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  Trusting Again

  By Lo’Ren A Mayler

  2019

  Trusting Again

  Copy Write 2019 by Lo’Ren A Mayler.

  A Millerism Studios Production. All rights reserved.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, Characters, Places and Incidents are the product of the Author’s Imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to real people, businesses or events is entirely coincidental.

  This book or any parts of it, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

  Credits:

  Editors: Lo’Ren A Mayler, Ann Mayler and Katie Candeloro

  Author, Production Design and Cover Design by: Lo’Ren A Mayler

  Acknowledgements

  This book is dedicated to my Friends and Family. To my Mother who always told me I can do anything. My Best Friend for encouraging me. Most of all, my Wife for always supporting me in everything I do. Thank you for allowing me to drive you crazy, talking in-depth about this book into the late hours of the night. You are my love, my muse, my everything. I would never have been able to write this book without all of you in my corner.

  Thank you!

  Other Books By Lo’Ren A Mayler

  Trusting Again (Trusting Book #1)

  “Beautifully Hilarious! This book drew me in from the beginning. I cried and laughed. I begged Nikki and Mia to stop being stupid. Yelled "Stupid Sam" repeatedly. I was completely absorbed. Love It. Can't wait for Mayler to write another.” – RomanceNut11, Goodreads

  Volunteering Your Heart (Trusting Book #2)

  “While the first book, Trusting Again, was a beautiful romance. VYH blew me away! Great reveal! So much intensity through much of the second half of the book. Had me on the edge of my seat to the very end.” – RomanceNut11, Goodreads

  Chapter One

  She could hear the loud speaker wailing in the background. “Happy Birthday… Science Club will be… Tryouts at three thirty in the rear gym…” None of the announcements registered in her mind. Nikki Reed, Greenville High School’s physical education teacher and softball coach, was too busy going over drills, plays, and topics to discuss with her new players.

  Today was the first day of tryouts and the start of a very busy schedule for the young coach. The bell rang and Nikki headed towards her office. She was excited to start the season. Since she had worked with a couple players during the winter, she was expecting to get off to a fast start. It was like Christmas to her, she had to wait all year to coach another group of talented players.

  The halls were littered with students getting books from their lockers and talking to friends. Posters lined the walls with announcements about: signups for the spring play; sports tryouts; Prom committee and of course the vote for King and Queen. As she made her way down the crowded hallway, she waved and said her good-byes to the students leaving. Michael Augustini was too busy looking at his feet to acknowledge her. He always walked by himself to go home. Nikki saw a few players; Madison, Natalie and Jen. She told them she would see them at practice. Teachers usually waited in their classrooms until the halls were a little quieter, not that it took long for the school to empty out. So she never ran into coworkers after the bell.

  Her office was small; just two desks and a bathroom with a shower. Of course the equipment needed to be stored somewhere, the shower seemed the most logical place. However, when she needed to take a shower she would have to move everything into her small office. There were pictures of previous teams on the walls. Reed had coached at Greenville for six years; the first two as an assistant. When John Harris retired she was offered the job. Jerry Lewis, the athletic director and former football coach, made it clear to her if the team did not win, she would not get funding for new equipment.

  The first couple of years were hard. Team rebuilding was never easy. Coaching was still a little new to her, especially since Harris didn’t appreciate input from his assistants. She would never have volunteered to assist him, but she was assured by Lewis that Harris was about to retire. He was looking for a replacement. So Nikki did the little bit of work that Harris would let her and bided her time. It was hard work instructing girls that were not used to a coach caring. At least the girls on the team now were fresh, only Nikki’s.

  Last year the team took districts and lost the first round of states. It was the first time in school history they had gotten that far. Harris didn’t have a great track record. Most of the time he was lucky to win a quarter of the games in a season. The victory had earned the team new helmets. The ones they had were probably from the eighties and were not regulation. She was hoping this would be the year that they would not only go to states, but win. The team needed more funding and the school could always use the publicity.

  She was lost in thought, until there was a knock at the door. Nikki reached to open it for Samantha Porter, the assistant coach. Sam had long blonde hair and long legs to match. Today she had on shorts that only covered a quarter of her legs. Her Trojan’s tee-shirt was cut to show off her large bust. She wore a new pair of coaching sneakers every year.

  “Hey Sam, how was your day?” Nikki asked as Sam swayed into the room.

  “Full of ungrateful kids who do not want to learn.”

  Sam was an English teacher. She loved the written word, but hated teaching it. Who wouldn’t, kids hated English. Nikki understood the need to read classics, but maybe if there was more of a focus on newer books the students would actually take an interest. It was hard to get lost in a book that you have to look at cliff notes to understand. Sam was just waiting for her huge book deal anyway, and the inspiration for a book would be nice too. Teaching until retirement was definitely not the plan.

  “You ready for a new season?”

  Sam flashed a devilish grin as she responded, “Of course, I’m always ready to get dirty with you.”

  “Well, I’m glad to hear that. I assume you would like to give the demonstration on how to slide properly?”

  Nikki asked with a smile of her own. Sam’s grin quickly faded, she would not want to slide in the dirt. Nikki liked to try to redirect the attention back to the topic at hand. Softball. It was the only thing they had in common. Nikki often wondered why Sam was even interested in coaching softball. She never played and was really more of a cheerleader.

  “How was your day?”

  “Full of smelly socks and sweaty shirts.”

  Nikki knew Sam would not want any details about working in the gym.

  “Not exactly my cup of tea, but I am sure I could think of a few other sweaty acts I wouldn’t mind.”

  Ignoring Sam’s innuendos had become a full time job. It had always seemed like Sam couldn’t help herself. Like it was a part of her personality. A need for attention. So, Nikki just accepted it.

  “How many girls signed up this year?” Nikki asked trying to change the subject.

  “There are about twenty girls. Did you see there is a freshman on the list? Maybe she signed up on the wrong board.” Sam shook her head as if the conversation about softball was a distraction from her original train of thought. “So anyway, today I had to stand watch over those monsters as they ate. How could they expect…”

  Sam continued to talk and Nikki half heartedly listened to her rant about the injustice of her having to cover cafeteria duty.

  “I mean, what if a food fight was to break out? My clothes would be ruined trying to break it up.”

  While most of the staff ate in the cafeteria, only a couple teachers a day were really paying attention to the students. The rest would be socializing. The teacher that watched the students rotated, everyone got a turn. If there happened to be a problem, like a food fight, that staff member would have to get in the middle of it.

  Now wouldn�
�t that be a sight to see. Ms. Samantha Porter, with her blonde hair half up. Standing in her tight red shirt and pencil black skirt, her normal school attire, covered in jello and meatloaf surprise. I would pay money to see that.

  “What?” Sam asked when she noticed Nikki’s smile.

  “Nothing, I’m just so happy it is softball season again.”

  “Oh…yeah, me too. I get to see more of you. So anyway this kid had the nerve…”

  Nikki continued listening to the details of Sam’s day, all the while wishing the clock would move faster. She liked Sam, most of the time. However, her ideas of how the world should be, well, let’s just say they are a little askew.

  “Ladies, I would like to welcome you to softball tryouts. For those that don’t know, I am Coach Reed and this is my assistant, Coach Porter. We will be working with you for the next three days on grounders, fly balls, sliding, hitting, bunting, base running, and much, much more. For those that are new, we run hard and play hard. I will warn you now, I never want to hear one of you say “I don’t know”. If I ask you why you did something, I want a reason. I cannot fix something, if I don’t know why you are doing it. If I should happen to hear one of you say these magic words, EVERYONE will run. Do you understand?” There were a couple head shakes amongst the crowd. Coach Reed continued, “I’m sorry, I must be going deaf. Do you understand?”

  This time, all of the girls replied with a soft “yes”.

  “WHAT?” Sam asked.

  “YES!” they shouted.

  “Good, now that we are all awake, let’s get started.”

  Sam broke the girls down into three groups and gave them instructions on the drills they would be running. This was the reason Nikki liked Sam as a coach, she liked to talk. Sam would assign tasks to the players and saved Nikki from yelling. If Nikki raised her voice too much, she would not be able to talk the next day. Sam never seemed to have that problem. She would talk all day in class, then yell at night during practice and never seemed to strain herself. It was like having her own megaphone.

  “Jenny! Stop picking up your head, watch the ball go into your glove,” Coach Reed said as the players were fielding grounders. “Keep your eye on the ball Natalie.” Tryouts had barely begun and the players were jittery. “Don’t let your guard down. Always be ready.” Nikki walked around the group and continued her encouragement. With Sam instructing, Nikki was free to roam and look for errors.

  Sam blew her whistle for the girls to switch stations. They dropped whatever they were doing, running to the next spot. Since tryouts were only three days long, Reed focused each day on a group of tasks. Today was fielding and throwing. She could see the starting players from last year. The seniors; Mary Jones a catcher, Jen Frank was shortstop, and Natalie Wilson at first base. There were two juniors; pitcher Madison Taylor and Jessica Phillips was the right fielder. There were a lot of girls who did not see much time on the field last year or were trying to come up from JV. It worried Nikki. Most of the girls were not accustomed to seeing a fast pitcher, such as Madison. Nikki rated the players and wrote notes on things to work on. Looking over the roster Nikki realized Sam was right, there was one freshman.

  The whistle blew.

  “Everyone on the line,” Sam shouted. She knew Reed expected the girls to run at the end of every practice.

  “Down and back, on the whistle,” Nikki said as she put her whistle in her mouth. She let out a small burst of air and the players were off. Most teams only ran during tryouts, but Reed was not about laziness. You worked hard, or you didn’t play. She didn’t want the girls to get winded just going around the bases or running down a pop fly. Everyone returned to the line and the whistle sounded again and again.

  Finally, Sam let out a long whistle and told everyone to get some water. As the ladies hydrated themselves, Nikki made her announcements.

  “Nice job today. I am pleased to see you all working hard, pushing yourselves beyond your limits. Drink plenty of fluids and get lots of rest. You’re going to need it. Tomorrow you need to wear sweats, because we will be sliding indoors. All pitchers and catchers need to stay after. The trainer, Matt, is available if you need any ice. Everyone is expected to pick up a piece of equipment and bring it back to my office. Coach Porter will be in there waiting for it. Let’s bring it in. Trojans on three: one, two, three.”

  There was an echoed “Trojans” circulating throughout the gym.

  The players gathered their possessions and headed towards the locker room.

  “Madison and Mary, can I see you for a minute?”

  “Yes coach?” they asked in unison.

  “I want you to pair up with some of the newer girls and help me evaluate them. Challenge them. I need to know where they stand. See if they can keep up.”

  The girls accepted the task and happily trotted away.

  After fifteen minutes of pitching practice, the girls gave Coach Reed their input and were off to the locker room. Practice had went as well as expected. There did seem to be a couple decent backup pitchers and catchers. From what Nikki had seen, the girls’ evaluation seemed to be spot on. Connie, the new pitcher, had some consistency issues. Something that was easily corrected with practice. The other catchers were a hair too slow and did not anticipate Madison’s pitches the way Mary did. It would take time for a catcher to get acquainted with a new pitcher. Maybe Nikki could find a good match for Connie. With Mary graduating this year and Madison next year, she would need to find suitable replacements.

  Nikki headed back to her office, where Sam was waiting for her. Reed had taken notes throughout practice, as she always did. She walked straight to her desk to review them.

  “So what do you think?” Sam asked.

  “Not bad for the first day,” Nikki replied without looking up. “The group is definitely out of shape, but I expected that. The freshman, Connie Davis, is a pretty good pitcher. Lots of speed. By the end of the year, I think she could be a good match for Madison.”

  What Nikki missed was Sam posing in a new outfit.

  Feigning outrage Sam replied, “I was talking about me, but fine.” Nikki looked up from her pad confused.

  “Would it kill you to tell a girl she looks nice now and then?”

  “Okay, Sam you look nice. Now can we talk about softball?”

  “Thank you. The girls definitely need some more running. They should be fine after about a week. You know what, I am starving. Want to talk about this more over dinner? I can wait for you to take a shower. As much as I like the idea of you getting all sweaty, softball is not exactly the reason why I want you to perspire.”

  Sam looked at Nikki filled with hope.

  “Thanks, but I don’t want to take the book home. I can never remember anything in the morning. It would be forgotten and we would have nothing to work off of tomorrow. Heck, I would lose my head if it wasn’t attached. Maybe some other time.” Nikki would stay another half hour to read her notes and make plans for practice tomorrow. Then she would head home.

  “Well then, why not just dinner? We can talk shop tomorrow.” Nikki found herself wondering how long Sam would continue to pursue her. Doesn’t it get tiring hearing no all the time?

  “Sorry, I have to prepare my lesson plan for tomorrow. Maybe next time.”

  “You are a gym teacher. What do you have to do, push-ups? Remind yourself how to play dodge ball?” Sam said sarcastically.

  “Yes that is it exactly, I am going to look up the official rules for Dodge Ball. I do teach health class you know. How would these kids get through the day without me letting them know how to have sex?” Nikki knew it was a lousy excuse, but it would have to do.

  “Well you could teach me anytime. Maybe I will even learn something new,” Sam nudged Nikki as she walked passed her towards the door.

  She liked Sam, just not the way Sam wanted her too. She was very attractive and nice, but Nikki just wasn’t interested in being Sam’s next conquest. Every couple months there was a new woman on Sam’s arm and it
would never end well. Nikki did not want to ruin their work relationship with the problems that came from dating. She also did not want to hurt Sam’s feelings. If Sam didn’t stop soon, Nikki feared she would lose her assistant anyway.

  “Okay…well I guess I will see you tomorrow. Besides, I know you like to see more of the players before making any judgments. Good night.” If she knows that, why did she even ask if I wanted to discuss the players over dinner?

  “Sounds good, I will see you tomorrow.” Sam closed the door on her way out. Finally, some quiet.

  Nikki felt like she was beating a dead horse. There was only so much to look at after one day, but she wanted to be thorough. She gathered her belongings and headed out of the office. The halls were white with a large blue stripe down the middle. The school mascot “Trojans” was in white letters, written into the blue. Nikki liked the small school. She liked knowing all of the students’ names. She thought it a treasure to get to know each and every one of them. She couldn’t comprehend how a teacher in a big school could possibly remember their names, let alone know anything else about them. Might as well stamp a number on their forehead. It was a blessing to get into this school. The town was close knit. The school spirit the town possessed was beyond belief. No one needed a child in the school to support it. It had become home. She couldn’t picture living anywhere else.

  Unfortunately, with a small town comes small prospects. And while Nikki liked working with Sam, she was a little aggressive. The only other lesbian in town was seventeen. Where Sam found all these dates over the years was a mystery, in the city maybe. Perhaps one day Nikki would settle down, but for the time being she would focus her energy on softball. Besides, she was only twenty-nine, there was plenty of time. She had the rest of her life to find someone. Keep telling yourself that. The truth was, the closer Nikki got to thirty, the lonelier she felt.