Book Boyfriends Wanted 13: His Curvy Infatuation

My favorite day of the year was the first day of cross-country practice. I’d never admit that to the baseball team I coached, but I loved cross-country. Running long distances was exhilarating. And seeing new kids do it, watching them achieve something they thought they couldn’t do, was the best thing ever.

I parked my SUV in the high school lot near the road so the parents and students would know where to meet. There was already a small gathering of seniors near a group of vehicles. I lifted my arm and waved, and they all waved back. They closed doors and grabbed bags, making their way toward me.

“Good morning,” I said to them as they got closer.

“Hey, Coach P. Ready for this year?” Andrew was one of the top runners in the area. He consistently led the pack, most of the time running alone since no one else could come close to keeping up with him. Scholarship offers came in all summer from schools that had been watching him since he was a freshman.

“I’m ready. Are you? Have you been training?”

Andrew nodded. “Yeah. I need a scholarship.” Andrew was the oldest of four boys. He always had good gear, but his brother, who was a sophomore, usually wore Andrew’s hand-me-downs.

“It sounds like you’ve had a few offers. Anyone you’re looking at seriously?”

Andrew shrugged. He was a quiet kid, one who didn’t like being the center of attention, and realized the others were listening to our conversation. “Not sure yet.”

I nodded, letting him off the hook. Choosing a college wasn’t easy, and having more options didn’t make it any easier. I’d pull him aside later and talk more about what he was thinking. When everyone else wasn’t listening.

“How’s everyone else doing?” I asked.

“Good, Coach P,” they all said.

“How has summer been? Everyone keeping up with their training schedule?”

All of a sudden, there was a lot less chatter.

I chuckled. “It’s going to be a rough few weeks getting into things. Seniors, make sure you’re making the underclassmen feel welcome.”

They mumbled their agreement as Jana McCloud, my co-coach, got out of her car.

“Hey, Coach M!”

Jana was new to coaching and to the district. She was in her mid-twenties and the young, fun coach the high school kids could relate to. She was also gorgeous and made all the teenage boys drool, but she was a professional and never out of line. She always ran with her shirt on, instead of stripping down to her sports bra like some of the girls did, and she never spent time one-on-one with any student. We spent so many hours with the kids that it could be tough to keep an emotional separation from them, but Jana was awesome.

“Hey, everyone. Are we ready to run?”

“Yes!” Their excited cheers for Jana made me smile. None of them admitted to her that they hadn’t been training enough all summer.

More cars pulled in and more students were dropped off. I tried not to watch for Valentina Hayes’s minivan but failed miserably. Valentina had been one of my closest friends since high school, and I’d been in love with her almost as long. She was also newly divorced and not ready for a relationship. She told me as much many times over the last few months. Work, kids, and friends were her focus now. Which meant I had to keep my interest in her to myself.

Story of my life. But it was for the best. Getting involved with her was not a good idea. I’d spent most of my life wanting her, and most of my life building up what it would be like to kiss her or touch her or tell her I loved her. It was past time to move on.

Or so I told myself when her daughters climbed out of another parent’s vehicle.

Jana and I spoke briefly, confirming the plan we set for practice. We were fortunate that our elementary, middle, and high schools were all together, and the students could run a good lap around all of them and get in their distance without having to leave school property.

Once everyone was there, Jana and I called all the kids over. We took roll to make sure everyone had shown up and went over the rules for running. Even though school hadn’t started yet, the kids needed to watch for traffic and run in pairs or groups.

“We’re going to start you out with a time trial to get an idea of where you’re starting from. You’re only competing against yourself, so don’t worry about your time. This will help us to pair you up going forward so you have someone to run with. For today only, your route is around the high school. We marked it out yesterday with flags, so it should be easy to follow. Coach M. and I will be on opposite sides of the school in case there’s an emergency. Let’s head over to the start line and do our warm-up before you run.”

Jana led the kids in stretches and quick sprints to loosen their muscles, then told them to grab some water before they ran. It was a hot day to start the season.

The kids all lined up and got ready to run. Jana jogged around the corner to the other side of the school, leaving me to watch the start and finish line.

I counted them off and blew the whistle, setting the team off on their run. Day one. I loved it. Best day ever.

Jana and I smiled and waved to the last kids to get picked up. She turned to me and burst out laughing.

“I don’t think any of them practiced this summer,” she said. “Maybe Andrew.”

I nodded. “He said he did, but the others? No. They definitely did not practice. It’s going to be a rough few weeks getting them to where they can handle a three-mile run without wanting to die.”

Jana chuckled. “Yeah. Lots of work to do. But we’ll get them there. Great day, Coach. See you tomorrow.”

“Yep. Get some rest, Jana. Lots of water.”

“You, too.”

Jana drove off in her car, zipping out of the parking lot and turning toward town. Since MacKellar Cove was like a rumor mill on steroids, I knew Jana lived in the condos by the water with her boyfriend, who, rumor had it, would be her fiancé soon. Nothing was secret in MacKellar Cove.

I let myself into my house and locked the door behind me. It still smelled like coffee since I forgot to dump the grounds before I left. I grabbed a bottle of water and chugged half of it before dealing with the coffee.

Before I lost track of everything on my mind, I grabbed my tablet and opened the document where I kept all my notes about the team. I added the times I’d recorded for each runner and sorted them based on their rate. As expected, Andrew finished the three-mile run a full two minutes before the next student. Paul Spear, Valentina’s friend Goldie’s son, was only a sophomore, but he was the second fastest on the team. Paul was going to dominate just like Andrew when he was a senior.

There were a few new students, including one who would be in my physics class. I wasn’t familiar with his name. He did well at practice, third place behind Andrew and Paul, but his transcript wasn’t great. The only way for him to stay on the team would be to pass all of his classes, and that seemed to be a struggle for Kevin.

I finished my notes on all the students and started to make up groups that would be good to run together. When I finished the groups, I sent it over to Jana to review before practice the next morning.

With that done, I looked around my kitchen at the projects I had planned for the day. My house was the definition of fixer-upper when I bought it. I’d been there for almost a decade and had updated every space except the kitchen. It always felt like too big of a task, and I wasn’t willing to tackle it, but I stupidly broke a cabinet door last week. My dishwasher died a year ago. And my fridge was feeling less cold than usual. The checkerboard backsplash, with chicken accent tiles, the previous owners installed had been chipping and falling off the wall almost since I bought the place. It was time. I knew it was time. But I didn’t want it to be time.

Even as I stood there trying to decide if I was really going to do this, another tile fell off the backsplash. It clattered to the countertop without breaking and mocked me as it spun.

“Dammit.”

I had a good idea of what I wanted the kitchen to look like. I’d been thinking about it for years. Of course, it was also Valentina’s dream kitchen, but we didn’t need to talk about that. It was just a kitchen. With a huge island where people could sit and eat, a six-burner stove, a new sliding door to the backyard that could be opened wide for parties that I never hosted, and a simple dining table for four.

Don’t judge me.

Starting a project like that on the first day of cross-country, right before summer was ending and I was going to be back in the classroom every day, was almost as dumb as introducing my best friend to my roommate in college and sitting on the sidelines while they fell in love, got married, and built a life together. But clearly, I wasn’t very good at making smart decisions.

I picked up the small sledgehammer and faced the backsplash. “Sorry, chickens, but it’s time to say goodbye.”

I barely had to hit the tiles for them to pop off the adhesive that was no longer doing its job. I collected all the pieces and dumped them into the trash bin in the garage. If I was going to do this, I needed a dumpster and a plan and some help.

Dammit.

Twenty minutes later, still sweaty from practice with the added stink of renovation on me, I walked in to Al’s Hardware. Knox Randall and I had become friends over the years. That happened when you spent half your paycheck at a man’s store.

“My favorite reno expert is back,” Knox said with a laugh in his voice. “What are we fixing up now?”

I glared at him, and he faltered.

“No. Are you kidding me? You’re finally doing the kitchen?”

If a grown man could get excited about something like home renovation, it was Knox. I was fairly sure he had more ideas about my kitchen than I did.

I grunted in reply, a noise that made Knox’s grin wider and sent him around the corner of the counter to lead the way to all the things I was going to blow my next few paychecks on.

“Demo is first. But if you want to live there while you work, you need to do this in phases. I think—”

“I need to live there. And I need to eat.”

“Okay, understood,” Knox said as he continued to walk away from me. “You’re going to need a dumpster, or maybe one of those bags. Those are pretty easy. And if you’re doing it in phases, that’ll make more sense than keeping a big-ass dumpster in your driveway. We need to talk cabinets and countertops. Are you keeping your appliances?”

He turned to look back at me, then shook his head.

“No, of course not. Those are horrible. So, we need those, too. Backsplash?” He glanced back again, then kept going. “Yeah. Your flooring might be okay, but if you change the layout, you’re going to need to patch stuff in which usually looks like shit, so I’d say flooring, too. There’s this vinyl plank flooring that’s really durable and great for areas like the kitchen. I think you’ll like it. Especially if you ever get a dog like you’ve been saying forever. What about—”

“Dude! Take a breath,” I barked.

Knox chuckled and shook his head. “Sorry. I just want to get you started before you change your mind again. You’ve been talking about your kitchen for years.”

“Yeah, and you throwing all this at me isn’t making me more excited to do it.”

“It’ll be fine.” Knox walked back to me and clapped me on the back. He was a good four inches taller than me and wider, with about forty pounds of muscle on me. A slap on the back from Knox about knocked the wind out of me.

“Shit,” I breathed.

“Sorry.” His cheeks turned red, a trait accented by his light skin and dark blond hair. He hated it.

“All good. But let’s slow down a bit. The backsplash is gone. I’m thinking the whole thing is going to be a gut job, but I can’t just tear it all out and get it all back together in a day or two. I need to take it in steps. Maybe one section at a time.”

Knox rubbed his beard and stared at a spot above my head. He wrinkled his nose. “I’m not sure how you can do that. I’d suggest running flooring under your cabinets so there isn’t a height difference with your appliances. That means you basically have to gut the entire space and start from scratch.”

I sighed heavily. “I was afraid of that.”

“It’s all right. We’ll figure it out. If we can gut everything and bring in new appliances, you can use them even as we do all the work. Or you can use what you have and replace them all at the end. Up to you.”

I nodded slowly. It wasn’t ideal, but it was going to have to work. I had some money saved up to make the budget possible, as long as Knox didn’t go too crazy, but the time was a bigger struggle.

“Okay. It needs to be done, so let’s figure it out. Think we can knock it out by the end of the year?”

Knox nodded. “Probably in half that if you want to, but three months? Definitely. Let’s get to work.”

I should have known Knox was so methodical, but until he sat me down and walked through everything step-by-step, I didn’t know that about him. I walked out of Al’s Hardware an hour later with a dent in my credit card and a plan to remodel my kitchen.

Step one was tearing everything out. Which meant removing everything from the cabinets.

I got to work when I got home, loading everything from the cabinets into the closet in the spare room. My house had four bedrooms, which always felt excessive, but when I bought it, I told myself I was ready to settle down and have a family. I’d always wanted kids. Growing up with a mom who was a teacher and a dad who was a pastor, family was important to us. My older sister was one of my closest friends when I was a kid, and still was, even though she lived in Maryland and we only saw each other a few times a year.

As I walked down the hall between the kitchen and the fourth bedroom, I felt the same pang I always got when I thought about having a family. At forty-five, I could still have kids, but knowing I’d be well into my sixties when they graduated high school meant that dream was less of an option. It stung. Especially since I’d always imagined a life with Valentina. She was my gold standard, and I was single because no one had ever come close.

I had no right to complain. I never told her how I felt, and I never gave any other woman a real chance. Besides, I had hundreds of kids. Watching my students and athletes year after year achieve great things was something I would always be proud of. I didn’t raise them, but I had a hand in molding them. A small one, but still.

When I finally cleared out the last of the items from my cabinets, I let out a breath. It was really happening. I was really going to tackle the kitchen.

My phone dinged with an incoming text. I picked it up and breathed a laugh when I read what Valentina sent.

I chuckled and settled onto the couch. I flipped on the TV and typed out a response.