14. River
RIVER
I’m always a little bit nervous before a game, and add in it being the first game of the season and this underlying tension coursing through me over Sloane being less than thirty feet away in a very short, tight cheerleading uniform, and I'm way more on edge than usual. Thankfully, it was a blowout, which is always ideal for the first win of the season. It boosts morale, builds excitement, and shows the school and the community what to expect for the rest of the season. The guys were on fire. It’s still soon, but if we keep playing like this, there’s a really good chance we will be back in the championship again this year.
I caught a glimpse of Sloane a few times.
Dressed in a blue-and-white uniform with a curled ponytail piled high on her head tied together with a blue bow, all while smiling and waving her pom-poms while cheering us on.
She looked so gorgeous, and I hated how much that thought turned me on.
That for the first time ever, a Westlake High School cheerleader turned me on.
Fuck.
Why couldn’t she be a college cheerleader so I didn’t feel like such a creep for appreciating her in her uniform?
And I really fucking did.
A brief flash of fucking her in it washes over me, and the urge to wrap my hands around my dick to fuck my fist the second I get home hits me hard.
No, I tell myself.
I mean, it’s not like it’s breaking any rules. My mind attempts to rationalize.
After debriefing with the team and briefly celebrating our win, a few of them still linger in the locker room talking when I hear Sloane’s name from my coaching office.
They’re all talking at once, so I can’t make out exactly what’s being said, but I manage to hear “hot,” “ask her out,” and something about wanting to see her cheer uniform on the floor of someone’s bedroom.
I already wasn’t one to allow that kind of talk in my locker room, and they know better, especially after they hadn’t realized that Margot, who is a cheerleader at a rival high school, is my niece and had some choice things to say about her during an away game last year.
I reamed everyone out and benched two of our starters for the start of the second half, but my assistant coach talked me out of punishing the whole team for their words because we were losing and needed those starters back.
I let them play the rest of the game, but I had them run five miles at the start of practice for a week and end practice with so many burpees I lost count.
Needless to say, everyone got the hint from then on regarding appropriate locker room talk.
That was understandable. Sloane is not your niece.
Do not explode.
Count to ten.
I’m barely to seven before I’m out of my office and back in the locker room, staring down the five players who are still changing and packing up their stuff into their equipment bags.
“WHAT did I say about that kind of talk in here?” I growl as I glare at all of them.
“Shit, Coach, we… thought you left,” one of them immediately says, and I can see the guilt written all over their faces.
“That makes no difference. I said keep that out of here, and I meant it, whether I am nearby or not.” I am trying my best to keep the anger out of my voice, but it’s there.
“Coach, we didn’t even say anything bad. Just that the girls look great this year.” Jax, a junior wide receiver who is already being heavily scouted, speaks up.
“Do you want to be benched for the next game?” I snap at him, and I watch him visibly shake.
“No, Coach.”
“You guys all have futures in this sport. You need to be focused on the season,” I tell them, looking at each of them in their eyes as I pan the room.
“Otherwise, you’re going to let your teammates down by focusing on the wrong things.
” I know I’m probably overdoing it with this lecture, but the thought of one of them messing around with Sloane pisses me off even though I know I don’t have the right.
“Good.” I nod, because they were all good guys for the most part.
Unfortunately, my job requires me to hear a lot of gossip, and I rarely hear anything that paints the football players in a bad light.
There were mistakes of course, but nothing that ever made me feel like I really needed to get involved.
“Great game, you guys,” I tell them without another word before leaving the locker room.
I hear some mumbling and whispering, and I imagine they’re talking about me losing my temper and something along the lines of what’s Coach’s problem?
Everything, unfortunately.
I’m only in my office for a few minutes before Mack appears in the doorway, leaning against the doorjamb. He wasn’t in the locker room with the guys just now, so I’m surprised to see he’s still here.
“You’re still here?” I ask before putting my hat back on and packing up the rest of my stuff to head out.
“Yeah, I forgot something.” He clears his throat before taking a step into the room, almost like he’s nervous.
“You’re dancing around something. Out with it.” I chuckle.
“Look, you always tell us if something is bothering us, we can always come to you.” I have a soft spot for Mack. He was kind and smart and overall, a good kid, not to mention a phenomenal quarterback with the kind of talent that made me believe I’d see him in the NFL one day.
“Of course, what is it? What’s on your mind?”
“It’s not me.” He clears his throat. “It’s…
you, Coach. You’re different. And… a few of us have just been wondering if something’s going on.
Like in your personal life or something.
Because… we got you. Whatever it is. You know if it’s women's troubles or something… or… I mean, if you got someone pregnant and she dropped the baby on your doorstep and bounced, we’ll all rally to babysit. ”
I let out a chuckle and lean against my desk, folding my arms over my chest as I stare at him. “You’ve all noticed?”
“You snap at everyone during practice.”
I can feel my defenses rising. “I’m just coaching.”
“You’ve been coaching me for two years now, I know what your coaching looks like.
You usually inspire us… make us want to be better.
There’s been a lot less of that this past week.
You’ve been… meaner more… grumpy. And maybe that’s normal for other coaches, but it’s not for you, which is why I’m here. ”
“Grumpy? I’m tough, which I always have been. You want to be the best? This is how we get there,” I tell him.
“You had Sam running suicides for an hour for being thirty seconds late the other day.”
That was the day I realized Sloane would be staying in my class for the rest of the year. So maybe I was a little more on edge than usual. “You know I don’t do late.”
“You made the whole defense run an extra mile because one guy dropped a pass.”
“Try four.”
He sighs before turning his hat backward and moving his equipment bag that was slung over his hip to the other side. “You’re missing the point, Coach.”
“I guess so, can you get to it?” I snap because I was tired of being questioned. I was also feeling defensive, and I didn’t want to take that out on Mack any more than I already had.
“Is something going on?”
I pause for a moment, not because I planned to tell Mack the truth, but because he was right, and I hate that I was taking my anger out on them when they had nothing to do with it.
“Nothing for you to worry about,” I tell him, because it didn’t seem like Mack was going to let this go.
“That’s adult language for yes, but mind your business. Or as my mother says, ‘stay in a child’s place,’” he says with an eye roll.
I chuckle, thinking about Mrs. Mackenzie, who I know would do anything to see her child succeed and is probably the driving force behind Mack being such a good kid, because she takes zero bullshit.
“You seem to be awfully interested in my personal life all of a sudden.”
“Only because I’m captain of the team and it’s fucking with morale.”
“Language.”
“You can let it slide.” I rub the back of my neck, feeling the weight of this conversation pressing down on me.
“Look, I'm not trying to get in your business, and you don’t have to tell me what’s going on…
but we are here. You always told us we’re family and family looks out for each other.
So… don’t shut us out. If you need us, we’re there. ”
“I appreciate that. And…I guess I can ease up a little. You guys did just beat the hell out of Ridgewood.”
“Forty-five to seven.” He whistles. “Honestly, I don’t even know how they got seven.”
“You guys beat the shit out of them, Uncle Riv,” SJ says as soon as I walk through the door. It wasn’t unheard of for SJ to come to one of my football games with his dad and sometimes even Isla.
“Ummm hello!” I hear Ellie call from the kitchen, and I shoot a knowing look at SJ because he should know that she hears everything.
“Sorry!” he calls out to her. “Well, you did,” he murmurs as he pounds his fist against mine.
“Sorry I couldn’t make your soccer game earlier, but your dad said you scored. You’re a beast, Kincaid.”
“Thank you, thank you.” He bows, and it’s crazy how much he’s grown in a year. Not that he was short by any means, but he shot up just before he went to sixth grade and I swear it’s like he’s been growing an inch a month since.
I walk into the kitchen to find Ellie cooking dinner and Margot and Rowan sitting at the table with college brochures spread out between them.
“You don’t need to visit Yale, again, Margot.” My brother gives her a look as if to say do not try it.
“Yeah, it’s not like you’re getting in.” SJ snorts, earning a glare from Rowan and a nudge from me.
“Shut up, dork,” Margot snaps before turning her eyes back to her computer.
I know why Margot has gone to visit Yale, and why she keeps going, and it has nothing to do with academics and everything to do with staying with Ellie’s youngest sister Eden, who is currently a sophomore there and has introduced Margot to college party life.