Coach's Daughter

51

I have some time to kill before I have to be in PT so I'm going to stop by and see Paige at the gym. They don't have practice right now but a lot of them are there working out and practicing on their own time.

I didn't call or text Paige to warn her that I'm coming so it should be a surprise. She loves my surprise visits.

The warmth of the gym relieves my shivering body from the cold January air as I walk in the gym. I look around but don't see her. I find KK dribbling around and I stop her to ask if she knows where Paige is.

"Hey, shawty bae," KK jokes as I approach her.

"Hey," I greet her back.

"Where is she?" I ask her, not having to specify for her to know who I'm talking about.

"Coach has her in the ice bath," she tells me casually.

What?!

"Ice bath?! In the dead of winter?!"

"Yeah," KK laughs at my reaction.

"He's a dead man," I say as I storm off to the hall.

I bust open the door of the room with the tubs to find Paige, sure enough, sitting in a tub of ice water in a sports bra as she conversantes with my dad.

Their heads turn to look at me, both of them immediately smiling.

"Father!" I storm into the room, "What are you doing to my girlfriend?!"

"Uh oh," he chuckles, looking to Paige, "I'm in trouble."

I put my hand in the water to test the temperature.

"It's freezing! She's gonna get sick!"

"Babe," Paige grabs my hand with her cold wet one, "it's just an ice bath. My muscles were sore after working out."

"And you're working her too hard!"

Paige and my dad both laugh at me which only makes me more frustrated.

"I was working myself out too hard," Paige corrects me and brings my hand to her lips, kissing it.

"I'm okay, baby," she tells me.

She's so sweet.

"How much longer does she have?" I ask my dad.

"Eh," he checks his watch, "by the end of this hour."

I check the time to see it's 1:52.

"Good," I stroke Paige's head, "You're almost done."

My dad grabs a notebook from the table behind him and tells us, "If you think this ice bath is rough," he shakes his head, "just wait for today's practice."

"Oh no," Paige groans, tilting her head back.

"Dad," I march over to him to look at his practice plans. Looks like a bunch of gibberish to me.

"Oh, look," I point to a random spot on the page, "It says to go easy on Paige and to invite her to the house tonight!"

"That actually says suicides if drills aren't sufficient," he corrects me.

"I'm sure it's nothing my Paigey can't handle."

"He'll find a way to get me running suicides," Paige says.

"No way," I argue, "you do everything sufficiently."

Paige snorts, making what I said sound dirty even though that wasn't my intention.

"We'll see about that," my dad says as he flips through his book.

Then I check the time and see it's 1:55.