Enemy Lines (completed)

31

Me and Kelley ended up going to the gym the next morning. The awkward atmosphere had dissipated some over night but the stiff silence was almost suffocating.

The workout was only filled with small nods but no spoken words. they acted as if they didn't even know each other. It was really getting to Bryn. She had always prided herself on her communication skills, now the player who she thought was closed to would refuse to speak much less look at her.

The workout ended all too slowly for both of their liking. Arriving at the car Bryn was tired of the egg shell walking. once both were buckled Bryn started talking. "Hey Kelley I'm sorry about yesterday. I oversteped my boundary. I just wanted to apologize for how I have been acting towards you these past few weeks." Bryn was just tired of the not being able to know how the defender was doing.

"OK." The defender says plainly.

"Can we please just talk about what going on. I just want you healthy and happy."

Kelley takes a few minutes to fight her inner battle before giving her an answer. "Fine. My family isn't coming today. My family was caught up in an emergency and told me last night they wouldn't be able to come. As long as you arent busy I'm fine to talk during that time."

Bryn visibly exhales. "My kids were already gonna hang with Hope so yeah it works."

"K." She goes silent and stares out the window the rest of the ride.

we both exit the car and head to our seperate room. I shower and wake up the kids. "Rember you are hanging out with Hope and Carli today. Behave well and we will do something at a later date."

"But momma We never see you anymore."

"I know and I'm sorry. I- I'm gonna change that ok. We'll watch more movies and start doing more things on off days. And after practice we can start doing more fun things instead of just watching youtube. Howdoes that sound?"

"Cool." Ansleys says a little disapointed while Brett just shrugs.

I hated seeing how disapointed my kids were in me. Nothing hits harder to a parent then when their children are disapointed in them.

After the awkward exchange between me and my kids my alarm rings to head down to the meal room. Once all the players are in the room we let in the parents. Everyone eats and chats away until I dismiss them an hour later.

Hope and Carli take the kids out for mini golf while I walk up to my room with Kelley trailing. On the way out of the meal room Tobin stops me. I wave Kelley to keep going as I step to the side as to not block the door.

"Hey Tobin what's up?" I question trying to keep my face impartial as to not let her mother see I had taken a liking to her daughter.

"Nothing my mom and dad wanted to meet the new coach."

I turn up my smile a little bit to look a little nicer. "Well it's a pleasure to meet you both Mr and Mrs.Heath. I hope you will see my game plan in play as we bring home gold this year."

"Confident are you?" Tobins Brother questions.

"Gotta believe in yourself. I've seen these girls in practice and all I can do is apologize to the teams we will play. I've worked on improving the fundamentals. Nothing fancy just become the best team tactically. I hope you all believe in my plan as full heartedly as I do."

They just nod. "Well it was nice to me all of you but if you would please excuse me I have a few things I need to get done." They all offer bids of goodbyes as I head up to my room.

I let Kelley into my room and take a seat on my bed. She grabs the spiny chair and sits down.

"What's been bothering you Kelley?" I start light but trying to get to the point.

"Nothing. I've talked to a few people and I've realized that I was focused on an outside source that was messing with me."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Nothing to sweat. I promise. I had misread a couple things and then overthought it. I talked with nick and cleared my head. Thank you coach for continuously checking on me." She says . Which only sends me into a mental spiral.

I want to question as to why she said I was the problem and the cure two days ago but I also don't want to send her back to that place mentally.

"That's good. I'll always be here for you."

"Noted. How long do you think you will coach the national team for?"

"I shouldn't tell y'all this but it will become public soon. USSF has already started looking for my replacement. I will retire after World Cup."

"Why it seems like you love soccer."

"I do love soccer, but I love my kids more. This job seems to interfere with that time. Nothing to do with you or the team it's just all this communication between staff and media and all that. It's just a lot to do and there's only 24 hours a day. It's easy when you have another partner. But I'm all my kids truly have so I try to be as present as possible while also trying to keep my physic to continue to compete and keep up with staff and team. It's just a lot to jam pack into one day."

"Will you miss this team?" She questions almost hopefully.

"Definitely, you all will have a lasting impression not only on me but my kids."

"If you don't mind me asking what happened to their other mother?"

"I would rather you not tell the rest of the team but I know how the news works and as we get closer to WWC I feel like my whole life story will unravel infront of the world. Umm but their other mother, my ex wife Stefanie was driving while drunk on a suspended license and she m accidentally hit another car and sorta killed them." I state as my left hand comes up to clutch the nape of my neck.

"Their is nothing for you to be ashamed of. I understand why you would be scared to tell people but her actions are no way a reflection of you." I smile softly at the words the defender was speaking.

"Thank you Kelley. Umm I'm gonna head to the gym. You can tag along if you would like."

"I'll spot you but I don't think I can lift anymore today."

"I'm okay with that."

=====
Next chapter is gonna be the day before opening Match of WWC.

Olympics are awesome. Vivianne Medimia crying destroyed me. Rugby is awesome, female rugger are hot. The US dominated sport shooting which was dope. Water polo is chill and wrestling starts tonight.

I have some books in drafts that are gonna be hella fire. I'm working on them to get through writers block. I won't publish them as I cannot wrote two books at once.  Also sorry for the long hiatus I've been binging olympics to the point where I just didn't think about writing.

Anyways stay safe, drink water and don't die.