26. Chapter 26
Sadie
“Can you all settle down?” I asked the group sitting on the bleachers. There were about twenty of them. All boys except eighteen of them. I rolled my eyes at my attempt at telling myself a joke.
No one wanted to listen to me.
“Hey, guys? Can we focus?”
Nope. Either this group was a mess, or it was me. Probably me. I bet they could sense fear, and I reeked of it. I’d been popular enough in high school, but never loud. Not someone to command attention.
I clapped my hands. A few of them looked over, but none stopped talking.
“I’m Sadie,” I said as loudly as I could. “I’m going to be running the pep club.”
Two people were listening.
“Hey, everyone, shut up!” Alyssa said, coming up behind me.
Everyone turned and focused on her. I ground my teeth. Why couldn’t I get anyone’s attention?
“Pep club is a privilege,” Alyssa said, hands on hips. “No school needs a nerdy pep club. If you don’t cooperate, no one’s going to train you and you’ll have to join another club for people who don’t know how to do anything but sit and chant.”
I put a hand to my head. “Thank you, Alyssa,” I said. “I think I can take it from here.”
Alyssa gave me a look that said she doubted it.
“I want everyone getting into groups of three or four,” I said, trying to recover from being saved by my teenage sister. “Principal Everest wants us to make the posters for the next game. She wants two in each hallway.”
Everyone started separating into groups. Who knew I’d be organizing an art project on my first day? I clearly didn’t know what went into running a pep club.
I handed out poster boards and markers and tried to forget my meeting with the principal. She obviously had some opinion of me. She’d looked shocked when she spotted me, and she’d said, “Wait? You’re married to Cole Hart?”
I didn’t know what she’d expected, but obviously not me.
Some people were making neat posters; others looked like good candidates for the kindergarten art show. That was fine. This was their school. If that was all the pride they could drum up, then I wasn’t going to argue.
“Do you want to join?” I asked Alyssa.
She wrinkled her nose. “Me? Pep club? No way. Not even for money.”
“It’s not that bad.”
“Oh, it is. I’m going to go watch the football players.”
“Alyssa…”
“What? I’m supporting Cole and appreciating whoever tailored the football uniforms.”
I wasn’t going to argue. I’d been Alyssa’s age once, and I remembered watching the athletes.
The hour dragged, and I was happy when the last student left. The posters were all hung up and showing our peppy spirit. I rolled my eyes. I was a disaster.
“I guess the art class didn’t make those,” a woman said. She studied a poster, then glanced at me. “You must be Cole Hart’s wife.”
“Yes, I’m Sadie.”
“Victoria,” she said, holding out her hand. I shook it.
“Nice to meet you,” I said.
“I’m the cheer coach. I grew up with Cole and his siblings.”
She looked as if she fit into the Hart circle. Perfect blonde hair, manicured nails, fake lashes. There was no way I would ever pull off the Hart look.
“Are you from around here?” she asked.
“Arizona.”
“Right, I remember Cole lived there. It’s good to have him back. I’m excited to work with him.”
“I better go. It was nice to meet you, Victoria.”
“Same. I’ll see you around.”
I went out to the football field and saw Cole throwing a football. I smiled despite my rough pep start. He didn’t even have a uniform and I couldn’t take my eyes away.
He gathered everyone in and started talking. I moved up beside Alyssa, who was openly admiring the team like subtlety had never met her.
“We’re going to have a great year,” Cole said. “Can you feel it?”
“Yes!” they all yelled, making me jump.
“I’m going to have you all in shape. I know you all did your summer camp, but I can tell some of your training’s been neglected. We still have three-fourths of the season left, and we are going to crush it. Are you with me?”
Another yes.
“Great. Any questions?”
“We’ve been winning,” one boy said. “Only one loss this season.”
“Yes, but you’ve played teams that usually lose—that won’t keep up.”
A boy raised his hand. “Do we really need to do laps? I mean, what’s the point?”
“You’re killing me, Jackson,” Cole said. “You need to be in running shape if you ever want to see the field.”
“I didn’t see you running,” he said.
A guy bumped Jackson by ‘accident,’ almost knocking him over.
“You want me to run?” he asked. “I don’t play. It’s my job to tell you what to do. Besides, I could run laps around you, while carrying weights.”
Jackson crossed his arms. “I’m wiry. You have all that muscle you have to haul around. That’s going to make you slow.”
“Wanna race?” Cole asked.
All the boys cheered.
Cole looked at me. “Wanna help?”
I shrugged. “Sure?”
He grinned and scooped me over his shoulder. “Once around the track. Ready, set, go!”
Jackson took off running. Cole gave him a few seconds.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
Cole burst forward. My stomach wasn’t loving it, but the cheering players sure did. Everyone was cheering. I wasn’t sure if they were cheering for him… or laughing at me. Halfway around the track, Cole passed Jackson. I tried to smile as we passed, but this was incredibly uncomfortable.
“I’m going to puke on your back,” I said.
Cole put me down and finished.
Jackson had a half-grin when he was done. “Okay, I get it. I lose.”
I stumbled over to Alyssa.
She smiled at me. “I am so jealous of the weird relationship you have with Cole. It’s so cute and odd.”
I laughed and rubbed my stomach. “That’s a good way to describe it.” There had been nothing comfortable about that, but I’d loved that Cole made me part of his life.
“That’s your wife?” one of the players asked.
My insides all tensed up.
Cole glanced back at me. “Yes.”
“How’d you get someone like that to fall for you? Did you have to beg?”
I blinked. Beg?
Cole laughed. “Yep. Lots of groveling.”
“She doesn’t have the normal coach’s wife look,” another boy said.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked, not feeling like going to bed wondering.
“Don’t get offended,” he said. “Our last coach’s wife was a little… blonde.”
Someone punched his shoulder, and they laughed.
I frowned.
“It’s a compliment,” he said. “You’re attractive, and you look grounded. Is that the right word?”
I didn’t know how to respond.
“She’s perfect,” Cole said, putting his arm over my shoulders.
I tried not to look spent. And confused. I’d just been told I was attractive by a kid who’d probably just discovered his first pimple this year.
“I think that’s a day,” he said. “I’ll see you all tomorrow.”
“Do you want a ride?” I asked Alyssa.
“Nope. I love this town. I’m meeting Tiffany at the diner. She wants to hear about my first day.”
My mouth turned down. I wasn’t jealous of Tiffany. I appreciated her taking an interest in Alyssa. I just felt… like Alyssa should want to tell me about her day first. And why was Tiffany interested in Alyssa and not me? Okay, this sounded like jealousy. But I knew it was silly.
Cole took my hand. “So… what do you want to do?”
“Sleep, but it’s too early.”
“Hmm. I was hoping for another round of house make out.”
I smiled despite myself. “I have to be careful about that,” I said. “It could become addictive.”
“Some addictions are healthy.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive. How was pep club?”
I forced a smile. “Fine.”
“Good. I hoped you would like it.”
Like? I hated every second of it, but it was fine. Nothing had exploded, no one had quit or used the markers to graffiti the lockers. That had to count as fine, right?
Fine meant survivable.
And survivable was enough.
Cole had put two million dollars into my bank account. Two million. I couldn’t even picture that many ones stacked on top of each other. Surely I could survive pep club for numbers like that.
I wrinkled my nose. It wasn’t about the money. I could say that until I believed it. I would have helped him without it. I loved the way his eyes lit up when he talked about the gym. I loved watching him on the field. I loved how alive he felt when he was building something.
When it all came down to it, I loved him.
The word sat heavy in my chest.
Denying it was stupid, but I wasn’t going to tell him. Not yet. I was trying to slow us down, but every time I pulled back, something in me leaned forward.
He rubbed my shoulder. “I’m signing the papers for the gym. Then you can start that, so you won’t get bored.”
“Yeah.” I had nothing else to say.
Why did I feel like the old me was trying to come back, but also getting pushed away at the same time? How did that even make sense?
I figured there was hope for me, though. I was already planning on where to hide once we got home so I could jump out and scare him. I used to do that to Grandma and Alyssa, and I figured Cole needed a good scare every now and again.