Page 37 of Friends with Benefits

After a half-hour, my arm felt loose enough to throw again, and I returned to the mound. I practiced the rest of the day without any complications, but Alex’s concern was infectious. Dammit, this is why I didn’t like anyone asking me if I was okay. People start asking it enough, and you start wondering if maybe you’re not.

After practice,I gave myself time in the jetted tub and alternated soaking my shoulder and icing it with a big-ass bag of ice from the machines in the locker rooms specifically for injuries. The shoulder didn’t bother me aside from the one throw, but I didn’t want to take any chances. There was too much riding on this season.

Like my life.

“Wilder!” Coach Taylor yelled.

“Yeah, Coach, in here.”

He rounded the corner, jerking to a stop when he found me in the tub. “Good. You should keep resting that shoulder when you’re not practicing. We don’t want you to strain it any more than you have to.”

“Alright, Coach.”

“You were looking good out there today. I just wanted to tell you to keep it up. Although, if you’re ever late to a practice again, I won’t be pleased.”

“No, Coach.”

“I know women can be a pretty temptation, but I want you to keep focused until the end of the season. March is going to come quickly, and you don’t need any distractions. You hear me?”

Sometimes, I wondered if the man had a sixth sense. Then again, he spent most of his waking hours living and breathing the game, coaching, and coaxing his players to their best. It was no wonder he knew us better than we knew ourselves.

“You got it, Coach.”

He narrowed his eyes at my words. “Don’t bullshit a bullshitter, kid. I know you’ve got that girl of yours.”

See? Knows everything, I swear. Alex once said he thought Coach Taylor might have bugged our cribs and shit with cameras and tapped our phones, but I had brushed him off at the time. Now that I came to think of it, though, there was no other explanation.

“I’m not going to tell you how to live your life,” he continued, “but this is the most important season of your career. I need you focused to win, but you need to focus to succeed. You understand?”

“Yeah, Coach, I understand.”

He narrowed his eyes even further. Sometimes, I thought they’d up and disappear into his skull. “I mean it. I’m not distracted. I’m focused one-hundred percent.”

There was a pause while he studied my face. Seeming to be satisfied with whatever truth he divined from my expression, he gave a decisive nod. “Well, alright, then. I’ll see you at weight training this afternoon. And don’t be late.”

It was almost comforting how predictable he could be, even when his mind-reading crap creeped the shit out of me.

But he wasn’t wrong. I couldn’t afford to be distracted, much as I liked the woman doing the distracting.

Chapter Fifteen

Ember

“But I don’t wantto go to the grocey store,” Tillie complained, dragging her feet and making me grit my teeth. “I want to stay home and watch princess movies.”

I gave myself three long, deep breaths before I answered. After a long shift and an even longer day of classes, the last thing I wanted to do was drag the girls to a busy store and spend another endless hour slogging through the aisles with them running around me like a pack of snarling werewolves. But our pantry was looking sparse, and the social worker was due for a visit, so I had no other choice.

“Grocery store,” I corrected. Feeling calmer, I brushed her hair away from her face. “I would rather watch princess movies, too, sweetheart. But if we don’t get groceries, we’re gonna have to eat your sister for dinner.” I dug my finger into Tillie’s neck and was rewarded with a giggle.

“We can’t eat Molly,” Tillie protested once her giggles subsided. “She wouldn’t taste very good. Besides, I’d rather have beef stew.”

Taking both of their hands, I said, “Beef stew sounds good, but let’s see how it goes.”

“Beef stew, beef stew, beef stew,” they chanted as I guided them inside the sliding doors. Their laughter was a welcome respite from the cranky mess they’d both been in since I had picked them up from Tripp’s mother’s house. I couldn’t blame them. I’d been cranky, too.

My mother’s voice had been in my head all day during classes. Telling me how irresponsible I was being, giving up being with the girls to further my education. I could be working to provide them with a better life instead of wasting time at school. It didn’t make sense, I knew that intellectually, but the guilt was very real. It had been a tight ball in my stomach each day I left the girls.

The only time I could ignore it was when I was with Tripp.