Page 41 of Ready to Score

She imagined herself on that field, just as she had thousands of times before. Hands on her hips, looking over her domain. She had always imagined herself alone out there. Not necessarily out of a desire for that but out of a belief that she’d have to be alone to make it happen. Jade figured that no one else could ever possibly stand by her side, because they could never understand the unique position she was in.

Stubborn as she knew herself to be, even she could admit that she had been shortsighted in that belief. Lim could understand her. Limdidunderstand her. And that was… well, that was something she’d never felt before. It was completely unfamiliar. But the presence of it almost made her ache.

Maybe the sidelines had so much room for a reason.

Jade didn’t answer Landry’s question. Instead, she took her seat at the front. He had already given her all the information he was sharing with the rest of them. So even though she still listened, she didn’t give it all her brain space. The rest was taken up trying to formulate a game plan that would help them beat West Beaufort. But every time she felt like she might have something, she hit a wall. She didn’t know what the other team looked like this year. They’dhad some powerhouses on the field last year, but as far as she knew, all their starters had graduated. It left a hole in her knowledge of how they were going to play. All she could use to try to formulate a plan were the various ways they’d played in the past, and that wasn’t nearly good enough. Greenbelt was beginning to feel like an entirely new team; they were shaping up for something big, and that meant that even the team they were last year had been replaced bit by bit until something better and stronger took its place.

She had no doubt that West Beaufort had been going through a rebirth of their own, and she needed to see it before she could figure out her next steps.

Jade knew what she needed to do next.

She just had no clue how she was going to manage it.

A week later, she was walking through the tight aisles of the hair store. It smelled like Kanekalon and relaxer, and it was cold enough that the dark trench coat she wore felt appropriate despite the fact that it was over ninety degrees outside.

The wall of wigs was completely overwhelming. There were so many of them. All types of colors and lengths and styles. She looked at them for so long that their stoic mannequin heads started to appear terrifying.

After nearly fifteen minutes of deliberation, she chose a wig. A short little sandy-blond bob that would fall just below her chin.

Jade had gotten word from one of her cousins that West Beaufort had a scrimmage against East Beaufort that afternoon. Her plan was to crash it discreetly, find a place on the bleachers off to the side to watch. If anyone were to ask her who she was or why she was there, she planned to mumble something about being a family member of one of the players and promptly slink off.

It was a bold move, one that would catch her a lot of heat if she got caught. But she had no intention of getting caught. The one plus she had was that Beaufort was a good deal bigger than Greenbelt. It wasn’t necessarily the type of place where every single person caught every single new face.

She felt like a rogue agent as she took her seat, careful not to get there too early. She had just enough time to get the notes app on her phone up and running before kickoff.

West Beaufort started out strong. She took note of which players started—labeled in her phone by the numbers on their uniforms. Much like Port Royal, they seemed to fall victim to the curse of the “star player.” This time, it was their quarterback. The kid was fast on his feet, quick with his weaving, and wily enough to get out of multiple holds. But his grip on the ball was often tenuous. More times than not, Jade watched as he lost control of the ball on his way to making a touchdown.

Sometimes, he was lucky, and no one caught him. Other times, a player from East Beaufort swooped in and turned it into a win for his own team.

Jade made sure to make note of this as well. Greenbelt could absolutely use this information to their advantage. She’d make sure to tell Landry that they needed to have people on the butter-fingered quarterback every second of the game.

The other—possibly most important—thing she learned was that they had a lot of big guys on the field. Because of this, their coach was relying on pure physicality to get ahead.

This wasn’t going to work against Greenbelt. They had plenty of big boys of their own, for one. For two, they were going to win through strategy. Outsmarting your opponent was easy when they relied on brute force to win.

There were still four minutes left in the game, but West Beaufortwas set to blow their opponents out of the water. Looking to avoid the rush and any suspicion, she slinked out and was in her car and headed back home before the game was even over.

Jade found herself filled with pride on the drive back. A big grin on her face, she was overcome with the knowledge that she had her ace in the hole. As promised as the head coaching position seemed like it would be for her, she could never shake the feeling that she needed some extra kind of edge to really get it.

She knew that what she had done—spying on West Beaufort—maybe toed the line between right and wrong. She hadn’t taken game tape; she hadn’t been attempting to steal plays or poach players. All she’d done was some field research. A few notes in her phone and a brain full of ideas were what she’d been left with. She felt as if she were on fire, burning with the possibilities of what her newfound information was going to bring her.

Her elation was brought down a bit with thoughts of Francesca Lim. Ever since their kiss, Jade had done everything in her power to avoid the other woman. She didn’t know how to handle Lim or where she fit in her life. And after Landry had put certain things into perspective for her, it had become even harder for her to know.

She didn’t know what to say to Lim.

Landry had been right. Jade may have been viewing her as an equal competitor, but she’d had the upper hand the entire time. But just like she couldn’t shake the feeling that whatever was bubbling between them wasn’t going to stop, she couldn’t quite get rid of the feeling that she couldn’t count the woman out on the professional front either.

There was something dangerous about Francesca Lim. And it wasn’t just the way she kissed or moved her hips. Those sparkly smiles of hers held something deeper underneath. Not necessarily sinister or malicious but certainly aware. Since Lim had come to Greenbelt,Jade had seen her get just about everything she wanted. She always managed to make sure her kids had fresh art supplies every quarter, no matter what the school’s budget looked like. She’d even managed to worm her way into Thursday-night poker without much fuss.

The woman seemed to stay quiet and banked on the fact that people found her unassuming. Then, once she caught them unawares, she went in for the kill.

Jade’s hands tightened on her steering wheel; she would not be Lim’s next kill. Her job would not be Lim’s next conquest.

It was possible that Landry had too many irons in the fire to sense when he was being played—when they were all being played. But Jade didn’t. The time for avoiding Lim was over. She wasn’t about to sit around like some scared little puppy, cowering over a few kisses and strawberry-scented hair.

She had a job to do and games to win. A goddamn title to claim.

She’d been too nice. And with the new information she was sitting on, she knew that she had something special up her sleeve. If she had to bite back to protect it, she would.

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