Chapter 8 #2
Allyson doubles over, laughing louder and grabbing onto Elodie for balance. “Thick! Like his dick! Oh, Jesus,” she gasps as she straightens, still giggling. “I didn’t think I’d get a comedy show today.”
I glare at her. “It’s not funny.”
She bites her lip and tries hard to look serious, her deep brown eyes bright with tears of laughter. She manages it for all of three seconds before bursting out laughing again.
“And I’m not wrong,” I tell Kari, my words clipped.
“But you said –”
“I know exactly what I said,” I snap. “And that is Matthew. Full stop.”
Kari’s lips thin.
“Your face is getting awfully red,” Elodie muses.
“You think?” I scoff, then step in the arsehole’s direction.
“Wait!” Kari grabs for me again. “Please.”
I stare at her, then blink down at her hand on my arm. It feels cool against my overheated skin.
She releases me, raising both hands in the air. “He’s the head coach of a professional sports team, Sam.”
“He’s the man who married and then ghosted me, Kari,” I snarl back.
“True.” She sounds like she’s trying to soothe an angry bear. “But this is the team picnic. Do you really want to air your private matters to the entire team?”
“What I want is to rip him in half, but I don’t think that’ll happen.” She may carry herself like she’s tall, but I still look cooly down at her. “I know you’re PR, Kari, but this is my life.”
“And this is mine!” she hisses.
“Excuse me?” I ask, incredulous. She can’t be serious.
“The local ESPN reporter is the younger sister of one of our players,” she explains, nodding discreetly at a huddle of people to our right. “If you cause a scene, then I have to expect it’ll be headline news. It’s fine if you don’t care about your career, but could you at least care about mine?”
I gape at her. She really is serious.
Elodie places a calming hand on Kari’s shoulder. “I think you should stay out of it, Kari.”
Kari closes her eyes and exhales. “Fine. You’re right.” She opens them and looks at me. “I’m sorry. I’m just – fine.”
Another giggle escapes from Allyson. “I need popcorn.”
“Shut up,” the rest of us say.
Kari clasps her hands in front of her chest. “I’m not stopping you. You have every right to confront him. But –”
“There are no buts,” I interrupt.
“I bet he’s got a nice butt,” Allyson snorts as Elodie’s eyes flash at her.
Kari continues, “But I am asking you to be discreet. Please.”
I hold her gaze as I down the rest of my beer, then shove the empty bottle at her. She takes it, shoulders drooping, and I march over there. Ollie’s got his back to me, and Matthew hasn’t noticed me for how closely he’s paying attention to my brother.
Colin, not Matthew.
He lied to me. The man who inexplicably made me feel safe – still one of the absolutely solid things I know about that night – lied to me. It’s unfathomable.
It’s infuriating.
It shouldn’t surprise me, this new fact, but rationality flew out the window the second I laid eyes on him.
My pulse pounds as I stomp closer, my runners practically squeaking on the too-nice grass, and a bead of sweat runs down my back.
Matthew – Colin – glances up as I draw near, and it brings immense satisfaction to watch the color drain from his face.
Ollie turns to see what’s caused the change in Colin’s expression, and when he clocks me, his confusion morphs into happiness.
He holds his arm out, tugging me into his embrace entirely against my will.
“Sis! Come meet my coach, Colin Thicke. And Coach, this is my sister, Sam. She just got a job with the team, too; she’ll be one of our PTs.
She’s incredible – kept me healthy all these years. ”
A fresh wave of realization hits, this one making my brain buzz.
I’m staring at a man I don’t know at all.
A man who isn’t just my brother’s coach; he’s my brother’s mentor.
A man I’m married to and can’t rip into because of my brother.
Ollie doesn’t know what happened in Vegas, and now is definitely not the time to bring him up to speed. It would devastate him.
So I plaster on a smile, extend my hand, and grit out, “Nice to meet you.”
He meets my gaze as our hands touch, and immediately another memory hits me. Looking into his eyes, an endless shade of dark blue, made brighter by a starburst of gold around the pupil, as a coin flips.
I gasp as the world nearly tilts beneath me again, but he grips my palm, steadying me. Same as I remember he did that night.
“Nice to meet you, too,” he says. Then his voice comes into focus, too. Sharp and honeyed, assured and courteous. A walking contradiction.
A liar.
Ollie looks between us, absolutely stoked. “Told you he’s the best.”
All Colin and I can do is stare at each other.
Ansel steps in from the sidelines, seeming to sense the awkwardness. “Sam, good to see you again. You and Coach started the same day, but I guess you didn’t run into each other until now, huh?”
“No, we didn’t,” I manage, still trying to get a handle on the absolute insanity that’s right in front of me. The whole thing is like looking at the world upside down. I know this is real, but it’s so far beyond comprehension that it also can’t possibly be real.
“Coach, you remember I was talking about my sister?” Ollie prompts. “Really can’t wait for you two to work together. She’s way more than just a physical therapist – back home, she started in overall fitness. Whipped me into shape, didn’t you, Sam?”
The look my brother gives me is heart-breaking. It’s only taken one week, but he absolutely adores this man. In what universe am I married to my brother’s coach? What did I do to piss fate off like this?
“Sam?” Ollie prompts.
“Oh, right,” I stammer, pulling myself back to reality. “I’ve done work in a lot of areas: yoga, Pilates, weight training, injury prevention and recovery, of course…” I trail off. “Lots of stuff.”
Any other time, I’d be absolutely mortified at this answer; ‘lots of stuff’ doesn’t really inspire confidence. But right now, it’s all I can do not to lunge at Colin and wring his neck. So I’m going to take this as a win.
“Right,” Ansel says, studying me thoughtfully. “I know Elodie is thrilled you’re joining the team because it means you’re staying here for a while.”
I nod. “At least through the season.”
“Looking forward to seeing you around,” Colin says, his attention still hyper-focused on me. “Can I get you anything? A beer? Water?”
There’s no stopping the sarcastic laugh that comes out of me. Did he really just offer me a beer? The fury I’d tamped down for my brother’s sake immediately returns to a boil. “Sure. Yeah. Water,” I say, stressing the word as he begins to step away. “In fact, I’ll come with you.”
He coughs. “Sure thing.”
“See you in a bit, Sam?”
I nod distractedly as Ollie waves us on, a broad smile on his face, utterly oblivious to the rage coursing through me.