Me: Cool. I’m gonna catch a nap.
Avery: Jealous, I have to study.
Me: Want me to come keep you company?
Me: I mean, I can sleep beside you. Because I’m napping.
Avery: lol. No, you’re a distraction. I’ll want to stare at you instead of study.
Me: And write songs about me?
Avery: Pitiful. You’re beyond self-absorbed.
Me: Well, you aren’t helping with that, writing songs about me and shit.
Avery: Have a nice nap, Jace.
Me: Study hard, Avery.
Grinning, I roll over face first into my pillow, and it doesn’t take long until I’m drifting off. But just as I fall asleep, my phone rings.
Fuck me.
Groaning, I peek out to look at my phone and find it’s Coach calling me.
Well, hell.
Sitting up, confused, I answer.
“Hey, Coach.”
“Sinclair, come over to my house real quick.”
“What?”
“Come over here real quick. I need to ask you something.”
Crapola. What did I do wrong? Getting out of bed, I say, “I’m coming.” I hang up and run up the stairs before going out the door, searching my brain for something that Coach would want to talk to me about? Practice was great. The guys are doing well. I feel good, and I waited until everyone was done before I left. So what the hell is going on?
Coach’s house is right next to ours and isn’t that long of a walk, but he’s killing my naptime. The door is ajar when I reach it, and I push it open, calling out, “Coach?”
“Come in here,” he calls from the kitchen, and when I enter, as I’ve done plenty of times before, he’s sitting at the kitchen table.
By himself.
Like a weirdo.
I look at him and he looks at me, and I look away quickly as an eerie silence falls over the room.
He clears his throat. “So, um, I’m sure you’re wondering why I called you over.”
I nod. “Yeah, I am,”
“Well, let me get to the point. I wanted to ask you if you’d be okay with me dating your mom.”
Scrunching my face up, I finally look at him. He’s giving me that hard look, the one that kind of scares me, and I’m unsure if I can be honest here. I’m pretty sure he might try to kill me if I say no. But then, what reason do I have to say no? I think…gag…she likes him and he…gag… likes her. My mom hasn’t been happy for a while, and if Coach…gag?
?can do that, who am I to stop him?