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I flushed, feeling nauseous. “Um, I did look hard enough, but one of your drawers was stuck and I…um,” I began to stammer. “I, um…”
“You, um, what, Adrianna? Spit it out.” He mocked, running his hands in circles telling me to hurry up. He turned his back to give Sarah his full attention for a moment. Lowering my voice to a whisper, I said, “Something was keeping the drawer from opening. When I was finally able to open it and pull it out, I found this.”
When I held my hand out, he looked down at the white crumpled paper. “I wouldn’t suggest opening it here. You need to get rid of it, burn it, or something, anything.” I watched a confused expression slowly form between his eyes. “Please,” I begged quietly.
At first he didn’t seem to know what it was, then the shock and revelation showed on his face. I looked around, making sure no one could hear our exchange. No one looked our way and if they had, it just appeared like Kova was instructing me on something. His cheeks flushed, but he quickly turned ghostly white and grabbed the paper from my hand, shoving it into his pocket.
“How dare you read this,” he gritted through his teeth.
My jaw dropped. “How dare I? Maybe, I shouldn’t have read it, but I saw my name on it. How dare you leave it in your desk for anyone to find,” I hissed. “You’re lucky I found it and no one else did,” I retorted. Kova looked down at me with an intensity I wasn’t used to. “Please, get rid of it.”
He took a deep breath and glared at me. “You are sure the wristbands were not in the drawer?”
I shook my head, perplexed once again. He was just going to ignore his little love note? “Positive. I couldn’t find them. What are you going to do about this?”
Kova rubbed his jaw with his hand, his eyes distant. “I will take care of this tonight.”
“EXCELLENT JOB TODAY, Ria. I am very pleased with you,” Kova whispered near my ear. He placed his hand on my hip and gave me a tap before walking away. I fought not to look in the direction of his hand and I didn’t pick up my head to acknowledge his comment. All I could do was nod. I wasn’t exactly sure what that meant since the morning practice was just about over, but it was the first thing he’d spoken to me since finding the letter. Unless he was training me, he never openly touched me like this and it made me wonder if he even realized what he’d done.
“What did he say to you?” Avery asked when I strode into the lobby.
Lost in thought over Kova’s praising words and how happy they made me, I stared at my best friend trying to decipher what she said. She was studying my face with a quizzical look then dropped her stare to my chalk covered hands.
“What?” I asked.
“Your coach. What did he say to you just now?”
I continued walking into the locker room and she followed me. “Nothing…that I needed to stick my landing if I want to add another skill to it.” I dropped my bag at my feet and opened my locker door. As I went to pull on my pants, Avery placed a hand on my shoulder.
“I find it hard to believe that’s all he said for you to have had that little smirk on your face.”
My face dropped and my knees shook. Shit. She noticed the grin I thought I concealed. And here I thought I was being slick not looking up. Needing to come up with something quickly, I said the first thing that popped into my head.
“Wouldn’t you be excited to hear you’re allowed to add a half twist to your vault after working on it for so long?” I finished with a knowing smile. I was petrified someone would hear us.
Avery nodded slowly with an intent stare. She paused and said, “You’re lying. I know you’re lying.”
I closed my eyes. “Not here, Ave. Wait until we get into the car. Okay?”
She agreed and backed off.
I thought about Kova’s words and what they could mean as I put on my zip up jacket. “Excellent job today, Ria. I am very pleased with you.” He never complimented me to that degree.
We weren’t in my SUV for more than ten seconds when Avery said, “Okay. You better start spilling now. I want to know every little thing that’s happened and do not leave out any detail. If I find out you do,” she paused and looked ahead, thinking about her next words. “Well, I don’t know what I’ll do, but I’ll do something to you.”
Stifling a laugh, I rolled my eyes. She tried to sound so intimidating and she wasn’t in the least.
“You want all the juicy details?”
“Fill my cup right up!” she exclaimed, holding out her hand as if she was holding a cup. I shook my head with a faint grin. She pulled her knee up and turned to look at me.
“I don’t know where to start,” I said, pulling out of World Cup and driving onto the main road.
“How about at the beginning?”
Taking a deep breath, I exhaled. “Nothing really happened…We kissed. Big deal.”
“Umm, that’s a huge deal. Massive. So anytime you mentioned your library boy, it was really Kova. And considering the fact you withheld library boy for a few months until you caved, this has been going on a lot longer than I know.”
