Chapter 25
25
Do you think it’ll be weird if we show up together?” Franny asked.
“Maybe.” She felt Jade shrug. “But who gives a shit. What we’re doing isn’t nearly as messy as half the shit our coworkers get up to.”
“Fair enough. I just… I don’t want other people’s reactions to spook you.”
“It’s not like we’re going to have sex on top of the truck.”
“You know what I mean, goofy.”
They were in bed, naked and entwined, legs tangled and bodies warm, the soft first light of dawn shining through the white eyelet curtains of Jade’s bedroom window. Franny tucked her head farther underneath Jade’s chin, planting a small kiss at the hollow to signify her affection. Jade’s arms tightened around her in response. Her brown skin was still sleep-warm and free of any type of perfume. Just clean sweat and eau de Jade. It was an addictive thing to take in, and Franny never wanted to be without the comfort of it. Not now that she’d grown accustomed.
It was the first day of school for all K–12 students in Greenbelt’s public school system. They had a few spare minutes to lie with each other before they were forced to get up and take the world on. Franny closed her eyes, imagining the noise and hustle that was to come compared to this peacefulness. She didn’t want to give it up, not yet—not ever.
“They won’t spook me. They can’t. The only thing that spooks me now is fucking this up,” Jade said.
The two had hardly left each other’s side for a week and a half. The day after their date, they’d split long enough for Franny to go grab some essentials from her apartment and book it back to Jade’s. They’d had five football practices in the time between, and each one they’d shown up to in separate cars, pretending like nothing between them had changed.
Generally, that wasn’t so difficult. Tensions were high on the team with them being so close to their first official game of the season. And both she and Jade were firmly entrenched in the roles they played in getting their win and kicking the season off on a high note.
Of course, there were also their personal ambitions…
But every time they got in their respective cars and sped out of the parking lot, they met at the same place—Jade’s little driveway. They’d cooked meals together, gone grocery shopping at the Piggly Wiggly. There had been multiple mixed loads of laundry done and bodywash sharing. Their toothbrushes had even touched heads with surprisingly little disgust on both their parts.
The shacking up had commenced, and the night before, they’d finally discussed how they might handle getting to and from work now that this was a real thing . Franny hated to admit it, but she’d been surprised with how easily Jade had taken to the idea of saying, “Fuck it,” and showing up together. She had pitched it to her as an “it makes more sense environmentally to save gas” idea, but Jade had come right out to say that if others didn’t go to any great lengths to hide their entanglements, they shouldn’t have to either.
So they wouldn’t.
They’d keep things professional. No public displays of affection during school hours. No spilling tea to any of their colleagues. But they’d let them think whatever the hell they wanted, and if some of them ran into something along the lines of the truth, then so be it.
“You’re not going to fuck it up,” Franny told her, believing every word.
“Well, I’m me, which means there’s always room to fuck it up.”
Franny pulled away until she was leaning up on her elbow, looking Jade in the eye. She soothed the wrinkle between Jade’s eyebrows with her thumb and planted a kiss there when her brows unfurrowed.
“I don’t accept that.”
Jade chuckled, her eyes rolling fondly. “Of course you don’t.”
“My Jade is not a fucker-upper. In fact, she’s a fixer-u—” Franny stopped, grimacing.
“A what, Francesca? A fixer-upper? I’m a fixer-upper?”
“In my defense, I didn’t really think that through all that well. But you know that’s not what I mean. I’m just as liable to screw things up as you, which is why we have to hold each other accountable.”
“And how do we do that?”
“We call each other out on our bullshit. We listen when we get called out. We don’t go running for the hills at the first sign of trouble. And we definitely”—Franny kissed her neck—“ definitely don’t give up without a fight.”
“A relationship manifesto,” Jade said. “They’re like our team rules.”
“Exactly. They give us something to remember every time we step out on that field, Coach.”
Jade groaned loud and long. “I actually really hate you calling me ‘Coach’ in bed.”
“Oh yeah?”
“I’d much rather you go back to ‘my Jade.’ I enjoyed that way more.”
“My Jade.” Franny leaned forward and kissed her, thumb moving over one of the dark nipples that became exposed as the sheets settled around their waists. “My Jade. My Jade. My Jade.”
“Francesca.”
A shiver ran through Franny’s body, the same way it always did when she heard her name on Jade’s lips.
“Maybe we’ve got a little time for—”
The shrill sound of two phone alarms blaring at the exact same time cut her off, and she groaned.
“Fuck,” Jade whined.
“’Tis time.” Franny jumped out of bed before she began to entertain the idea of convincing Jade to quit their jobs and live in bed full-time. “School’s back, baby.”
“I hate you.”
“You so don’t. You… opposite of hate me.”
A look flashed across Jade’s face that immediately made Franny’s stomach flip. They didn’t have time to think about that. It was too early, too hectic, too… She clenched her eyes shut, willing the image of it away, along with her silly desires to say things they couldn’t possibly have been ready to say.
Then, when they brushed their teeth in tandem, eyes locked in the bathroom mirror, Franny pretended not to understand what the heated gaze between them was for.
The first day of classes went as smoothly as it could possibly go. There had been no fights and minimal tears, which counted as a win for Franny. By the time school was over, she was knock-down, drag-out exhausted. And by the time she made her way from cleaning up her classroom to the football field for afternoon practice, she wanted nothing more than to collapse into bed.
Jade slipped her a prebottled iced coffee and a wink as Franny slunk by her to join Carr and the O-line boys.
“We thinking barrel drills today, Coach?”
The boys had been solid with their hits recently. Their strength training and speed were coming in strong, but there were a few who needed more practice on staying in control while they were on the line. Barrel drills would help show them how to keep the right center of gravity needed to maintain speed without losing control.
“I’m thinking exactly what you’re thinking, Coach,” Carr answered.
She rolled her eyes, watching out the corner of her eye as Carr parked his behind in the folding chair he had on the sidelines and started reading the day’s paper.
“I’m not a coach,” she mumbled, thinking there was no way he could hear her.
“We’ll see if that’s still true in a few days, I guess,” he said, chuckling.
Franny rallied the boys without a whistle, getting one of the seniors to set up the barrels while she explained the drill to the kids. It wasn’t a new one for them, but it never hurt to reiterate, in her opinion. Nor did it hurt to get out there and show them with her own body how they might go about getting the desired result.
She watched them with a scrutinizing eye, arms crossed, trying to find points of correction in their forms. Every now and again, she’d interrupt the drill to show one of them how to reposition their hips or straighten their stance.
Twenty minutes in, she called for a break, slapping the boys on their heaving backs while they all lined up for the watercooler.
She lifted her own water bottle to her mouth, using the guise of drinking to take an actual look downfield at where Jade was watching her D-line do hand-fighting drills. A tactical way of play fighting that would help defensive players keep the offensive players’ hands off their bodies.
Franny swiped the back of her hand across her forehead. The sun was relentless today, and she had forgotten to bring a change of clothes for practice. So she stood there in a pair of full-legged dungarees with suns and moons printed all over them and a T-shirt underneath. The air conditioner in the building was strong enough that she likely would have been cold in any fewer clothes, but it made for a brutal time out on the field. So much so that she reached down to cuff the hem of her dungarees a few times in hopes that an errant breeze might sweep across her ankles and cool her off.
Jade had not been so forgetful. In fact, she’d even made quite the departure from her normal khaki shorts and coaching polo and was fitted out in an old Greenbelt T-shirt and a pair of white running shorts that showed off her long legs. She was completely homed in on what was happening in front of her, those keen eyes watching, using her whistle every time she needed to correct someone or something.
Her D-line was in tip-top shape too, focused and strong. It was clear that Jade’s word was complete and total law. Not just because she’d ordained it as such but because she’d earned the right for it to be.
Franny always loved watching her like this—in her element. As stern as she looked, as seriously as she took her job, her love for it was impossible to hide. Something special came over her every time she stepped out on the field. Franny found it indescribable, intangible. If there was a name for it, she didn’t know what it was, but recognizing the spark in Jade’s eyes was becoming easier for her by the day.
She made no attempts to keep herself from staring, not even when Jade blew her whistle and released her players for their water break. Almost as if she sensed she was being watched, she looked down the field, catching Franny’s eye in a blink and flashing her one of those shy smiles of hers.
They started walking toward each other at the same time. They met on the sidelines, somewhere in the middle, and Franny had to shove her hands in the front pockets of her overalls to keep from reaching out to Jade. She hadn’t gone this long without touching the other woman in days, and the withdrawal was brutal. The two women stood side by side, both facing the field. Franny with her hands tucked away and Jade with her arms crossed.
“I think we’re going to take it,” Franny remarked.
“Oh yeah?”
“Mm-hmm. They’re strong, and they want it.”
“That might not be enough,” Jade said, facing ahead and squinting.
“No, I can feel it. Not just about this game either but the whole season. It feels like something is building.”
“That could just be indigestion from the leftover pizza we had this morning.”
“You don’t have to believe me, Dunn.” Franny laughed. “But I think luck is on our side.”
“I sure as hell want you to be right,” Jade admitted. “It’s impossible to say, though. The last time I talked to Landry, he told me that I needed to work on looking at the big picture.”
“Is this team having a good season not the bigger picture?”
“No, it is. But winning the first game isn’t. Neither is harping on luck, unfortunately.”
Franny nodded, conceding to her point. “I guess that’s why you’re the one in charge.”
“The only place I’m in charge is when it’s time to choose what we’re going to have for dinner,” Jade said quietly, out the side of her mouth.
“For now.”
Jade made a noncommittal noise, then sniffed, dropping her arms to her sides. “Focusing on the big picture right now means that, well, it means that maybe I don’t let my ambitions cloud my reality.”
“Jade.” Franny sucked in a breath. “You are not giving up on this. You’re not…”
Franny couldn’t fathom a version of Jade that existed without a dream—this dream. Landry was not in attendance at first-day practice because of meetings or something, but Franny suddenly felt the need to seek him out and give him a real piece of her mind.
“I’m not. You know I’m not. I never will. I’m like a damn dog with a bone. I’m not giving it up. I’m just not going to keep letting myself make awful decisions in defense of it.”
They caught each other’s eyes and held their gazes. Franny didn’t care if anyone noticed. “One bad decision does not a fuckup make, Jade.”
Suddenly, Jade looked away. “I’m not just talking about the West Beaufort thing… I’m talking about you too.”
“Oh, Jade…” Franny shook her head in disagreement.
“I missed out on a lot of time that could have been spent with you. I was mean to you for no reason. I said awful things…”
Franny touched Jade’s arm, and the muscles tensed underneath her palm. The touch was simple, but it linked them together in a tangible way, and as she kept her hand there, she could feel Jade’s shoulders loosen.
“You were definitely an asshole,” she said. “But I liked playing along just fine.”
“Still. I want this too much to let it slip through my fingers because I didn’t know when to stop bluffing and fold.”
“Jade, look at me, please.”
Jade’s movements were reluctant, a slow turn of the head until they were face-to-face again. The tears in Jade’s eyes made Franny’s heart ache. The scene around them was far from quiet. Even on their water breaks, the team was loud, boisterous. Their camaraderie was evident even through their exhaustion. The heat, the artificial smell of the Astroturf, even the sounds of the people around them faded away into nothing the second their eyes met.
Franny smiled at her. “There isn’t a single version of me in existence that would ever want to see you give up your dream. You might not believe in luck or destiny, but I’m silly enough to, and I believe that this is only one of many great things you’re meant for. There’s no need to put it on the back burner, not for me. I’m not coming to you with ultimatums, Jade. So please don’t give yourself any on my behalf.”
Jade looked down, sniffing and blinking away the tears Franny had seen pooling in her eyes. It honestly seemed as if they both had cried full-on rivers in recent history.
“You’ll keep me honest, though, won’t you?” Jade’s voice was as meek as she’d ever heard it. “If I start getting buck wild again?”
“Yeah. I’ll keep you on the straight and narrow, kid.”
Franny’s heart stuttered in her chest for what felt like the thousandth time since she’d first laid eyes on this woman. Practice be damned, she wanted to kiss her, feel the warmth of her lips and her body. Franny wanted to give Jade the comfort she knew she needed.
“We need to get back to work.” Jade cleared her throat.
“Yeah, before I jump your bones.”
“We’ll continue at home?”
“Yes. At home.”