Page 41 of Here and Now
“You know the rules. I’m only here for a few more hours, and then tomorrow I’m off.”
Kai looks up at me. “Thanks for today, Coach.”
“Sure thing.”
Without any complaints, he heads into the back, leaving me with Penny.
“Thank you for bringing him. Hazel had to run an errand and I said I’d cover, but practice and ... well, you know.”
“I’m sorry it ran over.”
She shakes her head. “No, no, it’s not a big deal. I just appreciate you helping.”
“That’s what we do here. It’s all part of the small-town charm.”
Penny smiles and tucks her hair behind her ear. “Well, thank you again.”
I lean in against the counter, doing my best to look suave. “Can you make me one of those foam cold brews I love so much?” I ask.
“Of course and it’s on me,” Penelope says quickly.
Not a chance in hell I’m going to let her pay, but she turns around quickly, grabbing the supplies to make the coffee I’ll toss as soon as I get home.
I drink about three sips to make it look like I love it, but . . . ugh. It’s still nasty.
As she has her back turned, I go in for the real question that keeps me up at night. “So have you thought about it?”
“About what?”
“Going on a date with me?” I flash her a smile.
Penny laughs. “I have, but I don’t think you’ll like the answer.”
“Then don’t give it to me.”
“Why is that?” She hands me the coffee.
“It just means you haven’t thought hard enough if the answer is no. See, I have a lot of really great reasons why the answer should be yes.” I force a sip down, letting the time pass so I can be around her longer.
“And what are those?” she asks, and suddenly my playful idea seems dumb. I have no idea if my reasons are great, but I know I like this girl and I want to at least see if there’s something between us.
I tick them off on my fingers. “I have a great job, financially secure, which is a very good indicator of responsibility.”
She snorts a laugh through her nose. “That is one good thing, sure.”
“I’m good with kids, again, a sign of a good man.”
“You work with kids, doesn’t mean you’re good with them,” Penny tosses back.
“I’d like to disagree based on the fact that your son thinks I’m a great coach. If I wasn’t good with the kids, they wouldn’t want to be around me.”
Penelope lifts one shoulder. “Okay, I’ll give you that one. Kai and Ethan both seem to adore you, but you know, six-year-olds are pretty easy to win over.”
“Well, you see a lot of my high schoolers, poll them on whether they think I’m a cool principal or not.”
If those kids ruin my game, they’ll be in detention. Not really, but I’ll threaten it, at least. Or just remove their ice-cream machine and watch anarchy descend in the lunchroom. Although that might bite me in the ass more than them. I’ll find something to punish them. I’m pretty confident that won’t be the case, though, because my students actually do like me, for the most part.
“I’ll do that.”
