Chapter 5 #2
Levi cleared his throat and straightened. “Right. Of course. I knew that.”
Haddie shrugged. “It’s better than splitting my team in half and not having enough players on the field. You’re not afraid of a little friendly competition, are you?”
More oohs and aahs erupted from both teams as Levi considered her. Something flashed in his eyes before a smile spread across his face, and Haddie could have sworn that for a split second, he was afraid of the challenge. But why?
“You’re on, Coach Martin.” He lifted his visor from his head, ran a hand through his disheveled hair, and then pulled the bill back down to shield his eyes. “May the best team win.”
Haddie winked at him. “Oh…we will.”
They shook hands, Haddie’s eyes twinkling with mischief. “My girls are ready to give you a run for your money.”
“Is that so?” Levi raised an eyebrow, the corners of his mouth turning up in a grin. “Well, I guess we’ll just have to see about that.”
“Guess so,” Haddie agreed, smiling. As she watched Levi walk back to his team, she couldn’t help but feel a pang of sympathy for him.
He came home to coach football, and he’d been given the school’s soccer team instead.
Her pang didn’t last long, though. Because when it came to the sport she loved—and to proving herself in a new job, at a new school, in a brand-freaking-new town—Haddie Martin wasn’t pulling any punches.
“Remember, team,” Haddie called out as her first eleven players took their spots on the field, her voice laced with determination. “It’s all about teamwork and communication!”
“Let’s do this!” Levi echoed, his gaze meeting hers for a brief moment, and there it was again, the flicker of uncertainty before he blew his whistle, signaling the kickoff.
Despite McMannus’s powerful kick that sent the ball hurtling toward Haddie’s team’s goal, Levi’s team fumbled on the field, their lack of coordination and communication evident in every missed pass and misstep.
Haddie watched intently, her gaze sharp as she studied their movements.
The sun cast playful shadows on the grass beneath them, but the actual playing sent a whole new pang straight to Haddie’s heart—guilt.
Billy McMannus might be a power forward, but other than that, Levi’s team was a mess. As soon as Haddie’s team gained possession of the ball, it was only a matter of seconds until they scored their first goal—before the other team’s goalie even knew what happened.
They were going to annihilate Levi’s team, which would not bode well for anyone’s spirit the very first day of the season.
“Time out!” Haddie cried after the teams began to reset following the goal. “Coaches’…um…coaches’ conference!” she added, then grabbed Levi’s elbow and pulled him onto the track.
“What’s going on?” she whisper-shouted.
“What do you mean?” he replied through gritted teeth, which told her he knew exactly what she meant.
“Levi.” She backhanded him on the shoulder. “That was not soccer out there. That was… That was…”
“The worst,” he admitted. “They’re going to get their asses handed to them.”
She threw her hands in the air, keenly aware that all eyes were on her wild gesticulations and that all ears were probably straining to hear what they were saying.
She knew Levi knew nothing about soccer, but she couldn’t believe Coach Crawford tossed him a team where almost every player seemed to know even less.
He lifted his visor again and scratched the back of his neck. Sweat glistened on the dark hair at his temples.
Why, of all thoughts that could possibly be roaming around in her head right now, was she thinking about how the combination of a sweaty, frustrated, vulnerable Levi was one of the sexiest things she’d ever seen?
Shut. Up. Brain. This was a man in crisis with a team in crisis, and Haddie wanted to help. Instead she found herself wondering where else he was sweating and how a man like him might like to—ahem—work out his frustrations.
“Your players need to work on their positioning. They’re bunching up too much, making it easy for my team to intercept the ball,” she blurted out, forcing her thoughts back toward soccer.
He nodded once. “Are you coaching me, Coach?” he asked, but he wasn’t smiling, and Haddie couldn’t gauge his tone.
She crossed and uncrossed her arms, then cleared her throat. “Don’t you want me to coach you?”
“I thought it was going to be one-on-one,” Levi replied.
“If my team finds out…” His voice trailed off as he lowered his visor back on his head and mirrored her crossed-arm stance.
“I’m a good coach,” he assured her. “And I know the basic rules. But I know football better than I knew my own name. I can coach it in my sleep. Hell, sometimes I do. I’m not used to…
uh…” He sighed. “This is going to make me sound like a real asshole, but I’m not used to not being good at something. ” He winced. “See? Asshole.”
Haddie laughed. “It took some very non-asshole vulnerability for you to even admit that, so I’m going to have to disagree, Coach Rourke.
Tossing the asshole call out.” She shrugged.
“Sorry to disappoint you.” She took a step closer, just to make sure no one trying to eavesdrop could hear what she said next.
“Look, if we keep up this scrimmage like we’re doing, my team is going to wipe the floor with yours.
But if you follow my lead, let me give you some pointers, I think we can give your guys a fighting chance to hold their own. ”
Levi held out his hand, and Haddie gave it a firm shake.
“Deal,” he told her.
Haddie grinned, then grabbed the whistle around his neck, tugged it between her lips, and blew.
“Let’s play!” she called toward the teams still waiting on the field.
Then, whistle still in her hand—and still wrapped around Levi’s neck—she glanced at her fellow coach whose eyes were still squeezed shut.
She winced. “That was loud, huh?” she asked.
Levi nodded.
“And I didn’t give you any warning, did I?” she added.
He shook his head.
“Should I step away now?” Haddie asked with a nervous smile.
Levi finally opened his eyes. He raised his brows as he stared down at the instrument of ear torture still pinched between her thumb and forefinger.
“Right!” Haddie dropped the whistle. “Sorry!”
He shook his head and let out a rueful laugh. “I can’t believe you did that.”
Haddie snorted and backhanded him on the shoulder, and Levi laughed too. Just like that, they’d somehow leveled the playing field, pushing Haddie’s less-than-roommately thoughts into the recesses of her brain.
Together they pivoted back toward the field and strode toward their teams.
“Today we’ll focus on positioning and studying your opponent,” she told him as they strode toward their teams. “No one is so good yet that they need to be double-teamed or anything like that. So tell your defense to follow whoever they are guarding rather than the ball and to study that player’s strengths and weaknesses.
Tomorrow we’ll work on passing. Wednesday, setting up and running plays.
Thursday, we’ll record our scrimmage, and Friday we’ll kick it off by watching and analyzing the recording. Sound like a plan?”
Levi stopped mid-stride and stared at her for a long moment.
“What?” she asked, stumbling to a halt herself.
He shook his head. “Nothing,” he told her with a grin. “Just—”
“Are we playing or what, Coach Martin?” Sarah called from the girls’ team’s goal area.
Both coaches jogged toward center field.
“Okay, folks!” Haddie called as they approached. “Bring it in for a second!”
Both teams jogged toward the center, forming a huddle on each side of the center-field line.
She nodded toward Levi. “What’s our focus today, Coach?”
Levi’s eyes widened, but then he clapped his hands together, and she watched him morph to laser-focused.
“Today is all about covering your opponent and your spot on the field. Worry about the ball when it comes your way, but worry about your counterpart every second you’re out there.
Got it? Study their strengths and weaknesses and learn from them.
We’ll start tomorrow’s camp by demonstrating one thing we learned from our opponents. ” He blew his whistle. “Positions!”
The players scattered back to their positions, and Haddie gave her opposing coach an appraising nod.
“Nice work, Coach!” she called as she backed toward the sideline.
“Thanks, Coach,” he replied with a wink that, had it come from anyone else, would have been cheesy as hell. But from Levi, she knew it was an acknowledgment of what she’d done for him and his team.
“Thanks, Coach!” a group of students—some from each team—parroted in a singsong tone.
“You guys are super cute together!” one of Haddie’s girls added.
What Haddie would have given for a whistle of her own at that moment, but it didn’t matter. Nothing was going to burst her bubble today, certainly not a few know-it-all teens who actually knew nothing about Haddie and Levi at all.
A warmth spread through her, but this was different from getting hot and bothered by a sweaty, frustrated man. It felt almost like it did when she saw Emma the first time after she’d left Chicago to move back to Summertown. It felt like…affection. For a friend.
So she had a hot roommate. She could live with that. Because she could also tell that he was a good guy, and the kind of friend she wouldn’t mind having as she navigated the start of a new life.
“May the best coach win,” she told him as they took their positions on the sideline.
Levi nodded. “She will.”