Page 28 of Dibs
I choked on my sip of water. First, Heather rarely cooked or baked. Those rolls were the only thing I’d ever seen her make. She’d much rather order delivery than spend any time in the kitchen. For whatever reason, she must have thought her cooking prowess would somehow impress Chase. Second, I was getting irritated with her flirting. When she first met him, I was able to brush off my concerns, but it was beyond obvious what she was doing.
The only good thing was Chase didn’t seem interested.
Once we filled our plates, Dylan and Jase took over the conversation talking about their plans for winter break while Tyler checked his phone periodically. After eating, they ran upstairs to play video games, leaving just the three adults sitting around the table.
“Can I get you something else to drink?” Heather asked, eyeing Chase’s empty beer bottle. “Coffee, maybe?”
“That would be great. Thanks.” While Heather was in the kitchen, Chase said, “You mentioned talking about spring ball in your text. What’s up?”
I finished the last sip of my beer, wondering if Heather might also bring me a cup of coffee or if that was an offer for only my former roommate. “Yeah. Last week, the athletic director at my high school approached me about coaching the freshman team. It’s a great opportunity, and in a couple of years, I’ll be able to coach Dylan, which would be pretty awesome. Anyway, I’ve decided to take the job, but if I’m coaching at Coastside, I can’t coach spring ball. So, I was wondering if you might be interested in taking over the Mavericks?”
His eyes widened. “Oh wow. I wasn’t expecting that. To be honest, I hadn’t planned on helping out until it had been brought up in Arizona, but I think coaching would be a lot of fun. I had a great time that weekend. Do you think any of the parents would have an issue with it though?”
I chuckled. “No. I don’t think anyone will have a problem with a professional ball player coaching their child.”
“A retired professional ball player,” Chase corrected with a wink.
“Yeah, I don’t think that makes you any less desirable.”
The words slipped out, and I realized how they could be misconstrued to mean something other than what I’d intended, but before I could check his reaction Heather returned with coffee for all of us.
We continued to chat about how to make the transition smooth for the team before Chase checked the time and stated he needed to pick up Cammie.
“It was lovely having you here,” Heather gushed as we walked him to the door. “I … I mean … We hope to see you again soon.” She rubbed her hand across his back as I opened the door.
Chase took a step away from her, and I couldn’t help but hope he didn’t want her attention.
“We should get together soon and talk about tryouts,” I suggested. “They happen at the end of January, and I’d be happy to help out with that part as much as possible.”
He grinned. “I’d appreciate that. I’ll probably have some questions along the way. I hope you don’t mind if I bother you occasionally.”
“Not at all.”
“Cool. See you soon.”
“Night,” I replied and closed the door behind him.
Heather followed me to the kitchen as I began to clean up, and said, “Well, that was fun.”
I closed my eyes. Her behavior during dinner was too reminiscent of how Lisa had acted when we were around ball players. I’d been too stupid to stand up for myself in the past, but I wasn’t about to tolerate that sort of disrespect a second time.
“We need to talk.”
9
CHASE
“Can Dylan spend the night?”Jase asked, peeking his head in from the hall.
I looked away from the Denver Broncos game on the TV. “It’s a Sunday night.”
“But it’s Christmas break and I don’t have school tomorrow.” He begged, hopeful.
He had me there, and I would rather he be under my roof while it was my week with the kids. “Did he ask his father yet?”
“Yeah. Coach said if it was okay with you, then he could.”
“All right.”
