Chapter Twenty-seven
One Month Later
Lisa and Celeste were sitting near one of the fountains on campus, enjoying a fruit smoothie from the café. The sun was shining and students were walking by them, occasionally waving to them. Emily came along wearing shorts, a button-down Hawaiian print shirt, and a baseball cap on backward. That kid had her own style and Celeste loved seeing her spread her wings and come into her own.
“Hey, Coach. Hey, Professor. What’s going on?”
Emily sat down with them, uninvited but neither one minded. Lisa had talked to Celeste about her fondness toward Emily, and Emily would occasionally stop by during Celeste’s office hours just to talk about life. Celeste enjoyed their talks, especially being privy to how Emily’s mind worked. It turned out that she had a lot of good ideas about politics, history, sports, entertainment, and such. She was going to go places.
“Hello, Emily. How are you?”
“I’m cool. Just aced my sociology exam.”
“Atta kid. Keep up the good work. You still going to show the recruits around on Saturday, right?”
“Absolutely, Coach.” Emily slung her backpack over her shoulder. “Gotta get to my next class. See you, Coach. Bye, Professor.”
“Have a great day, Emily.”
A few minutes later, Gerald came by. “Just who I wanted to talk to. I wanted to quickly let you know that Jackie Stone has officially been let go from her position here, and as a condition of no jail time, she’s been ordered to attend anger management classes and to stay away from you, Celeste.”
“Thank you for letting me know, Gerald.”
“You ladies have a good day.”
They were finally alone, and Celeste really wanted to hold Lisa’s hand and kiss her but instead she settled for smiling and looking into her eyes.
“How about we celebrate tonight, Coach? No more Jackie Stone.”
“How about we not give Jackie any more of our energy and we celebrate us?”
“That’s a brilliant idea, my love.”
“Thanks for taking a shot at love with me, baby. I love you.”
“I love you, Coach.”
The End
About the Author
KC Richardson attended college on a basketball scholarship, and her numerous injuries in her various sports led her to a career in physical therapy. Her love for reading and writing allows her to create characters and tell their stories. Her second novel, Courageous Love, was a Golden Crown Literary Award finalist in the Traditional Contemporary Romance category. She and her wife live in Southern California where they are trying to raise respectful fur kids.
When KC isn’t torturing/fixing people, she loves spending time with her wonderful friends and family, reading, writing, kayaking, working out, and playing golf. She can be reached at [email protected], on Twitter @KCRichardson7 and on Facebook.
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Taking a Shot at Love Page 23