophecy came true.
Then the foolish part of her hoped for more.
Chapter Two
Pregame
Ellie nodded mindlessly, pretending to listen to Derek, one of Trey’s friends, as she looked around Bristols. She and a few of her girlfriends had arrived a couple of hours earlier. Trey had saved them seats at a large table and the two groups had merged flawlessly. A little too flawlessly.
Ellie caught sight of Trey on the dance floor with her friend Lisa, and she tried to fight back the
twinge of jealousy she felt when Lisa rubbed her body closer to his. Her other friends, Jennifer and Wendy, were sitting at the table talking to a couple more of Trey’s friends, which left Ellie entertaining Derek the Dull.
She’d started the night filled with optimism and brimming with confidence about her decision to move to Preston. She’d been offered the assistant coaching job and she’d accepted it this morning. In addition, the first week of classes had gone smoothly and she genuinely liked her students this year.
Lisa ran her hand down Trey’s side, not stopping until she reached his ass. She left her hand there and moved forward, grinding against Trey. Ellie sucked in a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down. The purpose of this night was to try to find some eligible men to date. Trey didn’t qualify for Ellie’s list. She looked to her right and discovered Derek was still blathering. She’d lost track of the conversation about twenty minutes ago. Figures he’d be available for her to date. At least she’d never have to worry about awkward silences with the man. God knew he could fill every second of every minute they were together with mindless chatter.
Trey and Lisa came back to the table. Trey plopped down on the seat beside her and gestured for the waitress, who fought to make her way over to their table. The bar was packed.
“We’re doing a celebratory shot,” Trey declared.
“What are we celebrating?” Ellie’s brain had switched to numb mode ages ago in an attempt to deal with Derek’s conversation and the fact Trey stood a very good chance at hooking up with Lisa tonight. She knew that look on her girlfriend’s face far too well.
“Oooo, shots,” Lisa said, clapping her hands. “I’m in.”
Trey leaned closer to Ellie and she subtly tried to sniff his sexy cologne. She’d noticed it at happy hour a couple of weeks ago and since then, it had become her favorite scent. “We’re celebrating your new coaching job, Hunter.”
She nodded, trying to decide if that was worth celebrating anymore. What if Trey and Lisa started to date? What if Lisa came to all the games and Ellie was forced to watch them hold hands and kiss and—
“Ellie,” Trey said. “Are you okay?”
She pushed the thought away. “I’m fine. Just hot.”
Trey handed her a shot of Patrón with a wicked gleam in his eye. “This will cool you off.”
She rolled her eyes. “Not likely.” Tequila made her burn, but given her current surroundings, that didn’t sound like such a bad proposition. She, Trey and Lisa licked the salt from their hands, downed the shots and popped the limes in their mouths.
Lisa squealed when the song changed and grabbed the other two women at the table. Derek, mercifully, started talking to the guy on his right.
“You having fun?” Trey asked.
She nodded. “Yeah. Sure.”
“You and Derek seem to be hitting it off.”
Ellie shrugged. She didn’t want to insult the guy since he was Trey’s friend, so she played the evasive card. “He’s nice. What’s he do for a living? Telemarketing?”
Trey burst into laughter. Ellie was blown away by the beauty of his smile. It was always there. They’d seen a lot of each other at school as both of them had lunch duty at the same time. He had an incredible rapport with students, joking and having fun with them while never crossing the line of professionalism.
“Derek’s a social worker, but now that you mention it, I think maybe he did miss his calling. Guy can talk for an hour straight without taking a breath.”
Ellie giggled. Apparently, Trey was perfectly aware of his friend’s tendency to talk too much. “Well, in that case, he could have been a telemarketer or deep sea diver.”
“What about the other guys?”
She was touched that Trey seemed to care so much about her having a good time. He’d promised to introduce her to some nice men and he’d followed through on it. It made her feel bad for not trying harder. “They’re nice. What’s Shawn’s story? He’s a little intense.”
“He’s a police officer. This isn’t really his scene anymore. He was crazy in college, but now that he’s sporting a badge, he tries to toe the line.”
“Ah,” Ellie said, nodding. The man had spent fifteen minutes talking about the growing drug problem in their town and a bust he’d participated in. Ellie hadn’t bothered to enlighten Shawn on the fact the drug house the police had raided had been on the street where she lived. “That explains why I keep getting the feeling he’s going to whip out a breathalyzer at any minute and cite us all for being drunk in public.”
Trey shook his head. “You’re not drunk. You’ve been nursing the same beer since you got here. That’s why I bought you the shot. Thought it might loosen you up a bit.”
She wasn’t sure how to respond. She thought he’d been totally into Lisa, but he’d obviously been watching her closely enough to notice what she was drinking. The thought made her warm inside. “I’m not much of a drinker. Actually, I think that shot is already working its magic.”
Whether it was the alcohol or Trey’s close proximity, she wasn’t feeling quite as down as she had been a few minutes earlier. “In fact, I feel like dancing.”
Trey grinned and started to stand. Before he could take her hand, Derek stood as well.
“Hot damn,” Derek said. “I’ve wanted to dance all night. Let’s go.” He grabbed Ellie’s hand and tugged her to the floor. She looked over her shoulder for Trey and spotted Lisa dragging him to the bar for another shot. She sighed and resigned herself to the fact that tonight was going to be a bust.
She closed her eyes and let the music and flashing lights take her away. She was here to meet guys who weren’t teachers. It didn’t look like that was going to happen tonight, but that didn’t mean she should quit trying. She’d wasted an entire year, nursing her wounded pride over Joel. She was about to turn over a new leaf. She moved to the song, letting the rhythm soothe her. She loved to dance. It helped her forget her worries. Her mistakes. Her desires.
Trey stood at the bar and watched Ellie dancing with Derek. She looked beautiful. She’d worn her hair down and the long brown waves flowed around her face as she swayed to the music. He’d found it hard to take his eyes off her all night.
“She won’t go out with you.”
Lisa’s voice broke through his daydreaming and he looked at her guiltily. He’d been pretty rude to the poor woman all evening, hanging out with her physically while his mind was a million miles away.
He gave her a questioning glance.
“Ellie,” Lisa explained. “She’s sworn off dating colleagues.”
Trey nodded. “I know. She told me.”
“Personally, I think she’s being a stubborn idiot about it, but Ellie seems to possess more than her fair share of tenacity. When she gets something in her head, she sticks to it. Not that I blame her,” Lisa said quickly. “Joel fucked her up bad. I’d probably still be curled in a fetal position in the corner of my bedroom if I’d been through what she has.”
Trey smiled. It was obvious Lisa and Ellie were good friends. “She mentioned the ex. Guy sounds like a prick.” He hoped Lisa would fill in some of the blanks about Ellie’s bad break-up. Aside from the few tidbits Ellie had shared on the dance floor at Tully’s, she’d been very closed-mouth on the subject.
“Prick with a capital P. He and Ellie dated for two years, lived together the last year of that. He had us all fooled. He was charming and funny and I don’t think there were any of Ellie’s friends—me included—who didn’t hear wedding bells in their future. Then she goes home one day and finds him in bed with her department chair from work.”
Trey winced. “Shit.”
“Yeah, you can say that again. Ellie went to work every single day last year, held her head high despite the fact there wasn’t a teacher in that school who didn’t know what Joel and Dawn had done to her. On the last day before summer, she sort of snapped. She and Joel got into the mother of all fights. I think it would have been okay except a couple of students walked b
y with their parents. One of them phoned in a complaint and the principal decided Ellie was expendable.”
“I think the principal kept the wrong teacher.”
“Tell me about it. Ellie’s had a rough year. She’s living in a freaking slum. Her house is smack-dab in the middle of drug city, but she keeps brushing me off when I tell her she needs to move. She’s also tiptoeing around on eggshells because she can’t really afford to lose another job. I’m worried about her. Not sure how long she can keep walking the thin line she’s drawn for herself before she just gets plain old worn out.”
Trey turned to look at Ellie once again and felt the respect he’d already felt for her deepen. “I didn’t realize how hard it had been for her.”
“Yeah well, that still doesn’t make this new vow of hers right. I mean Joel hurt her, not every male teacher on the East Coast.”
“It couldn’t have been easy for her to go to work and face that every day,” Trey added, feeling as if he should defend Ellie’s choices even though they were driving him insane.
“Oh, I get that. But what if Mr. Right is working at Preston and she lets him slip away because she’s too afraid to grab him.”
Trey leaned against the bar and studied Lisa’s face. “Mr. Right?”
She smiled. “Isn’t that who you’re hoping to be?”
“That obvious, is it?”
“You haven’t taken your eyes off her all night. I like you, Trey. You seem like a really nice guy, but I’m afraid your timing may be wrong.”
“What do you mean?”
Lisa took a sip of her drink. “Ellie hasn’t dated anyone since her break-up. She lost her job, made her vow to swear off workplace relationships, and along comes you. She’s gonna fight you. Hard.”
Trey sensed the truth behind Lisa’s words, and then he looked at Ellie once again.
His smile sent a frown to Lisa’s face.
“Why are you grinning?” she asked.
Trey shrugged. “Hard is something I’m very good at.”
Her frown turned to a scowl. “I didn’t tell you those things as a challenge. If you aren’t interested in anything more than getting in Ellie’s pants, then—”