Page 10 of Eat. Prey. Love.
Considering my words for a moment, I meet her gaze across the locker room. “We’re good, Coach. The past is… the past, you know? You’ve been a pretty great sounding board and trainer, even if I hate you sometimes for it. And you deserve more than settling… you should have someone who treats you the way the guys treat me. Or someones, if that’s your thing.”
Her face lights up and she chucks a ripped jersey. “This is hopeless. These are old school, gross, and not salvageable—at least, not if we want to challenge the world’s perception of theAcademieteam.”
A thought strikes me and I scratch my chin. It could work if Zhenga is convincing enough. “What if we had a student re-design them as part of a school assignment? I guarantee that would make it specialandsave some dough. Your father would like that, I bet. He could run publicity around it.”
“That’s afantasticidea,” Coach beams as throws another destroyed kit away. “I suppose you have someone in mind?”
My lips curve up. “In fact, I do. Hopefully, she arrives in the next few hours with my other bestie and her girlfriend. We can arrange a tête-á-tête after they’re settled. How’s that?”
“Works for me.” Once she finished with the grubby laundry, Z sits down and sighs. “What are we going to do to recruit? This place is so fucking arts centered—I bet they’re going to be as picky as your professors were about you joining. I had to sign a million damned forms promising we’d handle your injuries with your dance career in mind at Cappie.”
That’s going to be a sticking point; I know it. Dancers and legs, musicians and artists’ fingers…
“I’m not sure, honestly. It’ll be an obstacle because so many of the students here are probably in the top of their chosen fields. None of them will want to risk it—except maybe some transfers and possibly those who are here not because they earned it, but because their parents demanded it.”
Zhenga grins. “Legacy bullshit. That actually might help. There have to be folks who shouldn’t be at this level and need something to succeed at.”
“Yep. And that’s who will be hungry to excel and make their parents shut up.” I plop on the bench, sighing as I look around the poorly maintained room. “But we can’t start unless you get this place upgraded. Snotty, elitest kids won’t want to set foot in here.”
“Agreed, despite it being not remotely predictive of a team’s success.” Slapping her thighs, Coach stands, putting her hands on her hips. “We’re in this together, Dolly. If your friend needs help convincing a teacher to let them use this for a project, I’ll run interference. Just let me know, okay?”
“Got it, Coach. Now let’s go take notes on the field problems so I can get back home before they send inthe clowns.”
Laughing, Zhenga holds her hand out, tugging me to my feet. “Have I mentioned how much I enjoy seeing you take those grumpy asshats to their knees? If not, it’s delicious.”
She can’t possibly enjoy it as much as I do, but I just wink at her as we head outside.
“Thankfuckyou’re back,”Felix mutters when I walk in the door. “Maybe you can wrangle them.”
Walking up to my grumpy Raj, I kiss his jaw. “What’s wrong?”
He arches a brow, then grabs my hand to drag me to the living area. My eyes widen as I see the entire place draped in clothes and taped as the Captain and his crew scurry around on ladders and stools to paint the walls a soothing azure. There are boxes everywhere, clearly filled with all the creepy ass dolls and old lady décor the room was overwhelmed by when we arrived. “It’s Armageddon in here.”
“I was only gone for like two hours,” I gasp as I see Chess pop his head out from behind a sheet covered pile. He pushes his glasses up, smudging paint on his nose and my heart melts. “This is crazy.”
Fitz barrels out of the hallway leading to the bedrooms, sweeping me off my feet and swinging me around. “They got rid of the Annabelle shit. My world is right again, Baby Girl.”
“However, to do so, they’ve torn the gathering area to pieces,” Felix grumbles as he moves past us towards the kitchen. He opens the cabinets, searching for a moment until he pulls out a bottle of brandy. His nose wrinkles, but he shrugs and uses a flowery tea cup to pour a hefty draft. “It’s chaos in here.”
“I see that,” I reply when Fitz finally sits me on my feet. “Who startedthis?”
“Him,” Aubrey growls as he walks in from the door that connects to the library. He hooks his thumb over his shoulder at Rennie, who doesn’t look in the least bit perturbed. “He’s overcompensating.”
“I am doing no such thing,mon ami. You asked Chester and I to begin re-decorating and we did.”
Giving the gargoyle a pointed expression, I walk over to where Raina is directing the triplets. “Hey, girl. Do you think you’re all going to be done before it’s time to head to bed?”
Her cheesy grin is huge as she turns to throw her small arms around me. “Leave it to me, Dolly. I’ll whip these scallywags into shape. All you have to do is take the raging preds somewhere else so they’ll focus on finishing rather than flinching.”
I chuckle. The crew knows none of us are going to hurt them, but some instincts run deep and my guys are certainly worked up enough to unintentionally frighten them. “Got it. Remove the blustering boys and you’ll let me know when this is… taken care of?”
“Yep. The furniture won’t be here for a couple days, but we can handle moving all the boxes to storage and finishing the paint job tonight.” Raina squints as she looks around. “Tomorrow, we’ll work in the kitchen. Sounds good?”
“This chair be high, says I!” The Captain declares as he totters on a tall stool as he works on the edges of the windows.
Raina snorts. “Of course it is, you tool. You’re too small to reach the damn ledges without it.”
We share a look as the various men in our families fill the room with testosterone. I turn to Felix, tilting my head. “Well? Is there something we can do until we grab food in the mess? We need to get out of here if you want your space back.”