Page 23 of Coach Me
Callie places her hand over her heart. “I think we both know I can be rather convincing.”
“You’re going to bring it up to him until he caves, aren’t you?”
“Yep,” Callie says, popping thep.
“I can’t change your mind either?”
“Nope!”
Chapter 8
Dex
“I’m just saying, why not look at today’s game as a trial run?”
I couldn’t decide if I wanted Lucie to show up to today’s game or not. I’ve been back and forth on it all week. The way I’m leaning really changes every time Callie brings it up. And if there’s one thing about our photographer…she talks a lot.
“A baseball game isn’t exactly the place to have a trial run for a homeschool teacher, Callie.”
I stand off to the side of the bullpen as our pitchers finish up, and while I’m pretty sure Callie is supposed to be getting pictures right now, she’s bugging me.
“Oh, come on, Dex. You know this is a good idea. Lucie’s qualified to be Miles’s homeschool teacher, overqualified to be the nanny, and?—”
“And she knows the schedule. You’ve mentioned all of this already.”
I don’t want to dismiss Callie, but she’s been on this topic all week. I know she has good points. On paper, Lucie is perfect for the job, but I can’t pull the trigger. No matter howmany positives Callie adds to the scale, the weight of our interactions combined with the number of times I found myself looking over at Lucie during the game earlier this week, outweighs it by a ton.
Her warm smile when she interacted with my son had me tempted to leave the dugout to sit with them countless times. He had all of her fucking attention, and I’m the shitty father who just wanted a second of it for myself.
“And yet, you still haven’t offered her the job.”
I toss one of the baseballs from my back pocket into the bucket next to us, then pick it up to carry to the dugout. Callie naturally follows.
“Didn’t you say she thought I was an ass and didn’t want the job? Gee, I wonder why I haven’t offered her a raise with the offer?” I say over my shoulder.
“Okay, I may have been paraphrasing the whole ‘you’re an ass’ part. Lucie doesn’t cuss anyway?—”
I tilt my head back again. “She doesn’t?”
“No, she doesn’t. See? Added perk number one million.”
Fucking hell, she’s relentless. “Cals?—”
“She might not have called you an ass, but she did feel like you didn’t like her. She didn’t know anything about the job until after either. Think about that Dex, she wanted to hang out with Miles tonight without even knowing she could get paid for it.”
Well, I guess her thinking I didn’t like her was kind of my intention, even if it’s the furthest thing from the truth.
I drop the bucket of balls by the dugout and run my hands over my face just as Will starts to walk up after finishing his pregame warm-up.
“Please take her away,” I beg.
Will holds his hands up in surrender. “I already told youguys, I’m not touching this conversation with a ten-foot pole.”
“Much to my annoyance,” Callie mumbles.
Adam comes up behind Will, clapping him on the shoulder. “Oh, come on, Anderson, pick a side. Girlfriend or coach?”
Will gives him a blank stare. “No. No, I won’t be doing that.”
