Changing the Rules (Richter Book 1)(61)

Coach Bennett’s voice and instructions to the room full of kids became a hypnotic background noise.

Three minutes before the bell, Claire double-checked her work and waited.

As the kids ran off to their next hour of torture, Claire took her test to Bennett.

“Here.”

“You still have time.”

She shook her head, grabbed her backpack. “I’m good. Those last two bonus questions had me. I took a stab at ’em.”

Bennett flipped to the last page. “I’ll give it a look, tell you how you did after Saturday’s invitational.”

“You can’t tell me tomorrow?”

Bennett stared at her. “Has anyone ever told you that you lack patience?”

“That’s torture.”

“Try meditation. It works.”



Friday morning was met with donuts and Kyle.

Tony didn’t show.

Cooper spent extra time in the teacher’s lounge, talked with some of the staff.

The only employee that drew his attention was Leo Eastman.

Cooper arrived to practice in track pants and running shoes.

He saw Claire walk on the field, noticed the new attention she received from the distance runners on the team. She gravitated toward the sprinters, and smiled when she saw him.

She sat on the field, put one leg out in front of her, and started stretching. She looked him up and down. “What’s this, Coach? You plan on running today?”

“Since practice is minimal, and only meant to keep you limber and ready for tomorrow, I thought I’d run off some of the cobwebs.”

He received a sufficient amount of teasing from the smaller group, but hit the track with them anyway.

He purposely stayed out of Claire’s orbit until the second lap.

“How are you feeling about tomorrow’s meet?”

“I think I’m ready.”

“Should be a good start to the season,” one of the varsity guys said from the other side of Claire.

“It’s my track-meet cherry about to get popped.”

Cooper was pretty sure the kid on her left wasn’t expecting that.

Claire glanced over, grinned. “Sorry, guess I’m a little nervous.”

He found his inner coach. “Just run fast and don’t get hurt.”

“Run fast. Don’t get hurt. Maybe you should have said that before today,” Claire teased and started to run faster. “It’s only four laps, right?”

Ah, damn.

He had no choice but to keep up, even though he wouldn’t mind staying right where he was. Behind her watching her butt as she rounded the corner.

She set the pace, and everyone stayed with her.

With one lap left she went a little faster, but nothing crazy. Watching her was like watching a racehorse stuck on a lead rope.

At the end of their mile run, Claire gave him a once-over. “I guess you still have it in you . . . for an old guy.”

“She got ya there, Coach.”

One of the guys put an arm over his shoulders. “Gonna happen to all of us.”

Claire was ear-to-ear smiles.

His heart twisted the way it always did when her eyes sparkled with that smile.

They both looked away at the same time.

Laughter slowly faded as they met up with the rest of the team. Coach Bennett gave them the details for the invitational. The entire team was expected to show up even if they weren’t competing. That included the JV team. They talked everything from uniforms to what they needed to eat for dinner. “And don’t even think of going to a party. I will smell it and your performance will suffer.”

There were a few snickers.

“That party was canceled, Coach. We’re good,” Claire smarted off.

Cooper laughed, placed a hand over his mouth to try and keep it together.

Even Bennett chuckled. “All right. That’s all for today. Report to your coaches when you get here. You have to sign in a half an hour before your event. Late arrivals are scratched.”

Cooper watched the team as they exited the field. His eyes found Claire and lingered only for a few seconds. He huddled with the coaches, talked out a few details. “. . . and, Coach Mitchel, the kids seem to really respond to you. Your call on Claire Porter was spot-on. She has some real potential. Good coaching keeps ’em on track. I hope you’ll consider coming back again next year. The team could use you.”

Guilt bit him in the back of that praise. “I’ll consider it,” he told the man.

He thanked everyone for their time and they broke up.

Bennett walked over and shook Cooper’s hand. “I hope you do.”

“I will.”

Bennett grabbed his duffel bag, tossed it over his shoulder. “You’ll never guess what the track smart-ass did this week.”

“You mean Claire.”

“Yeah.”

“You didn’t pull her off the roster for tomorrow, so I’m guessing it wasn’t that bad.”

“She challenged me to take the final in my class so she can get out of the homework.”

“What? Did you give it to her?”

“I did. She tossed it at me, said the bonus questions were hard.”

Cooper could picture the exact look she’d use saying those words. “And?”