Remy

“Woman, you have crossed a line.”

Remy stared into the coach’s eyes, which smoldered back at her in something beyond annoyance now. It felt to her like white-hot anger.

“I do whatever I have to do to win.”

“This is my job. You can’t come to my job and harass me. I’m sure this isn’t even allowed. You need to leave.”

Remy smiled, remaining calm. “If that were true, the office never would have told me when your free period is.”

“Don’t you work during the school day?” asked Coach Mattis.

“I do, I work from home so I can be there for Elliot whenever possible. And this is a situation in which Elliot needs me. Because you are the one who has crossed a line.”

He sneered. “Must be nice.”

She squared her shoulders. “It’s not nice at all. I don’t make all that much money and it’s hard. I need a new car, but I can’t deal with a car payment at the moment. I would love to eat out, but we don’t eat out. Everything I make goes to pay rent, gas, the light bill, feed Elliot and pay athletic fees. Should I go on? I am not who you think I am.”

He shook his head. “I don’t think anything. Other than I think, again, that you should leave.”

Remy put her hand up in surrender. ”I will leave, just hear me out. Two minutes of your time and then I’ll leave and I’ll never do this again.”

God, he looked sexy in that button-down Oxford shirt, the top button undone, the light blue accenting his tanned skin and blue eyes.

He sighed. “I cannot believe I’m agreeing to this, but go ahead.”

He folded his arms across his chest and his forearms were exposed by his rolled-up sleeves. He had long, conditioned arms. Sinews like his were such a turn-on for her, especially when those arms were connected to big hands, with long capable fingers.

Focus, Remy.

“A little tin trophy is not the only thing that matters to me.”

“Well, it sure seems that way,” he interrupted.

“It’s not that, I just want Elliot to be the best he can be. I want him to know that I fought as hard as I could so he could achieve his dreams. Nobody ever gave me the push I needed to succeed. And being here at this high school again is only reminding me of all my mistakes. Believe me when I say I have no desire to be here in these halls any more than you want me here. But I need you to understand something about Elliot. He needs to stay focused. If he loses focus, he will lose interest, and then he’ll start getting interested in other things. Girls, drugs, who knows what.”

Troy blinked at her. “Wow. This is not about him at all. This is about you and your problems.”

“My only problem right now? Is you.”

“Then take him off the team. You made it pretty clear in your email you might do that. What’s stopping you?”

Uh oh. She should backtrack, but that would be a sign of weakness. “You understand that if I pull him from the team, you lose. That’s it.”

He took a step closer to her. “And you understand that I don’t care all that much about winning. These kids are in middle school. People like you are going to teach him to hate the game. It’s toxic.”

“Did you just call me toxic?”

“No, I called your attitude toxic.”

She took a step closer to him. She was not going to be talked to that way. “So you’re just calling me a bad parent.”

“No, I’m not. But clearly open communication is not your thing, so if you’re done here…”

“He doesn’t hate the game. He loves baseball. He loves pitching.”

“I can see that. But his concentration on pitching is costing him his ability to fire the ball anywhere else. He can’t throw to first base.”

“Well, I guess it’s your job to teach him.”

He uncrossed his arms and furrowed his brow at her. “Are you done telling me how to coach?”

“Not even close.”

“Why are you arguing with me if you clearly don’t agree with my methods? Why can’t you just quietly go away?”

“You really want to do that to Elliot? He’s been in youth league since he was playing tee ball at 3. These kids have all been on the same team together since the age of 9. It would break his heart.”

Troy leaned in and smirked. She could smell his aftershave. It wasn’t the obnoxiously strong kind. A subtle scent of sandalwood. “You said last night we weren’t a good fit and you wanted him assigned to a new team. Would it break his heart? Or would it break your heart?”

Coach Troy was leaning in too close now. He was definitely in her personal space.

“I’m not living vicariously through my kid, if that’s what you’re implying.”

His voice dropped lower and quieter and sent a shiver across the back of her neck. “Then why did you try to bluff me? What’s your angle? Because it sure doesn’t seem like you’re living for yourself.”

She swallowed. Was he coming on to her? Was she reading this right? “What does it matter to you?”

“Because you’re in my face. Because one minute you try to bluff me, then the next minute you’re trying to reason with me. Because I think you’re full of yourself and you’re all talk and no substance.”

“I’m going to file a complaint to the league about you.”

“I have this feeling you won’t.”

“I won’t if you do right by my son.”

“What about you?”

“What about me?”

“It seems like you could use a little fun.”

Why does everyone keep saying that?

“Oh yeah? Well, if you ever become a single dad, feel free to tell me how much Live-Your-Best-Life Me Time you get every day,” she said.

“Don’t preach at me, I don’t like it. And if you don’t like the way I coach, you are free to leave. If you don’t leave, then feel free to stay and suck it up. Watch what happens when you interfere. I’ll bar you from the game.”

“Oh, you’ll bar me from the games?” Now he was out of line.

“Practices, games, everything. I can’t have you acting all crazy in the stands at my kids’ games. You’re unhinged.”

“Try it,” she challenged.

“Watch me,” he said, a rumble of warning in his voice, his eyes narrowing at her.

“What makes you think you can talk to me like that?” she said, swallowing. He was very close now. Too close.

“Because you’re still here and you aren’t backing away.”

When there wasn’t any possible way to get closer and misinterpret the closeness, Troy leaned in and made sure of it.