Can a divorced mother of three find love?
All characters involved in explicit sex scenes are over eighteen. Enjoy! And please rate and leave comments or send feedback. They mean so much to me.
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It didn’t fit.
“C’mon, Mom, we’re gonna be late!”
“Just a second, sweetheart!” I took a deep breath, trying to suck in and fasten my jeans again, but it just wasn’t going to happen. I fought back tears as I sat back down on my bed and peeled the offending garment off of my legs. I looked at the tag, hoping I’d just grabbed the wrong pair, but no. These were my size sixteens.
“Mom, it’s after six-thirty!”
“Paige, I know. I’ll be there in just a second.” I dashed into my closet, pulling a green, flower printed maxi off its hanger. I also stripped off my panties, replacing them with the tummy control ones that I usually wore with any of my dresses. I pulled the dress on, tying off the wrap around tie to accentuate the fact I did still have something resembling a waist. Was I imagining it, or did I have less material to do so than I had in the past? I zipped up the back, and it went up easily, thank god.
I grabbed a pair of sandals and fastened them on before heading out of my bedroom and downstairs into the kitchen, where my daughter was sitting at the breakfast table tapping out a message on her phone.
“You ready, honey?”
She huffed in typical teenager fashion. “I’ve been ready, Mom. I don’t want the new coach to think I can’t show up on time.” Paige was wearing her letterman’s jacket, the left sleeve sporting the three chevrons she’d already earned playing on the field hockey team in high school, and on the front the blue, interlocked LV she’d earned as a freshman.
She stood and headed toward the door to the garage, demonstrating the ridiculous ability of the modern American teenager to text while not walking into things. I grabbed my purse and followed her, climbing into my 2010 minivan. My daughter fastened her seat belt while I backed down the drive.
The parking lot at Lost Valley High School wasn’t full by any stretch, but most of the spaces near the main entrance to the field house were taken. I recognized a number of the cars, including Principal Harrison’s black Lincoln Town Car, Renee Perry’s silver Lexus LX, and my ex-husband’s cherry-red mid-life crisis.
The latter’s owner was standing on the curb, and Paige hopped out of my van and ran up to her father, giving him a quick hug.
“Hi, Daddy.”
“Hey, Honey. Ready to meet the new coach?”
“Yeah. She was an Olympian, you know.”
“I’ve heard that.”
“Okay, I’m gonna go inside and find Sherri and Kaylin. Don’t be late!” With that Paige disappeared through the glass doors and I was left alone with my ex.
“Bill.”
“Melanie.” His eyes traveled over my body with a well-hidden smirk that told me he knew he wasn’t missing anything. Still, he put on a reasonably friendly smile as we walked towards the building. “So, our little girl’s a senior. How’d that happen?”
“She grew up on us, Bill. You bring Will or Charlie?”
He shook his head. “Will’s on a date with Anna, and Charlie is spending quality time with his computer being an interstellar outlaw or some such thing.” He pulled the door open for me, and I thanked him under my breath as I went through. “Don’t worry, Ashley is home with him and Georgia.”
“I wasn’t worried, Charlie’s a big boy. He can handle a night by himself. You could’ve brought her.”
He gave me a little half smile and nodded, following me inside. I know, by natural law, I am required to hate the younger, skinnier woman my husband traded me in for after Charlie was born. I’ll admit a part of me does, or resents her figure at the very least. But she’d always been good to my kids, never coming between them and their father, even when she and Bill had had one of their own three years ago. And if I ever needed another set of wheels to pick someone up from practice or wherever, she was always willing. As a single mom, it was hard to hate that.
We entered the fieldhouse, where there were fifteen or so round tables with tablecloths scattered about. People milled around, enmeshed in conversation. I recognized most of them, mostly parents of the other girls on the team. Paige was over to the side talking excitedly to several of her teammates, each wearing letterman jackets like hers. There were long tables along the side where men and women in white catering uniforms were getting things ready. The logos on their equipment belonged to one of the nicest, and probably the most expensive, Italian restaurants in town. Perpendicular to that was another rectangular table, set up sort of like the head table at a wedding.
Behind it stood Principal Patrick Harrison along with Vice Principal April Lewis and the athletic director, Tom Martin. I received several nods of recognition from the other parents, but no one really said ‘Hi.’ I was used to that. Most of the women were scared to catch whatever disease I’d contracted that had caused me to get fat and lose my husband.
Not everyone, though. “Melanie! I love your dress!”
No she didn’t. I turned to Renee Perry, self-appointed captain of the Lost Valley High field hockey parents, and forced myself to smile. “Thank you.”
“It’s so colorful.” She dropped her voice to feign intimacy. “I love having something in the closet to wear when I need to cover a few extra pounds.” She gave me a knowing smile. Damn she was a good actress. I almost could have believed she was sincere. Of course, looking at her in her designer jeans and the white wrap around top covering her full breasts made that hard. She’d had three kids, just like me, but if non-pregnant her had ever worn anything bigger than a size four I’d eat my support hose.
Luckily I was rescued from responding, as Principal Harrison cleared his throat and called out over the murmur of the crowd.
“Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen! If I could have everyone’s attention? I know we can all smell the amazing meal that Senator and Mrs. Perry have generously provided for tonight, and we all want to get to it, so I think you’d all be okay with me moving things along.”
A good-hearted rumble of approval went up from the assembly, and everyone moved to find their seats. Paige found her way to her father and me, sitting in between us at one of the tables nearer to the front.
Tom Martin stood up once everyone was seated. “Thank you all for coming as we’re getting ready for another season of Lady Panther Field Hockey!” A general whoop went up from the assembly followed by applause, which I joined in on.
“As you all know, Coach Collins has stepped down, and we are heading into a new era. I can tell you that we looked at a lot of candidates, but honestly there was one that stood head and shoulders above everyone else.”
I tried not to smirk, since Coach Collins had been forced out by a cadre of parents unhappy with the mediocre finishes the team had put up the last few seasons. An embarrassing first round exit from the playoffs last year had been the final straw. Bill had been one of the ones pushing for the change, something Paige did not know.
“So I am very excited to introduce our new coach. She’s been working as an assistant at Marion Heights, and she won two state titles as a player at St. Michael’s Academy in Charlotte before heading to Old Dominion and winning a national title there. She’s played professionally around the world, and was a member of the U. S. Women’s National Team for almost a decade, including representing Team USA in Beijing in 2008. Since then she’s earned her Medical Doctorate from Wake Forest and is currently working as a General Practitioner here in Raleigh. Speaking to her, it took me about five minutes to realize she’s forgotten more about Field Hockey than I will ever know, and she has high expectations for our girls, and I think she can get us there.
“So, without further ado I am extremely excited to introduce our new coach, Sandra Dalton!”
Tom stepped aside as applause rose from everyone, and I could see Paige straining to get a look. A woman stepped from the small hallway behind the folded up bleachers to the left, and my mouth went dry. She was one of the most striking women I’d ever seen. Not beautiful, exactly, but mesmerizing. She was tall, how tall exactly I wasn’t sure as I couldn’t see her footwear, but definitely taller than most. Her long, curly, chestnut brown hair was pulled back into a no-nonsense ponytail behind a handsome, chiseled face.
I took a deep breath and sat back in my chair as Coach Dalton smiled and waved to the crowd, who were applauding enthusiastically. Her eyes traveled over the assembly, and I thought for a moment they rested briefly on me, but I was probably imagining it.
I took a moment and squared my shoulders, sitting up a little taller and erasing any emotion from my face. I’d had a lot of practice pretending I didn’t find women attractive. I’d been doing it since I was fourteen years old, after all. Luckily, if the new coach had been looking at me, she’d have been the only one in the room doing so.
She shook Mr. Martin’s hand warmly, and then did the same with Principal Harrison and Vice Principal Lewis before turning to the rest of us and holding up her palm.
“Thank you all so much. Thank you.” The applause quieted. “So, that was quite an introduction, thank you, Director Martin, Principal Harrison, and thank you all, parents, for coming out tonight. Knowing that this program has such robust support from all y’all makes me very optimistic about the future.” This time her eyes definitely rested on me for a second, and I pushed down that little flutter in my heart as I listened to her speak.
She went through her credentials, the semi-professional leagues overseas where she played, and talked about her experiences in Beijing. “The bottom line is that I love the sport, and I’ve been playing since I was seven. I’ve had some incredible coaches, from juniors right through the Olympics, and the best coaches set an expectation of excellence, not just on the field, but in life. So I’m going to tell all y’all this right now.”