Page 18 of The Way We Dance

"Nope," I popped and put my hands on my hips. Coach kept his eyes on me, silently daring me to say something so he could change his plans on the spot but I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction. Besides, maybe he wanted her here to watch the other guys. Maybe he wanted me to have classmates in my ballet lessons.

"Ok then, Nichols, Black, you two head to field 3." I looked over to Cam who shrugged and started walking. All of our morning practices were non-contact so there was no need for pads and helmets. We wore shorts and our jerseys and that was it. So when Coach said go to field three, I had nothing else to grab or do but start walking behind Cam.

"What the fuck is going on?" I asked Cam from behind. He shrugged again and kept walking.

Easy for him to say, he wasn’t struggling at all. He was kicking ass like he always did. No one ever got on his case about how shitty his playing was so he didn't have a care in the damn world.

I looked back and saw the rest of the guys being distributed into groups between the four fields we had here at the training complex. It was no surprise, but Dave was escorting Giselle to field three.

"Heads up," Cam yelled and a ball flew my way. I caught it and threw it back, helping him warm his arm up while we waited on the coaches—and apparently Miss Priss—to join us.

Lawrence Anders, another tight end, jogged up and started throwing with us while watching Giselle and Coach walk our way. He didn't say anything, but he was thinking what the rest of the guys were thinking. That the new consultant was unbelievably gorgeous.

Shit, even as uptight as she was, there was no denying Giselle's appeal. Add her long dark waves being out of her normal bun, the power suit, and sunglasses, and I was surprised she didn't have a line of guys following her like baby ducks.

Something about the thought of them giving her any attention didn't sit right with me. Giselle wasn’t mine, even though I had just referred to her as such. Nor would she ever be.

Nor did I want her to be.

But I felt some sort of claim over her because I saw her first. She was my dance instructor and even though I would rather die than let these guys know I was taking ballet, I didn't want them giving her any nods either.

So I guess I shouldn't have been surprised when I found myself next to Lawrence, who still had his tongue hanging out, and pushed him hard enough he almost fell to the ground.

"What the fuck?" He yelled and had Cam running to get in between us.

"Pay attention," I deflected.

"I was, motherfucker."

"Hey, hey hey….." Cam was trying to interject and keep us separated.

"No, you had your eye over there," I nodded toward Coach and Giselle. Coach was now running to us, leaving Giselle to slowly walk with Dave.

"What's it to you?" Lawrence yelled louder, getting angrier.

"It matters because we needed your head over here," I shot hands between Cam and I, indicating Lawrence should have been focusing on us.

"Are you fucking ki…."

"Hey," Coach yelled as he approached. He was in exceptional shape, so his little jog hadn't winded him or even made him break a sweat. "What the hell is happening over here?”

Lawrence backed up since Coach was there and jutted his chin at me. "Black’s pushing people like we are on the playground, Coach. Telling me to focus on a game of catch. Pretty big coming from the same motherfucker that can't catch a pass to save his damn life."

"Oh you wanna go there?" I started charging Lawrence again but Coach put himself in between us this time as Cam grabbed Lawrence from behind. His arms were around his shoulders and he was saying something to him to calm him down.

“Enough!" Coach yelled, throwing his hat on the ground. "We aren't starting our day off going at each other, get your shit together now. Or I will send you home."

No one wanted to go home. This was camp. No one went home during camp. Most of the guys didn't leave the complex for anything. No one knew that I was leaving at 8:00 every night and coming back at 10:30. By then, most of the guys were passed out from a hard day's practice and they all thought I was one of them.

Instead, Coach had me driving my ass into the city for ballet lessons. Which now that I was thinking about it, maybe that was why I was frustrated. It wasn’t that he was looking at Giselle, it was that I was so fucking tired. I didn't get the rest that the others got. I hadn’t earned that right by having a good practice. While they were all eating and sleeping like babies at the end of the day, I was doing ballet.

Rage burned in my ears as I slowly realized that all I really needed was a fucking nap.

I backed off of Lawrence and threw my hands up. It wasn’t his fault I was in the position I was in and shoving a teammate wasn’t exactly setting myself up for a good day.

However, when Giselle approached and Lawrence smiled his smarmy lips at her, nodding and raising his brows, I started to lunge myself at him again. It was like I couldn't even stop myself.

Thankfully, Cam was standing next to me and grabbed my arm, realizing what I was about to do. "Get down the field, Black, the ball is headed your way."

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