The Odd Ballerz by Ruthie Robinson

was the only green grass in the otherwise sea of brown that was the other parts of his property and more typical of Texas in June.
    The coaches were milling about, during their usual preparation detail, she guessed. She drove past them, the first time she didn’t have to duck and hope to go unnoticed. She held her head high today, even waved to Coaches Z and D, who were both staring in her direction. She followed the drive onward, continuing with her assessment of his property.
    # # #
    “Look who’s here and early,” Damian said. Jones had just passed them, waving. “Looks like your little talks before camp worked,” he said, smiling. “I assume that’s what you two are over there discussing. It’s not what I’d choose to talk to her about, but that’s me,” Damian said.
    Z checked his watch and, yes, Jones was, in fact, fifteen minutes ahead of the start time. Good for her, and it was nice to know she could be on time. She parked and of course he continued to watch, or it was more he waited to see the shape of her as she exited her car today. It wasn’t long before her leg appeared in a high-heeled shoe, all early-stage striptease is the way he viewed her one-body-part-at-a-time exit from her car. Wow, he thought, taking in the totality of her outfitted in another dress, a gold one today that fit like a glove, short-sleeved and everything totally covered. He liked that about her.
    “It never gets old, does it?” D said, chuckling, standing beside him still.
    “No, it doesn’t,” Z said.
    “I think you should go over and commend her for being on time for once. Praise her for doing the right thing. Positive reinforcement is what it’s called,” D said, chuckling.
    “Maybe, since I have to go over anyway. I left my whistle, and one always needs a whistle with Jones,” Z said, moving away from D, heading to the restroom, wanting to get a closer look at her in that dress. Not that it would change anything. She was still off limits. Yeah, yeah, not technically, he told himself again. He knew, but she would remain so nonetheless. However, knowing that fact didn’t diminish the pull of her body. A siren’s song was Jones’s ass, and it would be nice to see it up close for once.
    She was walking purposefully toward the restroom, with a nice, sure stride, and no sign of the falling woman here. All confident and sexy, and he loved the swing of her hips, a smooth glide from side to side. He was almost to the restroom, and wow, however potent Jones was from a distance, it was three times that up close.
    He reached for the door and held it open for her, glad for the safety of his shades to hide his feelings behind. His mouth was fixed in its usual straight line so there would be no outward signs of his feelings as he looked her over. Perfect in gold today, gorgeous against the brown of her skin, the dress hugged her curves from the top of her collarbone down to just above her knees and tempting she was, and good thing he was a strong dude who had his priorities in order.
    “Jones,” he said when she reached him.
    “Coach,” she said, meeting those shades again, and that mouth, a matching set of seriousness.
    “Congratulations,” he said.
    “For?”
    “For being on time, and for putting to rest a theory I had about you,” he said.
    “Oh yeah? What theory is this?” she asked, smiling.
    “One that ended with me kicking you out of camp. I thought you were deliberately falling, running late, and whatever else, to get out of the bet you made with your sister.”
    “Wow, your comments the other night and now today. I really didn’t know football players did all that thinking,” she said, smiling. “But thanks, I think, for not thinking so ill of me. And since we’re on the subject of theories, you’re not the only one with one. You want to hear mine?”
    “About?” he asked, watching the emotions play over her face. Irritation, embarrassment and hurt again, flickered across it, and more confirmation