Page 13 of Courtside

David gave her a small smile that looked like it was a touch forced, if not reluctant. His eyes were trained down on the desk, and she watched as he picked up a pen and began spinning it in his fingers.He was a fidgeter.

It was obvious from the quiet that settled in the room that the interview was done. Sage waited, realizing she was holding her breath.

Coach Dixon was the one who stood up, seeming to break David from whatever stupor had fallen over him. “Well thanks for coming in, Sage,'' the older man said, extending a hand for her to shake.

“I appreciate you both taking the time,” she replied, completing the handshake and then turning to David.

“Right,” he said, thrusting his arm out with a bit too much gusto. He immediately winced, pulling back some and gripping her hand with just enough pressure.

She tried to ignore the tingling that ran up the inside of her arm as she looked up at him. She hoped it wasn’t obvious that she wanted to nuzzle her face into the dip between his pecs, but wasn’t sure she was doing a very convincing job.

“It was nice to meet you, Miss Fogerty,” he said in his low, melodic voice.

“Likewise, Coach Hughes.”

It was time to let go of his hand. She knew it, and there was no way that he didn’t know it. But it was like she couldn’t convince her fingers to let go, like her hand had found its home wrapped up in his warm, solid grasp. She watched as his eyes dropped to where they were connected, his brow slightly furrowed. She felt his fingers squeeze around hers once, and then he let go.

“We’ll be in touch,” Coach Dixon said, and once again Sage sensed that the older man was picking up on the invisiblesomethingthat was obviously present in the room.

Sending a nod in Coach Dixon’s direction, she picked up her bag, draped it over her shoulder, and walked out, refusing to look back as the door shut behind her.

CHAPTER4

BRICK SHITHOUSE

DAVID

David sat back in his chair, the joints groaning under his weight. Somehow he’d managed to land himself right in the middle of a goddamn shit storm, and practices hadn’t even started yet.

A tiny part of him had wondered when he saw the nameSagecome across his inbox. But it would have been a laughable coincidence if it was the same woman, right?

Who’s laughing now, David?

He closed his eyes, trying to call upon the part of himself that was good at showing up on the tough days and facing challenges with a cool, calm demeanor worthy of a man who was rapidly approaching middle aged.

But that part of himself was, unsurprisingly, nowhere to be found.

“Well that was something.”

David glanced over at his assistant coach, whose glasses had slipped down his nose. When the older man peered at him over the silver frames, it made David feel like a kid in the principal’s office — not the feeling he should have with the guy who was supposed to be taking directionfromhim.

He still didn’t know what to think about Tim Dixon.

He definitely knew Tim Dixon didn’t know what to think about him.

He suspected that Tim was still deciding whether or not David had what it took to lead the Southeastern team. Tim had been the assistant for Coach Reyes, the previous coach, and when the university hired David, it had been under the condition that he kept Tim as an assistant. They’d said something aboutcontinuity for the playersandoffering valuable experience, but all David heard was:We don’t believe in you…yet. So here’s a safety net.

Clearing his throat, he scratched his face, where the two-day beard was an almost constant distraction. He’d decided to grow it out to try something different — Chuck’s suggestion, not his — but already regretted it. “Yeah, it was. She certainly knows basketball.”

He couldn’t tell Tim that after seeing Sage under the warm glow of string lights with her bare arms and the jeans that hugged her thighs he had no doubt in his mind that the woman could hold her own in any situation. It had been obvious from the first second that he saw her that her body was powerful, but her confidence…goddamnher confidence had turned him inside out. The way she’d looked at him, refusing to look away, practically dared him to refuse her. She could have eaten him alive, and he would have been absolutely thrilled to have been chosen. And, if that night had gone according to plan, he would have spent every second in her company proving just how much he had to offer her, with his voice or hands or tongue or whatever she asked of him.

Well now that possibility was about as laughable as David actually managing to pull off a winning season.

The beginnings of a headache throbbed behind his left eye.

He knew he was a good coach. That wasn’t the issue. He’d had years of experience as an assistant at the college level, and knew that he was ready to take on a head coaching job. The X’s and O’s, the practice planning, the building of a team — that he could do. It was just the fact that the job washere, at Southeastern, the place where he’d captained the very same team thirteen years ago. It was a place that meant more to him than he knew how to express, and the idea that he might mess it up? Well, frankly, it terrified him.

He shook himself, realizing belatedly that Tim was talking to him. “Sorry, what was that?” David asked, cringing at his inability to focus today.

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