Page 15 of Loving the Coach

Stepping back, I don’t know what the solution is. I’m far too freaked out to relax. Gavin walks out of the door and winks at me. Garret turns to him, and Gavin shouts, “When you’ve had enough, Michaels she becomes fair game.” He laughs and Garret stalks toward him.

“What the fuck did you say, Gavin? Katie is mine and no one else's, she never will be anyone else's. Do you hear me?”

“I hear you loud and clear, but that doesn’t stop me from thinking how my name would sound on her lips.”

I don’t see Garret move, he’s so quick. One minute he’s stood next to me and the next he’s got Gavin on the floor and he’s punching him. I run over and try to pull him off him.

“Garret stop, he’s not worth it. No one’s going to take me away from you. Stop it.”

Just then I hear a deep voice. “What is going on here?”

Shit it’s Philip. He’s slimy and I know Garret doesn’t like him. Everything is spiralling out of control and I don’t like it. Too many people know.

Garret turns to face him and tells him, “It’s none of your business, Philip. Me and Gavin are just having words, but we’ve finished now.” He walks over to me and takes my hand and pulls me across the car park to his car.

When I get in, I’m in shock. Now everyone is going to know and I’m going to lose my job. I have some decisions to make. Do I give up my dream job for the man I love? Or do I give up the man I love for my dream job?

CHAPTER 13

GARRET

“When you’ve had enough, Michaels she becomes fair game.” The words keep replaying over and over in my head. The more I hear them, the worse my temper starts to rise. I’m fucking pissed, at both Gavin and Katie.

The car ride is silent, the anger I have is brimming and I’m wanting to punch something, preferably Gavin’s face. I stop outside Katie’s apartment and don’t say a word. I don’t trust myself right now and the last thing I want is to say something I don’t mean in the heat of the moment.

“I’ll see you later?” She asks tentatively and I just nod, the grip I have on the steering wheel has my knuckles turning white. “Garret?” She questions and I see the fear and tears in her eyes.

Seeing them guts me, I know that I’m the reason that they’re there. “Go on Katie, I’ll see you later.” The words come out clipped, and I hear her sharp intake of breath. I’ve never spoken to her like this before and I never wanted to. She climbs out of the car and I watch and wait until she’s safely inside of her apartment complex.

I drive home and get changed into my gym shorts and t-shirt. I decide to run to the gym, hoping it’ll get rid of some of the anger, it doesn’t. Having the time to think about everything that’s happened in the past month just makes it worse. The punch bag is empty when I arrive and I step up to it, throwing combination, after combination at it. Loving the sound of my fist meeting the bag, while I’m still pissed, my anger is subsiding.

Katie acts as though she’s the only one that will lose something if something went wrong. I’d fucking lose the love of my life, yet she doesn’t see that. She’s blindsided by her selfishness to make sure she stays clean. Well fuck that. I know she’s worked hard to get where she is, but so have I. I’m living my dream, being a coach and having the woman I love in my life. That’s all I ever wanted and yet Katie acts as though she’s ashamed. I can’t win with her and it’s tearing me apart. I don’t want to have to hide the fact that I love her and everyday I see her while I’m working, I have too.

Gavin on the other hand, he’s going to find out what it means to talk shit about my girl. He’s an asshole who thinks he’s God’s gift to women. He talks about women like they’re beneath him and only good for one thing. The man’s a douchebag and everyone knows it. The only reason he got his job was because he’s Philip’s nephew and if he weren’t, he’d be long gone.

By the time I’m finished beating on the punchbag, I’m tired, I need a shower and talk to Katie. She’s upset but we need to talk, sort out everything. I thought we had but today proved otherwise. I know what I want and I need to know if she wants it too. I’d give up everything for her, but if she doesn’t want it, then I won’t.

“Woah, what the hell happened to you?” Caleb asks as I walk through the door, the sweat is pouring from me. “Want to talk about it?”

I shake my head, right now, I need a damn shower. I walk past him and toward my bedroom, when his voice stops me.

“Suit yourself. Just so you know, I’ve had Mindy blowin’ up my phone for the past hour. Something about wanting to cut your dick off and feed it to you for hurting her girl.” His voice is sombre and I don’t like it.

I glare at him. “If you’ve got something to say Caleb, spit it out.” He knows everything about mine and Katie’s relationship, including what happened with Dean.

“You fucked her in the shower and someone overheard then you got angry and left her.” He shakes his head in disgust. “What the hell happened to you man? You say you love her and yet you act like an ass.”

I’m sick of feeling like I’m in the wrong when I’ve done nothing. “Yes, we had sex in the shower. I didn’t realize that Gavin overheard. He’s an asshole but he’ll keep his damn mouth shut. Saying that, I’m tired of her hiding our relationship. She can fuck me behind closed doors but as soon as we’re in public she acts like I’ve got the damn plague.” I shake my head, he shouldn’t be the one I’m saying this too. “Look, just leave it yeah. I’m going to have a shower and then I’m going to talk to Katie.”

Caleb sighs, great, he’s got more to say. I stand with my back against the door and wait for him to say whatever the hell it is.

“I get that you love her, you always have. You want the world to know. Trust me, I know exactly how you feel,” his jaw tightens and I know that he’s talking about Mindy. “But, you have to realize that you hurt her, Garret. You left her when she needed you the most.”

I go to say something but he lifts his hand to stop me.

“You’ve apologized, I know you, you’ll never do it again. I know that and I think deep down Katie knows it too. But that fear is there Garret, she’ll have it for a while, it’s not something she’ll be able to turn off like a damn switch. So she’s keeping it a secret because if you do leave, she’ll be left with nothing. You’re a coach, she’s a cheerleader, if things go bad, it’s not you that’ll lose his job. It’s her. So she’ll once again be all alone and this time it could just be the end of her.”

Listening to his words, I let them sink in. I never thought of it like that before. I just assumed that she didn’t want anyone to know because she was ashamed.

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