Page 5 of Silver Sanctuary (The Silver Springs #3)

Three

T he morning air, stale and warmer than Lacy had been anticipating, rushed over her as she stepped out of her car in the small parking lot next to the recreation fields.

Embrie was starting soccer that morning, though you wouldn’t know it from the way her daughter’s face was buried in a book the whole drive there.

As soon as they made their way over to where the soccer nets were, Embrie started to smile. She handed her book to Lacy and marched right up to Nash, who looked more than ready to coach with a whistle hanging around his neck.

Oh, lord. Forget about the whistle. The man was wearing black fucking jogging shorts and a matching shirt so tight she could trace the outline of every muscle on his?—

“Hey, Parmigiano!”

“Ugh!” Lacy bit the inside of her cheek as Embrie crossed her arms and sighed. “That’s the worst one yet.”

Nash didn’t seem irritated with her attitude, but Lacy was holding back her warning to her daughter to see how he responded. It had been a tough morning, and more than anything, she just wanted Embrie to have fun. But it wasn’t really a surprise when Nash smiled at them both and laughed.

“Well, do you have a guess?”

“I don’t need to guess! That’s Italy.”

“Final answer?”

“Yes. Too easy!”

Nash sighed, throwing his hands up in the air. “You got it. Another point for my favorite cheese wiz… Hey, wait, there’s a cheese joke in there somewhere, I know it.” Nash looked down at the sneakers on Brie's feet. “Where’s your gear, kiddo?”

Lacy watched her daughter’s face drop as she scanned the group of kids already out on the field.

They were all wearing shin guards and cleats.

Some even had mouth guards in. Lacy hadn’t seen anything on the sign up sheet about needing any equipment.

Wasn’t it just supposed to be a hobby league for kids to practice some skills on the weekends?

Her temples throbbed as she thought about what she could cut from groceries that week to afford gear before the next practice.

“Oh, god. That’s my fault,” Lacy admitted, cringing at the lie she was about to tell.

“We… We were running late this morning, and I didn’t check to make sure her stuff was in the car.

I figured it was better to let her run around in her sneakers for tryouts than not to come at all. Is it going to be a problem?”

“No. Not at all. Brie, why don’t you head out and grab a yellow pinny. You’ll be on my team today.”

“Thanks! Bye, Mom!”

“Have fun, kiddo.”

Lacy pulled out her phone, already looking up the gear she’d need to buy.

Would it take a trip into Rogersville? Dallas?

She didn’t have the time or money for it.

Nash had told her every kid who tried out made the team no matter what, and she felt so fucking guilty for wishing that wasn’t the case .

No. She was doing okay. Embrie was safe. They had a roof over their head, even if it was leaky. Embrie had food and Lacy got by on the left overs. They would make it work.

“Hey, don’t sweat her not having the right stuff today. It’s my fault for not making sure there was a reminder on the sign-up sheet.”

Crap. He’d surprised her with how close he’d gotten. The screen on her phone went dark as she pushed it back into her pocket. “We have the gear, I promise. Just a rocky morning and then getting out the door was a scramble. You know how it is.”

“I’m a mess just having to get myself out the door. Can’t imagine trying to get an opinionated mini version of myself into the car on time too. You’re doing a great job.”

“Thank you for saying that, but clearly I’m the captain of the struggle bus.”

“Well, I’ve got your little passenger for now.” He smiled, his hand landing gently on her arm. “You can go enjoy an hour of peace and quiet if you want. We’ll be done right at noon.”

“Oh, I’m actually going to stay. I barely ever get time to just watch Embrie enjoy something. I’ll sit back where she won’t see me, but I’d like to just soak in that laughter a little bit.”

Something flashed across Nash’s face, an emotion she couldn’t quite place but felt like it fit somewhere between contemplation and worry. And then his head turned, looking over his shoulder at Embrie laughing with another little girl who was helping put her pinny on.

“Looks like she already made a friend.”

“She’s very outgoing. I’m not sure where she gets it from.”

“I don’t know, Lacy, you don’t really fade into the background as much as you think you do.”

Her cheeks might as well have been sunburned, and she knew from the way his eyes were trained on her that she didn’t hide her reaction very well.

Nash chuckled as she turned away, heading back to the big tree with a large canopy creating the perfect spot to sit in the shade and keep her eyes trained on her daughter.

She certainly wouldn’t be watching him, with his tight shirt showing off his full sleeves of tattoos, and his backwards hat making her stomach flutter like it was doing somersaults.

God, Lacy. Get. A. Grip.

Fuck, he didn’t want to take his eyes off of Lacy, sitting under the shade of an old tree, the sunlight peeking through the leaves, illuminating her in a way that made her look like she was made from stained glass.

Her cheeks had flushed the prettiest shade of pink earlier, and he couldn’t stop his mind from wandering over what else he could do to bring that color back to her face.

“All right, kids, let’s gather ‘round! Doesn’t matter if you’re on winning team ketchup,” Beau Ford, the other coach on the team, waved around the red vest in his hand. “Or on the losing mustard team, Coach Nash and I have some things we need to go over with you guys before tryouts start.”

Nash took over, his voice booming across the field even though the kids were right in front of him.

“Just to be clear, if you are on team yellow, it does not mean you will be losing the scrimmage today. Coach Beau is a bit of a prankster and I’ll be keeping my eye on him this season to make sure he stays in line.

” Beau’s chuckle filled the beat of silence before Nash continued.

“It’s important that you give it your all today, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t want you to have fun. ”

“Because at the end of the day, Coach Nash will make sure all of you make the team anyway.” Several kids laughed as Beau rolled his eyes. “Apparently, this is a participation trophy league. But if you think we’ll go easy on you, you’ve got another thing coming!”

“And that other thing is a pizza party at the end of the season, no matter how well we do.”

“All right, enough of this positive chit chat! Let’s get to seeing what you’re made of! Players, make two lines behind the starting cones. We want you to dribble the ball across the field and back. This is a timed exercise!” Beau said before blowing into his whistle two times.

Christ, it was like having a younger version of Hawk out on the field with him.

The kids who came out were talented for their age.

Embrie had an absolutely explosive kick—he could definitely work with that.

The hour flew by and before he knew it, they were sending the kids on their way.

He’d hoped Lacy and Embrie would hang around, but after he got talking to a couple of parents about the schedule for the season, he looked over to the tree she was sitting under to find it empty.

“Was that Lacy Graves I saw you talking to earlier?” Beau asked as they walked the field, picking up cones together.

“Yeah. Her daughter Embrie was the kid in pigtails on my team today. Why?”

“Are you friends with her?”

Nash’s head snapped up at the question. Was this guy really about to make a move on Lacy? Would she want that?

“Where the fuck is this going, Beau? You interested in her?”

“No. Nothing like that.” He laughed, his eyes drifting over to the woman talking to Mae. Since Nash knew Mae and Stone were together, despite them not really admitting that to anyone, especially Hawk, that meant whoever was talking to Mae was special to him.

“Just spit it out,” Nash grumbled.

“There’s a lot of history between people here in Silver Springs and Lacy’s family—a lot of deep wounds that haven’t healed.”

“And?”

“And… people were cruel to her growing up. Those same people, the ones who are still mad about what went down with her mom, aren’t happy that Lacy’s back.”

“Yeah, well, they should realize that Lacy isn’t her mom, and you don’t just punish someone because they’re related to someone else who committed a crime.

She was a fucking kid when her mom caused that accident.

” Lacy hadn’t told him the details, but he’d read the articles, the police reports.

Fuck, after what happened with Sloane and Gage…

their paths had become intertwined before they’d even met.

“Hey!” Beau held up his hands. “I’m on your side on this. This isn’t about her—not really. But just… I overheard some idiots we went to school with flapping their jaws at Davney’s the other night.”

“Saying what?” Nash froze, waiting for Beau to continue.

“Just that she shouldn’t be in town. That maybe someone needed to remind her of where she came from.”

Fuck. Talking out in the open like that, making threats where other people could hear them? That wasn’t a good sign. “Christ.”

“Yeah.”

“Thanks for letting me know. Can you shoot me a text with their names? I’ll have Gage look them up, and I’ll figure out some way to let her know to be careful, especially around them.”

“Of course. Hey, next weekend, you wanna do sprinting drills with the kids before the scrimmage…”

Nash continued to chat with Beau, but his mind drifted to Lacy and Embrie.

He hated the way Lace had looked when she realized all the other kids had gear.

Why hadn’t he thought to make that a part of the program?

The league fee was barely anything, thanks to Sebastian’s sponsorship.

Really, it was just a way to make sure parents committed to bringing their kids each week. Gear should have been covered too.

He pulled his keys out of his pocket and headed toward his truck, the bag of cones and soccer balls slung over his shoulder. It looked like he needed to take a drive into Dallas.