Page 12 of Coach Me (Boston Blues #2)

Lucie

Well, I officially have a job. And a new place to live. My turtles, on the other hand, their situation is still up in the air. Dex may not have freaked out like Reagan did when I brought up the topic, but he definitely didn’t love the idea.

It would hurt a little bit to give my babies away, but this job will be good for me, I can just feel it. Turtles or not. Creating makeshift travel classrooms for Miles will be tricky, yes, but the challenge feels good.

I feel good.

“Come on, Lucie. Don’t be a slowpoke. Shannon’s office is down this hall.” Miles waves his hand over his shoulder as he starts to skip.

“I’m coming. You’re just so fast, I can’t keep up.”

“That’s what my dad says too! I must be really fast.” Miles comes to an abrupt halt and whips around to me. “Can we race?”

“Race?” I laugh.

Miles jumps up and down. “Yeah, a race! My dad says it’s unfair to start a race with someone without letting them know about it. So, can we? Can we race?”

“Alright, let’s do it.”

Miles jumps next to me as he gets into his starting position. Now I’m not an overly competitive person, Reagan and Will definitely are, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to push Miles a little.

“Am I counting us down or are you?” I ask Miles, mimicking his stance.

“Me!” The small mischievous laugh that bubbles out of Miles tells me everything I need to know about his countdown. “One-two-three-go!”

Miles takes off, and for a moment I let him get ahead, but after a few steps I catch back up to him.

“Wh—hey!” Miles giggles.

I’m not actually running by any means, but I can tell he’s not giving it his all, so I get a little bit ahead of him.

I look back because the giggles from Miles have stopped, and now there’s nothing but pure determination on his face. That’s much better.

Miles pushes himself a little harder, but it’s not until he reaches me that I start to slow down.

I won’t always let Miles win, but there’s a give and take here, especially when we’re unevenly matched.

Sometimes letting them win helps build their confidence, and really, I want to build that confidence with me.

Crushing his heart on my very first day doesn’t necessarily seem like the best tactic, but I want him to know he’s going to have to give it his all every time.

“Yes, I win!” Miles cheers when he passes the first office door we come across. When his victory dance starts, I have zero regrets about letting him beat me .

My head tilts back with a laugh when he starts to fake victory cheers from a crowd, but it’s all quickly dashed when the office door swings open.

“What’s going on out here?” Shannon snaps, but when she sees Miles, she opts for a softer, still annoyed tone. “Oh, hi, Miles.”

“Hi, Shann-onnn.” Miles’s odd emphasis paired with his mocking tone has me fighting a laugh.

I’ve heard enough about Shannon to know that Beck’s choice of word is probably accurate but since I’ve never been one to cuss, Miles’s grump comment works.

The bright side is I don’t think my job will involve her too much.

Turning a day at the field where we avoid Shannon entirely might even be a game we start playing.

Stepping behind Miles, I place my hands on his shoulders to remind him I’m here with him now. “Hi, I’m Lucie. We’re here to get some paperwork Dex said you would have.”

Shannon nods with a tight smirk. “Yes, Dex said he hired someone. You’re one of Will’s sisters, right?”

“Yep, the youngest.”

“That part is obvious, dear.”

Oof, okay. Callie said her strategy with Shannon was just to smile through it. Seeing the sour look on Shannon’s face now, I get it. I can see genuine happy smiles being the most annoying thing to this grumpy woman.

“If we could get the papers, we’ll be out of your hair.”

Shannon hums. “Right, let me go get them. Olsson’s on an important phone call, and I don’t want any unprofessional noises interrupting him.”

My only response is to make my smile bigger. When her heels click and she disappears around the wall of her office, Miles turns his head back to me.

“What’d I tell ya, Lucie? She’s grumpy.”

I nearly choke on my laugh as I bring my finger up to tell Miles to be quiet. “That was a good one, but what did I tell you? It doesn’t change our happiness unless we allow it.”

Miles shrugs his shoulders, and after a moment Shannon comes back into the hall with a manilla envelope in hand. “Here you go.”

“Thank you.” Taking the envelope, I have a strange feeling as if one of my students had just handed me their homework, but they know something’s wrong and they want to see if they can get away with it.

Pulling up the tab, I pull out the papers as Shannon huffs, “It’s all in there.”

Having a grumpy attitude isn’t my style usually, even if that’s sometimes the only way to combat it, but I’ll be working a lot with Shannon. So, like Callie, I’ll smile through it.

“Oh, I’m sure it is. I’m quite the planner, though. Blame it on the teacher's heart, but I just want to make sure the papers Dex mentioned are all in here. I’d hate to have to come bother you again.”

Shannon lets out another sigh as she taps her heel.

Okay, what all did Dex say? Game schedule?

Check. Plane itinerary? Check. Emergency contacts?

Check. There are a few extras: a map with red marks I can only assume mean “don’t go there,” a roster of the guys, and, for some reason, a copy of Callie’s schedule.

I guess, just in case, since she’s the other person here that Miles is the most comfortable with, but I’m missing Dex’s schedule .

“Um, it looks like I need a copy of Dex’s schedule, and we’re good to go.”

“What do you need his schedule for?”

Happy thoughts, Luce, happy smiles.

“Oh, Dex mentioned I would have it. Also, he mentioned Miles could go pretty much anywhere in the stadium, but I noticed a bunch of red marks on this map, so I was curious?—”

“Not everywhere. Some areas need to remain kid free, and as far as Dex’s schedule goes, it wasn’t on the list of things he requested. If you need anything, I’m sure Callie can handle it.”

Miles tilts his head back to me.

“Callie does know a lot. Probably even more than some other people.” Miles’s eyes look up to the sky as if to really set in his sarcasm. Yep, the kid definitely has been spending a lot of time with Callie, that’s for sure.

I force down my laugh, because I know this is one of the prime examples of not needing to encourage the snarky attitude… even if he does have a point.

Shannon scoffs. “If that’s all, I think we’re set here.”

“Right, I’ll get with Dex on his schedule. Thanks for everything else,” I chime and nudge Miles to head as far away from this woman as possible.

We make it halfway before Miles jumps around and begins walking backward. “First up on our tour, the gym!”

“Alright, Mr. Tour Guide, lead the way!”

Miles jumps back around to skip down the hallway again. Clearly taking my suggestion to not let Shannon’s sour mood rub off on us.

When we walk past Dex’s office, I may dare a peek to see if he’s still in there. I need to ask him about his schedule anyway, but his office is empty.

As Miles skips on, I pull out my phone to text him. I mean, he is the one who mentioned I would get it, right? Or is texting him about it too weird? It’s not exactly an urgent thing, I guess. And worst comes to worst, Callie, I’m sure knows enough of the daily routines to help me out if I need.

“Come on, Lucie! It’s right here!” Miles jumps as he reaches his hands high as if he could hit the hanging sign that talks about Lyfe Fitness providing their workout equipment.

“Oh, so close!” I chuckle.

“I know!” Miles boasts.

I gotta give it to the kid—he’s got confidence.

When we reach the door, Miles grips onto the handle tightly as he leans his whole body back with a grunt.

“Need some help there?”

“No, Dad says we always get the door for girls. It’s polite!” Miles grunts again, putting all his five-year-old strength into the door but it doesn’t budge.

I’m not sure what I love more here, really—the fact that Dex is instilling these sweet mannerisms into his son now, or the fact that Miles so clearly wants to be just like his dad. He can put it on winning over Callie, but from my point of view there’s more to it than that.

When the door still hasn’t opened, I look around to find a small keypad on the side.

“Miles, I love the effort, but I think we might need the code first.”

Miles drops his hands from the handle and catches himself before falling to his butt. “Oh yeah, I forgot.”

I chuckle. “That’s okay. Do you happen to know the code? ”

Miles frowns. “No, I can’t remember. I think it has a two in it. Or a four—I’m not sure.”

“That’s okay, I know where the gym is now, so it’s still a part of the tour.”

“But it’s not the same,” Miles whines. “I wanted you to see the inside.”

“I think I can help with that,” a male voice comes from behind me, and while it’s familiar I don’t quite place it until I turn around to find the infamous playboy, Tripp Pierce.

Although I say playboy, Tripp is still a fun guy to hang out with. Really, I don’t think I’m much his type considering he usually sticks to the rejections Reagan gives him.

“Yes! Please, please!” Miles yells.

“Calm down, all-star, I got you.” Tripp shakes his head with a chuckle before turning to me. “First day, huh?”

“Does news really travel that fast around here?”

“It does now that Callie works here.” Tripp turns to type in the code, but when he reaches for the door Miles swats his hand away.

“I got it!”

“Oh, how very gentlemanlike of you,” Tripp mocks but sends a cocky smirk my way. “Callie might fight you if you take away her number one fan.”

Miles swings the door wide. “No, this is just practice.”

Tripp and I walk into the gym and I shake my head. “So that’s what instant rejection feels like?”

“Oh, come on, Little Anderson, you’ll get used to it. Hell, sometimes it’s refreshing.”

I snort a laugh. “Ah, now the seeking out rejections from Reagan make sense.”

Miles jumps in front of me with a proud grin on his face. I expect Tripp to consider our conversation over and go workout, but I don’t think he notices Miles so close. Or he’s just so used to saying whatever comes to his mind.

“It’s so humbling. She manages to do it in the most brutal fucking?—”

I cut him off, unfortunately a little too late. “Geez, can none of you guys watch your language?”

Miles answers before Tripp can even open his mouth. “No, Daddy says it’s really annoying. He told me not to repeat words, ’specially from Tripp or Beck.”

“What!” Tripp leans back with his hand over his heart for a full dramatic effect.

I snort a small laugh before I can stop it. Miles looks from Tripp to me, and I can see the mischief already there in his eyes.

“Yeah, Dad and Callie sometimes say you don’t use your brains to think. I’m not sure what you do use, but clearly it’s not smart.”

And with that, I full on laugh.

“And that you guys are children sometimes!” Miles adds.

Crap, I gotta pull it together. Bad teacher reaction on this one.

“Excuse me!” Tripp’s voice goes up a couple octaves as he grabs Miles to flip him upside down. “Tell me more of what they said.”

Miles giggles as Tripp playfully shakes him. “I won’t.” Giggle. “Tell.” Giggle. “You anything.”

“Okay, okay. Give him back,” I say, reaching out my hands to take Miles back, but Tripp spins him around.

“Sorry, Nanny, gotta fight for him.”

“Tripp,” I huff out, but don’t get to do anything else before a sharper, aggravated voice cuts in .

“Tripp, put him down,” Dex snaps, every bit of what I imagine any angry dad sounds like.

One hot…muscular…sweaty…tattoos peeking out from his sleeves dad. I wonder if I can count the abs through his athletic shirt…eek, snap out of it.

Tripp flips Miles back around and sets him on the ground next to me. “Relax, Dex, we were just goofing around. Nanny, here?—”

“My nanny is none of your concern,” Dex barks.

Oof. Why do I feel like this thick foggy tension in here now? Did I do something wrong? I thought Dex and Tripp got along…

“She’s got a name, guys.” Beck comes up beside Dex and claps his shoulder. “And I’m sure this was just a stop on their tour, isn’t that right, Miles?”

“Yep! Our first stop after seeing Shannon.” Miles’s face sours as he says her name but then hooks his head over his shoulder to me. “Lucie, don’t forget about the schedule problem.”

“What problem?” Dex snaps, finally looking my way.

With the tenseness in his gaze, I’m a little torn between wanting to hide and being slightly more attracted to him.

“It’s not really a problem. Shannon gave me Callie’s schedule instead of yours. When I asked her about it, she said to talk to you, so?—”

“I’ll talk to her,” Dex clips.

Geez, and here I thought our conversation this morning had some hints of normalcy to them. I guess we’re back to being sour to Lucie.

Great, a new boss I’ve irritated in some way.

Is it me? Is this something I need to add to my list to work on ?

Swallowing down that thought, I look away from Dex to Miles. “Right, well, this seems like a great start to our tour. What’s next, Miles?”

Miles’s smile is wide, completely oblivious to the tension around us. “Let’s go see if Callie’s here.”

“That’s part of the tour now?” Miles nods his head, and I swear I see hearts in his eyes. “Yeah, Callie’s pretty fun, I suppose. Let’s go find her.”

Miles races to the door while my steps to the door feel heavy. All the guys’ eyes are on me, and I can’t help but feel like I’ve done something wrong here. Maybe finding Callie isn’t such a bad idea.

I’ve always watched the Blues play on TV, but it seems the team dynamic is different than I expected. I guess I should have taken into consideration that my brother is usually quite the loner, so his talk about the team is probably just coming from short, passing conversations.

But then again, Will knew Callie was pushing for me to have this job… He would have said something if there was drama that I wouldn’t handle well…

Miles waves for me to hurry up. “I think I hear her. Let’s go!”

Let’s figure out what I’ve gotten myself into.