Page 83 of Sexting the Coach
I let out a brittle laugh, “Her dad is being inducted today. Which means she’s probably there.”
“And you don’t want to see her?”
“Pretty sure she doesn’t want to see me.” In fact, I have no idea what Elsie wants. She quit her job to protect me, then told me to leave her alone. The whole thing doesn’t make any sense.
“So why the hell are you here?”
I blink, turning to my hero, and Harrison laughs good-naturedly. “What?”
“You didn’t have to come all the way to Canada to avoid the ceremony,” Harrison points out, gesturing to me with his glass. “You could have done that at home.”
“What areyoudoing here?” I counter, because I can’t face questions about myself right now.
Harrison shrugs, “They asked me to do a little pre-recorded speech for the live stream. Was planning on staying for the ceremony, but our little guy is fussy. We came back here, and when I saw you in the bar, figured I should stop and say something before heading up.”
“Don’t let me keep you.”
“Oh, trust me,” Harrison says, smirking and taking a drink of his whiskey. “My wife wanted me to talk to you. She’s been following this whole thing.”
“This whole thing?”
“You and Montgomery,” Harrison says, knowingly. “Sheshipsthe two of you.”
I try to ignore the heat that rises to my face. The uneasy sense of being perceived by another person. “Oh. Right.”
“You’d be doing me a favor if you got on with the happy ending already.”
“I don’t think she wants a happy ending with me,” I say, and then, as though it’s the nail in the coffin, “And that’s not even the most compelling reason to leave her alone. I’m too old for her, already missed my chance at doing the wholefamilything. And she’s like, impossibly cheery all the time. I’m not like that.”
“Sounds like she makes you better.”
“She does.”
“And if you think the age thing is a problem,” Harrison says, a laugh playing at his lips. “Then you’re not going to want to hear about me and my wife.”
I raise my eyebrows. I had enough of my own shit going on the past few years, with coaching and everything going on with Morton, that I’d only heard the faint rumors of something going on with Harrison and the team strategist.
“Really?” I ask, not voicing the specifics of the question.
“Yup,” he says. “But here’s the thing about it. We make each other happy. We’re right for each other. She’s a grown woman, more than capable of making her own decisions. Pulling away to stop from falling in love with her is an affront toher. She doesn’t need me to police her attraction, or the decisions she makes with her life.”
I swallow, thinking of Elsie. Bright, intelligent. So fucking smart and driven. She doesn’t need me deciding I’m not enough for her.
But I told her I would leave her alone. Who do I believe? The version of her in that apartment, crying and telling me to leave, or the version of her who quit her job to protect me?
“If you’re the guy I think you are,” Harrison says, “then you wouldn’t let go of something you want until you’resureshe doesn’t want it, too.”
Like my fairy-hockey-father, Harrison has somehow managed to prod at all my insecurities and hang-ups with me and Elsie. And made me realize that while I’m sitting here,drowning myself in whiskey just like my father would have done, I’m letting her get away.
Elsie. My future. The brightest part of my day and the only person who could have gotten me through the past couple of months.
I slap a bill down on the counter and stand. “Thanks for the talk. I gotta go.”
Harrison grins as I shrug on my jacket and turn, heading for the door. But then, before I can step out, he stops me.
“Oh, and one last thing, Wolfe.”
I turn, body thrumming with adrenaline, ready to get to the ceremony before it’s too late. “Yeah?”
