I shoved my hand into my pocket and shifted my duffle bag to hide my growing problem. Cassidy barked out a laugh at my not-so-subtle attempt to salvage my dignity. Brook had left me less than a week ago, and here I was, already looking for her replacement. What was wrong with me?
Cassidy pushed me aside, hooked her arm inside the new girl’s elbow, and pulled her inside.
“We need to talk,” she said.
I watched them walk away. Damn! I was just getting to know her.
◊◊◊
It took some doing, but I talked Mr. Happy down. After I’d had a chance to think about it, I was more than a little embarrassed by how I’d acted. It wasn’t like me to flirt with a random girl at school.
Not that she wasn’t flirt-worthy; I just thought that it was way too soon after Brook had left.
The hard truth was, I’d convinced myself that I wasn’t going to start another relationship with only a semester left in my senior year. That was why Lexi was such a perfect solution. With her, it was just a hookup. I could get behind a no-strings, fun romp in the sack.
The problem was that I wasn’t sure there were many girls my age who would be interested in that. The only two that came to mind were Lisa Felton and Destiny Crown. I certainly didn’t want to go there and face the wrath of my friends.
When I got to the locker room, I made the rounds. It pleased me that everyone had shown up to lift and work on their baseball skills on a holiday. I talked to each guy and made sure they understood that this year we were not goofing off. We would make a push to win State.
Last year, our squad had been divided. Some key players played seven-on-seven football instead of baseball. Two players I targeted were younger quarterbacks, my brother Phil and Trent Buchannan. They would battle next season to take over the starting quarterback job. Playing seven-on-seven football was critical for both of them.
I’d made them a deal that I knew Moose would back me up on. If they joined the team part-time to help with pitching depth, I wouldn’t mess with their spring football teams. The only condition was that they had to show up for preseason workouts and get enough pitching in each week to be useful. I also might have alluded to the fact that I would work with them so they were better football players.
I dressed in my workout clothes and was on my way to the weight room when Moose stopped me.
“Before you go lift, I want you to meet our new strength and conditioning coach.”
“What happened to Connor Fletcher?” I asked.
Coach Fletcher had been hired to help us, and I’d assumed he would continue in the role.
“He’s going to focus on his job at State as their strength and conditioning coach. He recommended our new one. Mr. Hasting talked the school into hiring her as part of our training staff,” Moose explained.
“Her?” I asked.
He shrugged, pointed at the training room, and headed back into his office. I figured I might as well get this over with.
I walked in and found Cassidy talking to Jill and Becky, our trainers. When they spotted me, all conversation stopped. I suspected that Cassidy had been filling them in on my encounter with the new girl.
“Hey, I need you to look at something. I have this discoloration on my skin, and I’m not sure what the problem is,” I said as I walked up to them.
They barked out a laugh when I showed them my tan line on my hip.
“And so it begins,” Jill said as she shook her head at me.
“Give me a hug; I’ve missed you,” Becky said.
I gave them both hugs. When I released Jill, Becky introduced me to the newest member of their team.
“David, I would like you to meet Joey Marshall.”
I turned and caught Cassidy’s huge grin. Yep, it was the girl from earlier. Only now I could see what had been hidden under the parka.
Joey looked like a woman you’d find in a fitness magazine. She had on a half tank top that highlighted an impressive rack, and her abs showed more definition than those on most of the guys on our team. Joey’s yoga pants did nothing to hide her round, perky ass that screamed ‘squeeze me.’ Her muscular legs made me wonder if she’d played volleyball in college.
“So, you took over for Fletch,” I said. “I can already see that you’re an improvement.”
“And I can already see that you’re going to be my problem child,” she snapped back.
I bit back several retorts that involved my ‘problem’ and decided I wanted her on my side instead of tattling on me the first day.
“All I care about is whether you can make me a better athlete,” I said, getting serious.
She looked at me for a moment and must have decided I wasn’t playing around, so she gave me a slight nod to show we were on the same page.
“Ms. Hope, get David’s folder, and we’ll check where he’s at now,” Joey said.
I’d talked to Coach Hope about what Cassidy wanted to do beyond high school. One of her goals was to help me stay in shape. She already had the cardio down, now she would learn from Joey and the rest of the training staff about the strength side. That was why she’d now become a student trainer.
