44

Adam

Full-On Snorting Laughter

Coach Lawson raised an eyebrow. He was as bald as a Gerber baby, but his eyebrows were the stuff of legend, and when he raised one of those grizzly caterpillars at you, he meant business. "Is there something that you two…want to go ahead and tell me?"

Piper drew in a slow breath. I could feel the confession inching out of her.

We'd come too far.

I leaned over, pretending to be resting along the chair, and dipped my hand down. It was a bold move. Hopefully, it'd work. I squeezed her thigh through her jeans, just out of sight of my coach. Piper straightened up in a second, the shaking melted away. It was the only thing I could think of to bring her back to Earth.

And it was the only thing that made my tongue thick in my mouth too.

"Nope," I managed with a smile.

Piper nodded, her voice a little too squeaky. "Nothing in particular."

I drew my hand back, pretending the shrug was all I meant to do, and relaxed back in the chair. "Can't think of anything."

Coach Lawson's jaw twitched. "Because every action is reflected on the university."

Slowly, he flicked open the front of the envelope and shifted out photos the size of his hand. I couldn't see them, but my stomach dropped. Lie, lie, lie. It was our only way out of this. But if he had actual photos of the two of us smashing that car, it was over. Actually, it was worse than over. We were fucked.

He scattered the pictures on the desk.

Dumbfounded, I stared at them. They were a little blurry, but I would've recognized the setting anywhere. It was the grimy pool at the crappy college in the middle of a disaster RA conference. There was me, soaked to the bone, grabbing Piper's arm. They were like those little papers Kassie drew to make an animation—a flipbook—just five blurry pictures of me yanking Piper into the pool and the last two of her tumbling in with me.

That was the big thing he wanted to talk about?

I fumbled with my words. "I…uh…"

And Piper burst into laughter.

Full-on, snorting laughter, the kind of laugh that barrels you over and has you rocking back and forth. She tried to cover it up as best she could, but her shoulders shook with it. Coach Lawson and I stared at her. Piper couldn't stop though. She belted in belly laughter with tears in her eyes, not stopping until hiccups escaped her.

Coach Lawson frowned, more confused than anything. "This is amusing to you, Ms. Fontaine?"

"I'm so sorry." She pulled herself together, struggling to breathe. "I forgot all about that!"

I could've kissed her.

"You…forgot about this?" Coach Lawson said slowly. "You don't look amused in these pictures. I need to know that everything's fine, Ms. Fontaine."

I tried to piece together a joke, but couldn't think of anything. For the first time that I'd ever gotten in trouble with an authority figure, I was without words. Piper took them all out of me.

"It…uh…" Piper started to say and laughed again. "Sorry, it's Adam funny. Not funny-funny. No harm done. He even apologized for it afterward. It was just a…" She chose her words thoughtfully. "Look, that was a very small portion of the conference."

"A small portion? " Coach Lawson repeated.

"Tiny," Piper nodded. She hesitated for a moment and shrugged. "Adam went to my sexual health awareness class. He reminded students to pay closer attention. Even handled our post-conference transportation all by himself." She shifted up in her chair. " And he helped me console a…mutual friend when she was going through this…very horrible experience. He didn't have to. But he did."

Coach Lawson didn't move. " Adam Russell did that?"

"Yes," she affirmed.

" This Adam?" He gestured to me. "This kid, right in front of me?"

"Yes."

"He did all that?"

Piper smiled. "He absolutely did."

And then she turned her smile back to me and my stomach flip-flopped. Half an involuntary grin tugged up on my lips. I didn't have control over my facial motions anymore. Only part of my brain was working.

Piper said all of that…for me.

And the way she said it, it wasn't…a lie? It wasn't the whole truth. But it wasn't a lie. My mouth was dry. My heart thumped in my chest.

Was she just saying all of that for Coach Lawson?

I thought about the game my high school coach used to make me play. What did Piper gain from telling Coach Lawson all of that? It was simple. She got us out of trouble. But she could've stopped at the explanation. She didn't have to give details.

Why did she?

I just stared. I didn't know.

Coach Lawson and Piper talked for long minutes about the conference, and all too soon, Coach Lawson was speaking to me again. "You're staying, Russell."

I glanced over to see Piper collecting her things. She gave me a little wave before she departed, hands shoved in my hoodie pockets. I didn't even realize he dismissed us. I wasn't paying attention.

"Huh." Coach Lawson rubbed his beard. "Your weekend went better than I expected."

I trashed some asshole's car and had Piper, naked, in the shower.

"Me too," I admitted.

"You would say this process has been successful?"

"Uh…" I paused. "Yeah, I guess so."

He shifted back in his chair, watching me carefully. "I want to…apologize, Russell. I have some personal things going on and I think I took it out on you."

The day was full of surprises.

I hesitated. "What do you mean, coach?"

"It's a family affair."

Gazing at him for a moment, I remembered that his stepdaughter was supposed to transfer here this semester. Was that why he'd been walking out of practice with his phone so often?

"Your…stepdaughter?" I guessed.

Shit, why did I ask? He's not going to tell me.

"Yeah." He nodded slowly.

I tried to hide my surprise. I couldn't remember the last time Coach Lawson told me anything personal.

"She declined coming for the semester and I'd—it's my problem to deal with." He sighed, rubbing his temple. "I don't have any kids of my own. My experience is with my teams, and you can't exactly—I don't want to bring that into the job. You're a great player, Russell. We couldn't have won the Birchwood Bowl without you."

Any other time, I would've been smug about the compliments. But I stiffened in the chair, feeling an inevitable turn in the conversation.

"And…?" I said slowly.

"You obviously put in the work," Coach Lawson finished. "You proved yourself on this trip. We don't need to go ahead with this anymore."