Page 49 of Ready to Score

“And you’re an even bigger fool than I thought if that’s all it takes to fuck you up.”

Franny held back her exasperated huff. Apology to Landry be damned, she shoved herself off the floor and hauled herself out of there. Her hands were clenched on the steering wheel as she drove home, all the anxiety and anger and embarrassment building until tears started to leak out the corners of her eyes. She’d felt far too many opposing emotions for one evening—hell, for one lifetime, honestly.

It almost amazed her how Jade could go from being the type of woman who fucked like she was looking for love at the bottom of Franny’s throat to the type of woman to gleefully kick someone when they were down.

Franny waited for it to make her angry. It would have been so much easier to rage and rant. Maybe that way she could take that energy and put it into trying to make Jade feel like the kind of fool she felt like. But the rage didn’t come, no matter how hard she tried to coax it out. And when she got home and threw her keys on the coffee table and curled up on her couch, shoes and all, it was something else entirely that she felt.

Despondence. Fear and sadness that she’d completely messed up any small chance she had at being a real part of the team. Along with straight-up despair that the woman she still couldn’t help but admire showed no signs of returning those feelings.

The gloom created a fat gray cloud that floated just below her ceiling, bulging and shifting as it filled with more and more water. It was an ominous thing, one that made Franny squeeze her eyes tightly and wrap her arms around her own waist. When the cloud finally broke and the rain fell, her own cries were the thunderclap.

16

Two weeks. That was the amount of time Jade went without even attempting to speak a word to Franny. Seven practices, one car wash, and a team dinner. Two fucking weeks.

It wasn’t like the time before either. Where Jade had practically turned her nose up trying to avoid her. This time, she acted as if Franny wasn’t there at all—like she was a ghost that Jade could see right through. More than once, Franny had been forced to pinch herself to make sure she was still flesh and bone.

Landry hadn’t bestowed any type of coaching title on Franny yet. And while she hadn’t expected it so soon, it did frustrate her. Especially because Jade seemed to be thriving. She rarely left Landry’s side, walking along the field with her shoulders back and her head high like she was preparing for the power she just knew she was about to gain.

To her credit, Franny was gaining a certain amount of respect herself. Carr had started consulting her on the team’s offense. Asking her opinion on which kids she thought should start and what tactics she thought might benefit them most.

Franny found the man a little less than inspiring. While it was clear that he cared, Carr wasn’t as enthusiastic as he should have been. He didn’t push the players the way they needed to be pushed.In turn, the boys respected him a little less. They’d started coming to her more and more for correction and advice. She was starting to feel like a real coach again, and it felt incredible. So much so that she had no qualms about whatever this little unpaid internship of hers was.

July was nearly over, and school would be starting up soon. Not long after, they would have their first game. Franny knew that everything would come to a head then. But the buildup was starting to make her itch with anticipation. Landry had begun to hunker down more and more, keeping them later for practices and demanding they came earlier. Jade was right there with him—the first to show up and the last to leave. Every time she stepped foot on that field, she was serious about it.

Franny had no choice but to respect it. She was incredible to watch in action, that woman. She provided a strong, steady presence for the players. Landry had started to lean on her more and more. Franny had even seen her holding Landry’s playbook a few times.

She figured if, after the first game of the season, Landry didn’t let everyone know that Jade Dunn would become Greenbelt Senior High’s new varsity football coach, then he wasn’t leaving.

Even the other coaches could see that there was no other competitor on her level.

Franny just didn’t understand why Jade couldn’t see it herself. She kept telling herself that it didn’t matter, ultimately, what Jade thought or felt. The woman was hell-bent on pretending that Franny didn’t exist, so why should Franny spend any of her brain space focused on her?

It was easier said than done.

These days, it felt like she spent a great deal of time thinking about Jade. The more the other woman ignored her, the more intense her longing became. She replayed her memories of their time in the club bathroom on a loop. And more than that, she fantasized aboutscenarios they hadn’t been in. Not just sexual ones either. Things like cooking dinner together and going to the grocery store. She tried her hardest to keep the images at bay, but every now and again one slipped through and made her stomach roil.

She fought the urge to just walk up to Jade every time she saw her. Her time in the shower was spent creating scenarios in her head in which she had her chance to speak her mind. Franny imagined herself stopping Jade in her tracks, shaking her, forcing her to listen and understand as she relayed her feelings.

To her, it seemed so clear what those feelings were now. After months and months of trying to figure them out, all it had taken was one earth-shattering orgasm to put things into perspective.

Somewhere, somehow, among all the barbs and sneers, she’d managed to fall for Jade Dunn. The other woman was strong and competent, driven and focused. The shell she kept around her was hard as granite, but it had plenty of cracks. Franny saw it every time her gaze softened when one of the boys talked to her. She saw it in the way she’d lovingly joked with her friend at Minnie’s.

There was passion in that woman that had been locked away and was yearning to be free. The way her hands knew exactly how to caress and squeeze and flat-out please Franny’s body proved that. And Franny had wanted nothing more than to hand her own heart right over for the taking.

Now Franny stood next to Coach Carr, her arms crossed over her chest like she was trying to keep her heart stuffed inside. It was in the eighties today, but goose bumps raised along her skin. She’d caught a chill weeks ago and hadn’t been able to get rid of it since, no matter how high she cranked up her heated blanket.

A few yards away, Jade and Landry were huddled over his big blue playbook. In front of them all, the players were just finishing up their drills. They’d been at it for almost three hours, and some of theearlier parents had started to arrive for pickup. Once the last whistle was blown, half the boys threw themselves onto the ground on their backs, sweating and panting.

Franny moved onto the field to check on them. Making sure their skin, even if tired, wasn’t sallow or sunken. They all looked thoroughly exhausted but pleased with themselves. That seemed to be a running theme of everyone on the team—coaches and players alike. Spirits were high, and it was impossible not to feel the difference in the air. Everyone—including her—was determined to win. Not just the season opening game but the season itself. Greenbelt was going all out for the victory. Their victory as a collective, yes, but also the small victories everyone had to reach out and grab for themselves.

She thought about Alonzo, crying on the sidelines as he struggled with the way his team and his personal life would sometimes butt heads. A kid with parents forced to work too hard. A family dealing with the aftermath of a terrifying health scare for one of its members. How afraid he must have been; how hopeful he always seemed to remain above it all. A win would help show Alonzo that everything he fought for could be achievable, that he could accomplish great things. There were countless stories like his on their team, and each one of them was just as deserving as the next of a happy ending.

After helping guide the boys off the field toward their water bottles and encouraging them to hydrate for the hundredth time that day, she spared another glance at Jade. This time, she was talking to a parent. A father in a pair of shin-length denim shorts with a Bluetooth the size of her cell phone in his ear. Jade’s face was impassive, but her body was full of nervous energy as she talked. Franny noticed the way her clothes shifted as she moved, the way her side profile transformed with every word.

She thought of the Jade from two weeks ago, the one whose darkeyes glinted as they delighted in Franny’s humiliation. Every ounce of that woman seemed to have disappeared as she spoke to the man. Jade may have been cruel then, sure, but she’d been confident too. This version of her had her shoulders drawn inward. From the side, her face looked like she was trying her hardest not to let any hint of sourness show. The man spoke with his hands, making himself look bigger, as if he were trying to scare off a bear. Jade looked like she was staring one down.

Even if it didn’t seem like Jade was in immediate danger, it was clear that the man was being unkind to her. Franny thought about going over to have her back, to say something in her defense. But she paused, unsure if Jade would have done the same for her. It made her feel awful to even think such a thing, but maybe Jade was right.

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