With a deep sigh, she walked to the steps and crept into the water a little at a time.
The way the water beaded up on her skin made him even harder. When she was waist deep in the pool, her nipples hardened, no doubt because of the cold water, but it was sexy as hell. He had no trouble imagining teasing those nipples with the tip of his tongue. He shivered.
“Cold?” she asked. She moved deeper into the water and closer to him.
“Something like that,” he answered with a wink.
Chapter Seven
After seeing him in the pool after practice, she decided that her first impression of him was correct: his body was perfect. Like something off a romance cover.
While they’d agreed just to be friends, it wasn’t easy to stop thinking about him. To stop wondering what he’d look like totally naked. And in her bed.
On Wednesday, Maddie jumped every time the phone rang. She told herself it was because she hoped Callie called. But she was lying to herself. While she’d love to hear from her sister, somehow her calls home only made things harder. Finally, around midnight, she admitted to herself that she was hoping for a call from David.
By Thursday afternoon, she was beyond testy. Almost forty-eight hours had passed without a word from him.
She had to keep reminding herself that she’d told him she wasn’t interested. If she didn’t want to get involved with him, why couldn’t she stop thinking about him?
The body. The wink. Those were two of the big whys. She wasn’t even going to think about his lips. That was dangerous territory.
No amount of reasoning put her in a better mood. Andrew noticed her foul humor the moment she picked him up from school.
“What’s the matter, Aunt Maddie?”
“What do you mean? Nothing’s wrong.” She cringed, hearing the bark in her own voice.
“You haven’t even fussed at me for not pulling my hood over my head in this rain.”
“I’m fine, really. I just have a lot on my mind. I had a lot of difficult clients today. And I’m trying to mentally prepare for the game on Saturday.”
“You’re upset because Coach Sterling hasn’t called, aren’t you?”
How did the kid get so smart? Did he miss anything?
“No. Coach Sterling has his own life. He’s probably a very busy man. He was just helping me learn the game and now we’ll probably only see him at practices and games.”
“Then why was he kissing you? Kissing has nothing to do with football.”
“You have a point, Andrew,” she admitted. “But sometimes things between adults aren’t so black and white. It’s okay. I’m fine. Do you have lots of homework?” she asked, trying to steer the conversation in a decidedly different direction.
“Not much. Can I go over to Tommy’s house later and stay for dinner?”
“Sure, I guess. I thought you didn’t really like going to his house when you had to stay inside.”
“Usually I don’t, but he’s got a new Wii game I want to play and his mom’s grilling steaks on their covered porch. We never have steaks. We don’t even have a grill.”
She ignored his barb about the grill, which he’d been begging for all summer. Apparently they were the only house in town without one.
“Well, finish your homework and then you can go. I’ll pick you up after dinner.”
As soon as she entered the house, hauling Andrew’s fifteen-pound backpack over her left arm, the phone rang. She dropped the pack in the middle of the living room floor and raced through the house trying to locate the cordless phone. She grabbed it off her cluttered desk just as it stopped ringing. Of course the caller hung up before the answering machine had a chance to pick up the call.
She checked the caller ID in the window of the phone. Private call.
It wasn’t like David didn’t have her cell phone number.
She stomped into the kitchen, grabbed an apple out of the fruit basket and poured herself a diet soda.
After telling herself that she wouldn’t let herself get so upset over a guy she wasn’t even dating, she took the snack back to her office and checked her email. After all, they’d agreed that a personal relationship wasn’t a good idea.
At least she thought they’d agreed.
A few minutes later, the doorbell rang.
She willed her heart to stop racing, smoothed her unruly curls back from her face and walked to the door.
It was him.
“Lieutenant Sterling. What a surprise,” she said, her voice sounding much cooler than she felt.
“When did you stop calling me David?” he asked. He quirked an eyebrow and stepped into the living room.
She had to stop this confusing charade. Now.
“Look, last week we spent so much time together, and things got so…heated, and even though I told you we couldn’t get involved, well, a part of me laid some kind of claim to you. But, after thinking through it, I realize that you have your own life.”
“My own life?” He knitted his brow and looked down at her.
“I just realized that you have a life outside of coaching fourth-grade football. I don’t think I considered that before.”
“My own life? All I have in my life is my job. I jog, I go to work, run errands and call my parents in Mississippi. That’s it.”
“But I have no right to assume any kind of ownership of your time. We’re working together and that means I need to respect those boundaries and not assume a personal connection.”
He shook his head as if to clear it. “Girl, you think way too much for your own good.”
She smiled. “Professional hazard.”
“While you were doing all that thinking, did you consider my suggestion? That we just let things unfold naturally and see what happens?”
She wanted to say it wouldn’t work. Wanted to turn him down.
“Before you answer that, let me tell you why I came over tonight. Would you like to go to dinner at Merrimon’s on Saturday night? We could talk about the game over a nice dinner, complete with a bottle of wine.”
She’d wanted to eat there since she’d moved to town. “Merrimon’s, huh?” She felt her resolve weakening. She shouldn’t. She knew that. But before she could stop herself, she said, “Okay, then, Saturday night. I’ll see if Peggy will let Andrew stay over.”
Why did she always cave when it came to David? She’d been about to tell him, again, that there was no future for them, and now she had a date with him.
“It’s a date then.” His eyes glittered with impish charm. “How about you wear one of those girly-girl dresses?”
“I’ll see what I can come up with.” She grinned.
He moved toward her. Before she could stop herself, she moved closer to him. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close to him. She ran her arms up his steel-hard biceps, feeling the iron of his muscle through the thin cotton fabric of his T-shirt. His amber eyes looked deeply into hers for a long moment. Her stomach tightened with desire.
With a quick seamless motion, he slid his fingers through her curls and lifted her head toward his lips. The moist heat of his lips on hers sent a wave of electrical current up her spine. He deepened the kiss, putting more pressure on her swollen lips. She felt his need to taste her as she heard a moan escape her lips. His mouth moved from her lips down the side of her neck.
He pulled away slowly, each kiss getting softer and softer.
“What are you…?” She couldn’t seem to string a coherent sentence together. She still craved the taste of him, the sweet pressure of his lips on hers.
“Mmm…” He looked at her. “You taste so good, like spun sugar. I can’t wait until the time is right for me to spend all night doing this.”
She smiled, breathless. After those kisses, she’d totally forgotten she’d nearly written him off forever less than half an hour ago.
Chapter Eight
Maddie grabbed Andrew’s overnight bag and heaved it into the trunk with the mesh bags of football equipment. He wa
s heading to a friend’s house after the game so she could go on her date with David.
It was already eight thirty. The game was scheduled to start in a little more than an hour and, as usual, she was running late.
“Andrew, come on,” she yelled into the house. “I can’t be late when I’m the coach of the team. What kind of example would that set?”
“You’re always late,” he yelled back as he pulled the front door shut behind him and ran down the front steps toward the car.
“I am not always late,” she replied, checking her rearview mirror. “Just sometimes.”
This drew a giggle from the backseat. Andrew’s laugh was so infectious that she gave in and giggled with him.
By the time they reached the field, most of the parents had already arrived. Boys were pouring from the backseats of minivans, SUVs, and sedans, moving like a trail of ants toward the sidelines. She checked her watch. Forty-five minutes until her mettle as a coach would officially be tested. And less than twelve hours before David picked her up for their date. She could hardly wait. For the date.
She was a little less enthusiastic about the game.
She spied David standing by the benches with a clipboard in his hand, and the butterflies in her stomach settled down a bit. An air of command exuded from him and he was more handsome than ever.
“Morning, Coach,” he said, giving her a smile that sent her pulse racing. “You ready for the big event?”
The ambiguity in the question instantly sent her mind traveling in the direction of their date tonight and the feel of his hands on her skin.
“Which one?” she asked as coyly as she could in light of the fact she was on the sidelines of her first football game as a coach.
“Of course, I meant the football game, miss. What other big event is there?” Amusement flickered in his eyes.
He moved closer to her. His fingers were warm and strong as they gripped her elbow. She felt his breath tickling her ear.
“You’re not thinking about a hot date you’re going on later tonight, are you?” he asked, whispering in her ear in a deep and sensual voice. “Because I promise you, darling, you’re nowhere close to ready for that.”
He winked at her and walked back toward the bench of boys before she had a chance to say anything. Inhaling, she tried desperately to clear her mind of anything other than football, and went over to the boys for a roll call.
All the boys were present and dressed properly with the right helmets, pads, and cleats. They all looked well-rested and judging by the way they shifted their feet, it was clear they were ready to play.
David fussed at a couple of the kids more than once for not sitting on the bench and waiting patiently for game time.
The game was delayed by fifteen minutes because the referee was running late. In truth, the delay helped Maddie because it gave her time to go over the game plan with Coach Sterling and the boys one last time. They must have thought she was a stickler for details, but really she was just terrified that if the game didn’t go according to plan, she might not have any idea what was happening.
David called all the players together on the sidelines.
“Now, does everyone remember our plays?” He’d created six plays for the offense and six plays for the defense. At the end of the last practice, he’d drilled them on the plays and most of them seemed to know them backward and forward.
The boys all nodded their heads.
“Does anyone have any questions?”
They all shook their heads.
“Good. Now Coach is going to say a few things. Coach?”
She stepped forward and tried to look like she was completely in control.
“We expect you to behave as gentlemen at all times. Is that understood?”
She was answered with a loud, collective “yes, ma’am.”
“The two team captains for this game are Josh and Grayson. Remember that they’re the only two that can call time-outs. Keep your jerseys tucked in, and make sure you have your mouthpiece in for every play. We don’t want to take any penalties—especially dumb ones. Let’s have a good clean game and do our best to make this first game a win.”
The boys gave a loud cheer and headed back to the bench to wait for the whistle.
When it was time to start, the ref checked in with the coaches on their respective sidelines, and then the team captains walked to the center of the field to shake hands and flip the coin.
Their team won the coin toss and elected to start on defense. Josh and Grayson ran back to the sidelines and they sent two defensive players for the first play. Maddie’s nerves were on edge. She couldn’t believe that she was on the sideline of an actual football game. And she was posing as the actual coach. It was surreal.
“Relax,” David whispered, putting his hand on her shoulder. “The boys will do fine. They’ve looked good in practice and they were obviously well-coached last year. They know what to do.”
The whistle blew and the boys lined up for the first play of the game. The opposing team’s offense looked a lot bigger than her defensive players. That couldn’t be a very good sign. She squatted on the sideline and tried to keep from chewing on her nails, especially since she’d just painted them a cotton-candy pink in anticipation of tonight’s date.
She was amazed at the speed of the other team’s quarterback. He quickly put several yards of distance between himself and her players. He threw the ball into the hands of his receiver downfield and hit him right in the numbers. The kid caught the ball and scored a touchdown before her boys even caught sight of the ball. Her players had obviously either forgotten the defensive play David called, or they never knew it at all. To add insult to injury, they scored a two-point conversion with a simple play that could’ve been blocked with ease, even by an eight-year-old. She’d watched the boys carefully in practice and she thought they were prepared.
Coach Sterling called the team into a huddle on the sidelines.
“Come on, boys. The other team made scoring those eight points look too easy. I know it’s the first game of the season and it might just be a case of nerves, but that was embarrassing. Pull it together, now. Think about the play we’re running. Stay in the moment. They’re only up by one TD and a two-point conversion at the moment. We can come back, but if they strike again, it’ll be an uphill battle. Keep your head in the game. Coach?”
He turned to her, reached out his arm and drew her closer to the center of the huddle.
“Look guys, none of you stayed with the play. All of you missed your blocks. You were not the same group of guys I saw at practice on Tuesday. Here’s the deal: if we lose today, every single one of you will run the number of laps the other team scores on us. If we win, I’ll run the number of laps we score on them while you guys sit in the center of the track and eat the ice cream. Now if anybody has any questions about a play, see me on offense and Coach Sterling on D.”
The boys stacked their hands and shouted a cheer. David quirked his eyebrow and looked at Maddie.
“You’re already resorting to making them run laps? It’s a little early for that, don’t you think?”
“No. Running never hurt anyone. Besides, the conditioning will be good for them. I can’t say I want to run the laps if they win, but looking at the other team, I’d say there’s only a small chance that I’ll be in the grocery store buying ice cream next Tuesday afternoon.”
“You’re telling me about the benefits of running?” he teased. “I’m willing to bet that was just a case of first play jitters. Our boys are going to be good this year. I hope you’ve got a good pair of running shoes.” He walked down the sideline to watch the play.
The whistle blew and her quarterback took off like a rocket. The offensive line did a great job of blocking the defenders. Before she knew it, the quarterback handed the ball off to one of his running backs and the kid slipped through the defense like a warm knife through butter.
The other team’s defense caught up with him about thirty
yards downfield giving the team a first down. She yelled a play out from the sidelines and the boys nodded.
The next play went nowhere, but then the boys hit their groove and they made first downs all the way to a touchdown. When the two-point conversion play she designed with David’s help succeeded, she yelled louder than any of the parents in the bleachers.
Their team didn’t give an inch. At halftime they were all so excited she didn’t even try to give them a pep talk. She just made them drink some fluids, patted them on the back and sent them back onto the field.
In the second half, the other team fought back and tied the game at the beginning of the fourth quarter. She held her breath on the sidelines. The laps long forgotten, she was completely absorbed in the game. With only two minutes left to play, her boys got the ball close to mid-field after the other team lost the ball on downs.
She crossed her fingers and yelled her encouragement to her team. David paced up and down the sidelines, yelling plays and encouragement to the boys.
It was hard to watch. Since the boys were beginning to tire, each play was a struggle. Both teams were slow and sluggish. When the whistle blew on what was likely to be the last play, Maddie closed her eyes. She didn’t open them until she heard David cheering. Andrew, playing at the running-back position, had the ball and he was only a couple of feet in front of the closest defender. He looked back at the guy and threw his legs into turbo. He was a blur as he raced into the end zone.
The buzzer blew and she and David, along with the rest of the team, rushed out onto the field to congratulate Andrew. His face, red from the exertion, glowed with pride.
“Andrew, where did you get that speed? I’ve never seen you run like that,” she said.
“You do what you have to in a game,” Andrew answered.
She wished Callie could have been here to see him. Her sister would have been so proud. Maddie had gotten a few short videos on her smartphone but it wasn’t the same.
The kids dispersed, leaving the coaches to pick up left behind equipment.
“Good game, Coach. It’s nice to put the first one in the win column. You did a great job. That pep talk early in the first quarter really got them moving. Anybody suggest a flavor for the ice cream yet?”
Coach Maddie and the Marine Page 9