Chapter Twenty-Eight
Marcee hadn’t watched a sunrise in so long she’d forgotten how the pastel show of lights could take your breath away, especially as it ascended behind the mountain range.
Sunrises in Brooklyn had their own special draw, as quiet as you’d ever hear in the city, but the majesty of North Carolina was incomparable.
The voicemail on her phone was jammed with messages from Remy.
She’d texted Alex and Nicole to let them know she was fine, but after the tenth missed call from Remy, she turned her phone off.
After leaving the game, she pulled her car off to a lookout at Waterrock Knob, put it in park, and spent the night stretched out on the hood, mourning what could’ve been and crying because there wasn’t any other way.
By six thirty, Marcee knew what she needed to do.
She stopped at a gas station for coffee, choking down the bitter, scalding brew on her way to the house. She so rarely drank it that by the time she pulled into their driveway, the caffeine buzzed through her veins.
“Where were you?” Alex waited at the kitchen table, hair pulled back in a messy bun and clutching a cup of coffee. “I appreciate the text, but when you said you needed some alone time, I didn’t think you meant all night. I was worried about you.”
Marcee rushed past the doorway, conscious of her limited time to get into her office at work and gather her things.
“I’m sorry, babe. Truly. Last night was… a lot. I’m not sure I even meant to stay out all night, but I needed it.”
Alex followed as she went into her room and pulled clothes off hangers.
“You’re a grown ass woman, Marcee. I get that. You’re also my person, though. How would you have felt if I went off the grid for twelve hours?”
Shame washed over her, and she reached for her best friend’s hand, squeezing tightly. “My life changed last night, and I couldn’t cope. I wasn’t in my right mind. Does that make sense?”
Marcee was more grateful than she could admit when Alex didn’t drop her hand.
“You know I do.” Her eyebrows drew together. “When Remy stopped by looking for you and saying you wouldn’t answer his calls, it only made it worse. I guess part of me hoped you two were working it out.”
“Remy came by?” Ugh, it hurt saying his name. She wondered how long it would take before she could think of him without wanting to cry.
“Yeah, around ten o’clock. I’ve never seen him like that. He came back after two a.m. and slipped a letter under the front door for you.”
Her heart pounded furiously, doubling in tempo. “A letter.”
Alex nodded, dropping her hand. “I can get it.”
Marcee grabbed her arm. There was nothing Remy could say that would rectify what he did, nor change that he would probably go back to London and his former team. Reading that letter would only break her down further.
“No, don’t do that. I’ll read it later. I’ve gotta get to my office.” She took a deep breath. “I was fired last night.” She finished getting dressed as Alex hovered around the doorway.
“I know.”
That stopped her frantic dressing. “What?”
Alex stepped into the room and plopped onto her bed. “I talked to Nicole after the game when we couldn’t find you. She told me what happened.”
Alex knowing made her immediately want to crumble and let her help, so of course, Marcee’s lower lip started to tremble. Before she could reach for her, she shook her shoulders out.
“No, no, I’m not doing this now. Later. Right now, I have something I need to do, and it’s going to be hard enough as it is.”
Alex’s big blue eyes killed her as they filled with love and sadness. “I understand. We’ll talk later.”
Deep breaths. “Okay, I’m out. I am sorry for last night, Alex, and I will make it up to you.
I promise.” Marcee marched past and grabbed her purse, keys clanking together in the bottom.
Before she opened the door, she paused. “I’m going to need time later, to fall apart.
I’m hurting, babe. I just need to hold it together right now. ”
She gulped in the warm air as she left the house, wondering how the day could be so perky and bright after what happened the night before. It didn’t seem fair.
“You’re coming home tonight, right?” Alex yelled as Marcee reached her car.
“Yes, I swear,” Marcee yelled back.
Where else could she go?
Nicole was waiting outside her office door the moment she arrived, tapping her foot and pissed as hell.
Marcee winced, her face flushing with shame.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I know I am the absolute worst. Honestly, I do.
If I could convey the level of misery I’m in over all of it, I would, but I’m apparently still emotionally stunted.
” She grabbed her assistant—friend—and hugged her tightly.
“Since this is the last time I’ll be here, can you find it in your heart to forgive me?
I’ll throw in lunch.” She pulled away, giving Nicole a tremulous smile, and pulled out her keys to unlock the door.
“I shouldn’t,” Nicole said, following. “But I will because I’m a pushover. Just know I was really worried about you last night and it’s super shitty to bail on people who care about you without a word.” She took a deep breath, then added, “Especially considering I quit last night after the game.”
“I’m sorr—” Marcee flipped around. “Wait, you quit?”
The front legs of the guest chair shifted as she plopped into it. “Yeah. Well, I wasn’t going to have a job anyway since we lost, right? Contractual obligations and whatnot.”
“But you would’ve had two more months before that happened!” Damn it, that was not the way she wanted things to go down. “That’s two months to look for another job. Two months of pay.”
Nicole nodded along. “I quit, effective the end of the school term. So, I guess ‘put in my resignation letter’ is a better way to say it. Anyway, I realized something last night when you walked off the field.”
“What’s that?”
“It wouldn’t have mattered if we won. Wilkes would’ve found a way to get rid of us.
We were never going to be coaches here in the fall.
More than that, though, I realized I didn’t want to be a coach here.
” She reached forward and squeezed Marcee’s hand.
“The way this place treated us—it’s not an establishment I want to be a part of.
As much as I’d love a chance to stick it to Wilkes, I think the best way I can do that is by leaving and being successful somewhere else. ”
“It’s easy to get wrapped up in the winning part and proving everybody wrong, huh?” Marcee walked around her desk and fell into her chair for the last time, smiling as it sank toward the floor.
“Winning is the best part.”
Marcee smiled, thinking back on the past nine months and all the shit they’d been through. “As a player, I’d agree with you. As a coach, I don’t know. Getting through to some of these girls, watching them thrive… it was pretty amazing.”
Nicole leaned back, the corner of her mouth lifting. “So, you and Remington Lockley… this whole time?”
Marcee forced herself not to flinch at his name, even though she swore she could hear a little chunk of her heart chip off.
“Not the whole time.” She shrugged, looking past her at the wall. “And not any more.”
“Dang, after everything? I’m sorry, Marcee.”
“Yeah, me too. For so much.”
The door banged open and Headmaster Wilkes charged in, followed by Ron, the campus security guard.
“I suspected you would show. Since you no longer work here, you can’t be on school grounds, let alone in the facility.”
“I’m aware. I’m collecting my personal belongings.” When he didn’t move to leave, she rolled her eyes. “Fine, watch me pack up my things. It’ll be riveting.”
She used an old printer box that never got thrown away and stuffed inside her pictures, mementos, and some office supplies she included out of spite.
“That’s it,” she announced, hefting the box in her arms off her desk.
“Ron will escort you to your vehicle.” Headmaster Wilkes turned to Nicole. “Ms. Giles, I’d like to meet with you in my office at lunch, if you please.”
Marcee was proud of Nicole when she answered smoothly, “That will be fine.”
As Marcee brushed past Wilkes for the door, she pulled two letters out of her back pocket, drafted in her car a few minutes before she walked into the school.
Cope’s name was on the front of one, while the other was for the rest of the team.
She handed them to Nicole facedown. She’d done her best to explain everything to the girls—well, as much as she could.
She hoped it conveyed how much they meant to her and what being their coach had meant, too.
Cope’s letter was more of a reminder that she was still her sponsor, still her friend, and that wouldn’t change. Even when she wasn’t around.
With a final nod to her friend, and a wistful look at the tiny office, Marcee marched out of the facility, blinking back tears. Ron hovered behind her, watching her like an inmate being released for parole.
Part of her was wrecked at the thought of never seeing the girls again, but another part of her—the one who pushed on the gas pedal a little too hard as she peeled out of the Pemberton Prep parking lot—felt lighter than she had in weeks.
“Why is this envelope unopened?”
Alex barged into the bathroom, wielding an envelope at her like a knife. Marcee jumped back from the sink, nearly slipping on the wet floor.
“Jesus Christ, Alex! Have you ever heard of knocking?” She clutched her towel around her chest, glaring. If it was Remy’s letter, she was going to scream. She didn’t understand why there needed to be a deadline for getting her heart shredded, again.
“Like I haven’t seen it before,” Alex said, rolling her eyes. She waved the envelope at her again. “Seriously. It’s been two weeks. Enough is enough. When a man writes you a handwritten letter, you read it, not stash it away in your panty drawer.”
“And why were you going through my panty drawer?”