Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
S hae
I’d never been much of a swearer to begin with.
Working in education meant I frequently felt like swearing but I’d honed my habits, so I spit out carefully crafted alternative swears, most of them quite comical, according to my friends and coworkers.
Except when Boon was around. Apparently he turned off the filter firmly affixed to my mouth for thirty-nine years.
Cassie, our captain who’d pulled Kinsley immediately under her wing, lifted her head and stared at me as she racked a weight.
Yep, I swore. Probably should apologize for the slip, but I didn’t get a chance before Boon grabbed my elbow and dragged me through the door into the gymnasium.
The feel of his warm skin against mine left me mute.
The door slammed shut, leaving just the two of us in the gym. I tried to wrench my elbow away, a little too late in my opinion, and rounded on him. “What do you think you’re doing? You can’t manhandle your way into using my weight room.”
Boon’s handsome face screwed up before his gaze dropped to where we still touched. He yanked it back as if I’d burned him. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to…”
He ran that same hand over his face, the dark strokes of an exquisite wolf tattoo on the back.
I hadn’t noticed the tattoo over the weekend.
Hadn’t noticed how freaking hot a hand tattoo looked on the over-muscled man standing before me.
Just my luck that the boy who’d bullied me in high school now looked a thousand times hotter twenty years later.
“Listen, I didn’t mean for it to sound like my team takes precedence or that you have to clear out. I just want to work out a schedule or something with you so we can both use the space.”
I glared at him. Mostly because he looked good enough to eat now changed into a formfitting performance T-shirt emblazoned with the school logo and workout shorts.
He looked every bit the professional athlete still.
Not that I knew what those looked like up close, but if Boon was the stereotype, they were bigger than life.
Hotter than the summer sun. Able to trample on my feeble small-town teacher’s heart without even noticing I was underfoot.
I folded my arms across my chest, afraid not even my industrial sports bra could contain the way my nipples were reacting to his pheromones, the little hussies.
I inhaled, ready to firmly enforce my boundaries, but my lungs filled with his scent.
Spicy, clean, and the type of manly scent that made women steal their boyfriend’s sweatshirts.
I knew the silence was stretching out. Knew my resolve was weakening in the face of the most viral man I’d ever known.
He’d made me dreamy and irritated in my youth.
Now he was like dropping a nuclear bomb on my life.
Boon’s mouth hitched on one side, like he knew the effect he was having on me and found it humorous.
Thankfully, that did it.
Rage flared brightly and I was able to wrangle my brain back in gear. “It sounds to me that you’re being a stereotypical man, kicking the women out. Thinking our sport isn’t as valuable as the men’s.”
Boon lost the half grin in a flash. “No! That’s not at all what I’m saying.”
“Really? So I won’t find your entire team waiting outside the weight room, thinking they’re going to push my girls out?”
Boon snapped his lips together, which only made me study them. This stupid goose gobbler actually had a pair of lips on him that looked like they were made for pleasuring a woman. Not too thin, not too full. Soft but backed by a firm jaw. He winced, and I knew I’d guessed right.
His hand reached up and scratched the back of his neck, Boon’s tell.
He was more confident than any man had a right to be and yet he still had his moments.
I noticed the neck scratch for the first time way back when he decided to ruin my tea party when I was like six or seven.
Considering I was stalker-level aware of him at all times, I studied him.
I knew his tells. And he only had one. The one he was giving me right now.
“Listen,” he began, which always pissed me off when men started sentences like that.
Don’t farking tell me to listen when I’m right freaking here.
Of course I’m listening. I’ve got ears don’t I?
“I just want my guys to be able to get stronger over their offseason so they don’t get injured when they start practice for real.
Is there any way you can let me know your schedule in the weight room and I’ll work around it? ”
Well, fudge sticks. That was actually…nice? Accommodating? I must be missing something because the Boon Wolfe I knew wasn’t capable of compromising.
“Or we could have the teams blend and work out together,” he added, stopping me short.
There it was. He had no intention of compromising. He’d said that first bit just to get me to drop my guard and then he swooped in with what he wanted in the first place.
I opened my mouth to let this chucklehead have a piece of my mind, but the door on the other end of the gymnasium opened and we both turned to see Principal Joseph walk in, his belly leading the way.
“Oh good, you’re both here. I was just on my way to let you know Mr. Wolfe’s team will be joining you in the weight room, Ms. Fletcher.” Mr. Joseph smiled at Boon like he just couldn’t believe his good luck in snagging an ex-professional baseball player to coach our small-town team.
I wasn’t born yesterday. I knew how the world worked, and I could read the writing on the wall. Boon’s team would be working out in the weight room whether I gave my permission or not. This was already out of my hands.
“Yes, we were just having a conversation about how we were going to make this work,” I said with what I thought was the pinnacle of demureness.
Boon’s half smile was back. He studied me, not Mr. Joseph, and it was disconcerting. “I’d like Ms. Fletcher to lead the way.”
My head snapped up to meet his gaze, looking for the trick. Looking for the “gotcha” moment that would leave me feeling foolish in front of my boss. But none came. Mr. Joseph made a few more inane comments about our incredible athletic teams and then ambled off.
Boon lifted his arm toward the door that led back into the weight room.
“After you, Ms. Fletcher.” That half smile turned into a full smile, a hint of his famous dimples on either side of his mouth.
It was deadly. Unfair, really. How could one person be gifted with so many insanely pleasant physical qualities and yet be so bereft of common decency and kindness inside where it actually counted?
“This is going to be a great thing for the guys. I can teach them how to treat women.”
The virulent snort that escaped my mouth echoed loudly in the empty gymnasium. “And what would you know about that?” I snapped.
Nonplussed, Boon grabbed the door handle and opened it. Weights clinked and several girls lifted their heads to see what was going on. Normally I kept a very close eye on them during their lifting sessions.
I stepped through the door and Boon followed so closely behind I was smack-dab in the bubble of his cologne. Drowning in it, actually. He clapped his hands and startled me. I gaped at him as he stepped up next to me and addressed my own dang team.
“Alright, ladies. The baseball team is joining you for the rest of today’s lift.
” The girls groaned, and I wanted to pump my fist in the air.
I agreed with their sentiment. Boon wasn’t fazed.
He stepped over to the side door and pushed it open, his team’s curious faces filling the doorway. “Boys! Come on in.”
The boys filed in, instantly changing the atmosphere in the weight room.
The girls swiped sweat off their brows and struck casual, yet careful poses, giggles and whispers filling the air.
The boys lifted their chins in the air and tried to flex without looking like they were flexing.
I rolled my eyes and wondered how I’d entered the seventh ring of hell so quickly.
Friday I’d been happily teaching and coaching.
Today I was one snide comment away from homicide.
“Okay, we’re going to pair up. One boy with one girl,” Boon announced.
“Let’s get busy on the workout Ms. Fletcher has assigned on the whiteboard.
We’ll be coming around to assist. And, boys?
” He paused, giving the guys a stern look that made my stomach flutter.
“We will respect these ladies in everything we do. You so much as drift one toe over the line and you’re off the team. Am I clear?”
A chorus of “Yes, Coach!” filled the air.
Then Boon counted off numbers and got the kids paired off.
Cassie shot me a cross-eyed look when she was paired with the catcher of the baseball team.
I knew she’d gone to prom with him junior year, so I wasn’t sure if there was drama there.
I’d have to keep a close eye. Boon’s own daughter got paired with Tatum, the captain of the baseball team.
Kinsley was blushing furiously. I smiled inside, sure she’d have some words for her father tonight.
To my shock and confusion, the kids began to work on the exercises on the board and Boon held up his word.
He helped numerous kids with their form.
He even shut down two of the guys doing some sort of winking, handshake, laughing thing that could have been about anything, but was making their female partners uneasy, thinking they were laughing at them.
“Hey. This isn’t the time for joking around. You either do the exercises or you go home.” Boon separated the two guys and they instantly got back to work.
“Man, I hate deadlifts,” one kid groaned, loudly enough most of the weight room heard him.
Boon spun around and tilted his head to the side.
“You hate deadlifts? You might as well give up on sports, then. Deadlifts are one of the basic exercises you’ll be doing for the rest of your baseball career.
Ms. Fletcher assigned a good workout. I suggest you spend more time doing the exercises instead of complaining. ”
Wow. Okay. I showed one of the boys how to spot his partner on the bench press without his hands brushing against her boobs “accidentally.” But the whole time I kept darting glances over at Boon.
If I didn’t know better, he was showing me respect in front of his team and mine.
If I didn’t know better, I might actually start to like the guy.
“Nice, Carson. Your form is perfect. Your shoulder will thank you for it later.” Boon slapped one kid on the back, and I watched the teen grow three inches from the praise.
The bell rang, startling me with how the rest of the hour flew by. “Rerack your weights, ladies, then head on home. Tomorrow is a two-hour practice.”
Boon followed up my announcement with one of his own. “Guys, we’re doing laps around the field, then stretching. Rerack your weights and the girls’ weights, then head out to the field.”
There were some groans at first, but the pleased smiles of the girls made the boys puff up their chests and gladly put all the weight plates away.
It seemed like Boon was actually showing these boys how to be chivalrous.
I erased the workout on the whiteboard and waited for each of the students to leave before looking over the weight room for leftover weights, water bottles, or towels they’d left behind.
Boon did the same, then smiled over at me.
“How’d we do?” His smirk was back, loaded with confidence about his performance in front of the kids. Because that’s what it had to have been: a performance. Acting.
“Good.” I sniffed, lifting my nose in the air. “We’ll see if they can keep it up next session. We lift three days a week.”
His foot was up on the bench, his elbow leaning casually on his knee. He patted the bar. “Want to bench with me? I’ll spot you.”
I’d never been so aware of being alone in a room with a man. He lifted his eyebrows at my silence, challenging me. I reached down, grabbed my tote bag and slung it over my shoulder. I did not miss the way his gaze momentarily flicked down to my chest.
“In your dreams, big dog.” I backed into the door, pushing it open and escaping into the cool evening air. His dimples had disappeared and it made me irrationally happy.
“Stop calling me that!” he yelled after me.
I grinned, tilting my head back and enjoying the last rays of the sun before climbing into my car and heading home to grade papers and scrounge something up to eat for dinner. Except I heard footsteps behind me. I swung around, heart beating wildly.
Boon stood fifteen paces behind me, his hands up, eyes wide. “Just making sure you get to your car.”
My face screwed up. “What?”
With one of his hands in the air, he pointed to the sky around us. “It’s getting dark. I want to make sure you get to your car okay.”
“This is Blueball,” I scoffed.
“Bad things can happen anywhere. I’m making sure they don’t happen to you.”
I narrowed my eyes and spun back around, hustling now to my car. “Where was that energy in high school?” I grumbled sarcastically.
“What’s that?” he asked, now just a few feet behind me.
My car was a welcome sight. After watching Boon with the kids, I needed some time to collect my thoughts, breathe through my shock, and figure out why this sudden chivalry charade was making my stomach twist in knots.
I yanked open the door with enough force that it whacked right into his muscled thighs. He let out an oof, and jumped back.
“Oops.” I shot him a shrug and climbed in my car, slamming the door and driving away. I refused to look in my rearview mirror and see the man standing there, watching me drive away.
He was annoying.
Definitely hot.
Still a jerk.
Not even his act today could convince me otherwise. Once an a-hole, always an a-hole.