Coach Maddie and the Marine by Blaire Edens

swearing, taunting, or cheap shots. Three: You come to practice or you don’t play. I hope those rules are clear because if you choose not to follow them, you won’t be playing on my team. You’ll be warming the bench. Is that clear?” she asked, moving down the line of boys and making eye contact with each one.
    The boys nodded.
    “I asked you if you understood.” She deliberately put a hard edge onto her voice.
    “Yes, ma’am,” the boys answered in unison.
    “Good. Let’s move on to the penalties. As I explain each one, Coach Sterling will show you what the call will look like.”
    She quickly went through the list. David did a great job of showing the boys the signals. The boys all seemed to understand the penalties, so as soon as she finished, they put the boys through twenty minutes of defensive drills.
    With the practice finished and the boys heading to their parents’ vans and SUVs, she sat down on the bleachers and took a deep breath. David sat beside her.
    “I think it went pretty well,” he said.
    “Me, too. I’m shocked, actually. I thought they would all still resent me being their coach, but they seem to have adjusted. It can’t hurt to have a rock-star jock as my assistant.”
    “Maybe it helps a little. But it was obvious to me and the kids that you do know the game. I’m really proud of you. You worked hard to learn this stuff.”
    “I’m starting to understand why everyone is so crazy about football. The strategy and the competition could become addictive,” she said with a laugh. “Come on, let’s round up Andrew and go to the community center pool. This heat is unbearable.”
    Andrew waved good-bye to the last of the players on the team and stood beside David.
    “Let me take you to the one on base, at the Officers’ Club. You can be my guests. They have a slide,” he said.
    “Yay,” Andrew shouted.
    After stopping by the house to pick up swimsuits, the three of them piled into David’s car and drove to the base.
    Even though she had an ID card so that she could shop at the commissary for Andrew, she avoided the pool since there weren’t always lifeguards on duty. She wasn’t much of a swimmer and it made her nervous to be responsible for Andrew in the pool. While he’d had a few swimming lessons, he wasn’t very confident in the water. The pool at the community center was always well-staffed and that made her a little more comfortable.
    “Andrew hasn’t had many lessons,” she said.
    “I can work with him.”
    She chewed on her thumbnail. “Promise you’ll watch him?”
    He smiled, making her attraction meter go crazy again. “Of course I’ll watch him.”
    Her nerves were shot, and it was about more than Andrew’s swimming. It had been ages since anyone other than Callie or Andrew had seen her in her bathing suit. She took a deep breath. While there was heat with David, it wasn’t like they were dating.
    In fact, it was almost better if he didn’t like what he saw when she came out of the changing rooms.
    David parked near the entrance to the pool. He leaned across the center console and whispered, “We’ll stay in the shallow end if it will make you feel better.”
    She nodded. “Thanks.”
    The guys went into the men’s locker room to change while Maddie went across the hall to the ladies’. She tossed her tote bag on a bench and took her suit into a changing room. At least it was a one-piece in black.
    While it didn’t hide much, it didn’t bring attention to the flaws either. After turning to see herself in the mirror from all possible angles, she decided it would have to do.

    Holy smokes.
    Her bathing suit fit perfectly. Too perfectly. So perfectly he could think of nothing but peeling it off.
    Thank God for cool water. He sank lower into the pool, and his trunks plumped up a bit from the water.
    He tried not to stare. After all, he’d promised that he’d keep a close eye on Andrew. They were in the shallower end of the pool and the boy was