Rushed (The Rushed Series) (29 page)

Dak was waiting for his team with a play clipboard in hand when we arrived. Now was the time to man up.

Alexis flashed me a quick, secret smile, encouraging me, begging me to stay with the team and talk to Dak. Damn, she made me happy.

Dak looked up and smiled at Alexis with a hungry look in his eyes that was hard to believe was faked. "Captain!"

She bounced on her toes and gave him a flirty wave. "Coach."

Some of the girls elbowed each other and giggled, probably remembering the rumors. It was clear to everyone Alexis and Dak had a connection. Only I knew what it really was. Even knowing, jealousy twisted my guts inside out.

I cleared my throat. Dak looked over at me as if to say,
What the hell are you doing here?
Our gazes locked. There was a moment of stony silence, like we were both getting ready for battle.

"Hey, Coach," I said, breaking it. "The girls could use a water boy and a trainer. I'm volunteering." I grinned, making a joke about being a houseboy, a servant, showing him I was willing to take a backseat to his position of power.

What Dak wanted more than anything was to be number one for once.

He stared at me as if he was trying to decide how sincere I was and whether this was an apology and an olive branch or more bullshit.
 

The girls held their collective breath while I held mine.

"Water boy? Shit, Zach, why would I waste good talent? I could use a good offensive coach." He held his hand out for me to shake. "Are you in?"

I took his hand and pulled him into a bro hug, slapping him on the shoulder. "Thanks, man. For everything," I whispered.

His Adam's apple bobbed. "Welcome aboard."
 

After the general warm-ups, Dak gave me the offensive squad to train. Morgan, Sarah, and Kelly were on offense along with Alexis. I didn't envy Dak having to pick the offensive and defensive lineups. There wasn't a girl in the house who weighed more than 140 pounds, tops. And that was our tallest girl, who was nearly five ten. Everyone else had about as much bulk as a feather.
 

We were in desperate need of linemen. We would have to hope we got a good schedule for the single elimination tournament. If we went up against the house known for their chunkiness, or the girl jock sorority, we were going to be in deep shit. We would have to rely on our superior coaching strategy, wits, and speed. There sure as hell wasn't much game sense on our team. That had been obvious in the first practice I'd watched.

I wasn't prepared to coach. I knew these girls. Trying anything too complicated would be an exercise in futility. At the end of the day, they would still be sorority girls who cared more about their nails than football.
 

I ran them through some basic passing drills we used to do in high school. I was used to working with Alexis, who got it. I grew frustrated when most of the others seemed clueless. Only Kelly and Morgan, who'd played high school soccer, seemed to catch on at all. As I worked on some simple plays, my team's level of inexperience and lack of knowledge became painfully obvious. I assigned the girls with the least skills, the ones who couldn't run, pass, or catch, to the line, no matter how slight they were. Crap, using that criteria, almost all I had were linemen.
 

No matter what I tried or how I explained the responsibilities of each position, the girls failed. The wide receivers were scared of the ball, afraid to jam a finger or break a nail. The linemen were afraid to block. The running backs never seemed to find the hole.

You would think the girls could understand the simple running routes—fly, hook, post, five and in, and post corner. I mean, fly, really? Pretty self-explanatory. Run straight out. Fly, damn it! Hook, loop back.

About halfway through practice, it began to drizzle. Some of the girls grumbled. Alexis lit up.
 

"Stop bitching," I said to my squad. "This is good practice. You're going to have to play in all kinds of weather."

Finally, I decided to demonstrate the running routes using my three best players: Alexis, Kelly, and Morgan.

"All right! Everyone watch. I'm going to be the QB. When I call nine, that means the receiver is going to run the fly route, the most basic move. Alexis, you're going to receive. Morgan, you play lineman and block. Kelly, you're the wide receiver. I'll be the QB. Everyone else line up in your positions and watch." Just getting the girls to line up properly was a headache.

A girl named Kylie bounced up and down to get my attention. "I'll be the hiker!"

I rolled my eyes. "We won't use a snap or need a center for this demonstration. I'll start with the ball. Everyone ready?"

Just then, the mist turned to an all-out downpour. The girls squealed.
 

"Stay in position, damn it!" I screamed at them. "We're running nine. Go."

Morgan blocked me like she was supposed to. The wet ball was slippery, but I was used to that. Alexis went long, running straight up the middle for the ball. As Morgan charged me, I let the ball fly. Damn if Morgan didn't tackle me. I went down with a splash in the soggy field, landing with Morgan on top of me, grinning like she should win a prize or something.

"Nice tackle, right?" she whispered in my ear.

I rolled her off me and sat up to see if Alexis had caught the ball. She had. I grinned.
 

I had to scold Morgan. "You're not supposed to tackle your coach. This is just a demonstration. But yeah, great tackle. Remember, only use it if Dak orders it."

She beamed.

We ran through the plays, demonstrating and getting the other girls involved. I put Morgan back out as a receiver. The rain kept pouring down until we were all drenched and had drawn a crowd of guys, who cheered and gawked at the wet T-shirt view of the girls. Kelly, Alexis, and Morgan looked like mud wrestlers.

Alexis and I worked smoothly as a QB/receiver team. Our private practice had improved her game and given us a good sense of each other's moves.
 

"I can see a W, ladies! A real W," I yelled to encourage the girls.
 

After each play, Alexis and I conferred and joked. I didn't realize we were being too familiar with each other until I noticed Morgan watching us and frowning.

I backed off and went into coach mode. I switched places with Alexis, taking her place as wide receiver to demonstrate running the post-corner route, putting Morgan on the line to block her. I wanted to see how Alexis did under pressure.

She called the play. I took off. I was cutting back toward the corner when I saw that Alexis was in trouble. Morgan ran toward her like she wanted to hit her hard.
Shit.

I yelled at Morgan to back off just as Alexis tossed the ball to Kelly and Morgan crudely tackled her. Alexis crumpled and didn't get up.

I sprinted back to her. "Alexis!" My heart was in my throat.
 

By the time I got to her, Dak was already there, helping her up and bawling Morgan out. "What the fuck do you think you were doing? You just took out the only girl here who can actually play." His eyes were as hard as his voice as he wrapped Alexis' arm around his shoulder.

Alexis was favoring her ankle, afraid to put any weight on it. I ran for the medical kit and got an instant icepack and tape, grateful to Dak for covering for us and jealous at the same time. I tossed the icepack and tape to Dak.

Dak helped Alexis to a bench and inspected her ankle, touching it so tenderly he looked like her lover.
 

She winced. "Sorry!"

The other girls circled Alexis, watching.

Dak dismissed them. "Good job, ladies. Practice is over! Get inside and get warm. See you all on Saturday."
 

The group disbanded slowly. The girls kept looking over their shoulder at Alexis. Some flashed Morgan dirty looks. I heard mumbles that this was flag football, not tackle. And Morgan had done it on purpose to show her little who was boss. A couple of others complained about how the ball smarted when it hit their hands. Another had a nail bent back. It was crap you would never hear the guys complain about.

I kneeled beside Alexis and shot her a compassionate smile. "How are you?"

Dak answered for her. "She'll be okay. She just turned it. I'll wrap and ice it and get her home. Thanks for your help today." He shot me a look, warning me not to blow our cover.

I nodded. "I'll walk the girls home."
 

As I gathered up the gear, I caught a glimpse of Morgan. She was wearing a triumphant look, like she saw through our charade. Or at least me. She was still testing us. I had been careless. Anyone looking for it could see how I felt for Alexis.

Dak had stepped in to play his part. Alexis played along. But we weren't fooling Morgan. She was going to be a problem. I shivered in the rain, but it wasn't from the cold.

Chapter Eighteen

Alexis

Dakota was right. I'd just turned my ankle. I recovered quickly. Almost as quickly as the rumors of how gentle and concerned he'd been with me flew. The confirmed player Dakota Bradley was now a reformed, one-woman man. And to the public eye, I was his woman. In the weeks leading up to homecoming, I was initiated and became a member in the house, and Dakota took me to all the Tau Psi events. He stopped by the house to study with me and discuss coaching strategy with Zach. The three of us even met over coffee at the College Grind.

We posted pictures of each other on our social media pages. And gushed in the mushy, over-the-top way new couples do, laughing about it in private. In secret, I was Zach's girl, meeting him wherever we could find for privacy. We couldn't keep our hands off each other.

In public, I walked to class with Zach. I sat with him openly. We studied together in the house, listened to music, and pored over playbooks and strategy. We watched old episodes of
Friday Night Lights
on Netflix. And no one thought anything about it. It became common to see us together, laughing and joking with each other like old friends. Because I was Dakota's girl, people missed the intimacy in the looks we gave each other.

Even better, Zach and Dakota were rebuilding their friendship and establishing trust in each other again, bit by bit. Football gave them the common bond and excuse to be friends, pushing aside the class differences of houseboy and frat pres. I didn't know what would happen after homecoming, but they way things were going, I knew we'd find a way to work it out.

Mom saw the pictures I posted and was delighted, gushing, glowing. I felt bad deceiving her. But eventually she would see that Zach was twice the guy Dakota was.
 

I was happy. As happy as I could be given I had to keep my relationship with Zach secret. And put all those emotions into my fake one with Dakota to make it seem real.

Under Zach and Dakota's expert coaching, our team improved. Like, really improved. To the point where the girls actually started to care and act like winners. Which made my role as captain and quarterback easier and fun. Team spirit ran high. Anytime, you could shout out, "Go Deltsies!" and someone would echo it back.

The girls who weren't great athletes kicked our fundraising into high gear. The football game was the biggest event and would win us the most points and money toward charity for our philanthropy project. But we needed every point we could earn.

We got every guy in the Tau Psi house to submit an application to be Mr. University, collecting twenty points per guy who applied. I even convinced Zach and the other house guys to apply, and sweet-talked the Greek committee into giving us twenty points apiece for them, too. They applauded our ingenuity and spirit.

The team with the most points in the Mr. University competition got a thousand dollars donated to their charity. Thanks to a lot of hustle, we were out in front. The winner of the football tourney got five thousand. There were other events to raise money, but those were the main ones. The sorority/frat team that raised the most money won a trophy. We were beginning to picture how nice it would look in our living room.

With our girls coaching the guys on how to win a pageant and Dakota and Zach coaching our girls' football team, how could we lose?
 

Two weeks before homecoming, Dakota was selected as a finalist for the Mr. University contest. As his fake girlfriend, I was bursting with pride, and posted pictures of him all over my social media. I even bought him a pageant sash from a party store. He donned it in good spirit. I took a picture of him and posted it online.