Love on the Sidelines: A Small Town Sports Romcom

4. Charlie

I’m not sure what I expected when I showed up to take my niece to a ”tryout” for her new lacrosse team.

I also didn’t expect Ava to be the coach.

There aren”t too many single twenty-something women who will put in the time to coach a travel team. Was I picturing an overweight woman with a bad haircut? Maybe. Probably because that”s what Emily”s coach in Michigan looked like the few times I could make it to her tournaments.

Ava didn”t seem too excited to talk to me, but from everything Marsha told me through email and our one phone call last night to check in after she”d spoken with the parents, Ava might be a hard sell. Maybe she’s being awkward because I’m still sporting the bandage where she hit me yesterday?

The fact she took a step back from a check instead of her eyes turning into cartoon dollar signs is commendable. But it”s hard to turn down a donation when it helps the whole team.

I sit on the sidelines, watching as the group warms up and how Ava joins them for the jogging and stretching. She even picks up a stick and passes with one girl who doesn”t have a partner.

My sport has always been hockey, but I”m learning a lot about lacrosse. I had to call just about everyone I know in the sports world to get connections to a few teams within driving distance. On our call last night, I had thought Marsha was the coach.

This seems like the best fit from everything I’d researched, but I hope Ava doesn’t hold anything over Emily just because I’m her uncle. We’ve teased each other in the past, but something about our interaction on the pickleball courts and then again at the hospital yesterday signaled something deeper in Ava. What did I do that wrong this time?

A call comes through and I answer it. Right now, most of my phone calls are ones I need to pick up and not the dumb bots that call repeatedly.

”This is Charlie.”

“Hey Charlie, it”s Steve Hartman.”

My new general manager.

I nod, smiling. Steve is a legend in the NHL, having had a stellar career and then coaching several of the pro teams before he agreed to help us build the Utah Yetis. My goal is to build the professional sports realm in Salt Lake and the ultimate dream of mine is to have a professional baseball team here as well.

”It”s good to hear from you, Steve. What can I do for you?”

“We”re moving into the building today, but I just wanted to reach out for those checks you need to sign. We have a couple of contracts to go through, and then I think we”ll be ready to prepare for the expansion draft.”

Because this will be a new team in the NHL, in less than six weeks, we”ll be picking players from the rest of the teams in the league. That will make up the team for our first year, at least until trade time happens.

”Great. I”ll be down that way tomorrow morning and we can go over everything necessary to get the ball rolling.”

”Thanks, Charlie. I appreciate the opportunity to be here. Building a team will be quite the challenge.”

“One I know you can handle.”

I hang up the phone, grateful to have Steve there to help guide me through the parts of this that I don’t know or am just learning.

Ava has moved the girls into different drills and she”s walking around, giving feedback to each one. She must’ve played lacrosse as a teenager or in college. I’m not sure how I missed that. Maybe she started in high school?

”We can all use a good challenge in life,” I say, laughing to myself as I think about what Steve said.

Every part of my investing life has been a stretch for me, making it so I have to learn and grow from each situation. If only my dating life were as predictable.

As long as I have my work, though, I should be set for the next ten to twenty years. Fitting anything else into my life won’t last. Even if I wanted it to.