Free Bush League: New Adult Sports Romance by Pfeiffer Jayst

someone with clear ulterior motives. "Have you talked to her about this? I mean, just the two of you, not while you're both surrounded by people."
     
    He ponders my question for a moment. "When? Between you guys running me around, the team dinners..."
     
    A lightbulb goes off over my head. "What are you doing tonight?" I ask and watch as he shrugs his shoulders. "Then why don't you have dinner with your daughter? Just the two of you."
     
    Coach appears to be relieved at the answer being presented to him. He fishes for his cell and focuses on that.
     
    "Alright," he says while typing on his phone, "Have a good practice. I'll see you out there in a bit."
     
    Completely exonerated, I walk out to the field to join my team, feeling zero guilt at so casually and willingly to throw Quinn under the bus for my own benefit.
     
    *****
     
     

Chapter Ten
 
                                                            Quinn
     
    *****
     
    Sitting in my hardest class, I feel at least a little better upon hearing the anxious grumbling from my classmates. Nobody is having an easy time in the class, we're all struggling. In an effort to make conversation, I try anything to get the people around me to talk to me and make me feel better.  When I ask the girl next to me, Josie I believe, how her weekend was, she just smiles patronizingly. Mitchell, the guy behind me does the same.
     
    "You guys don't go out or anything?" I ask and am met with incredulous stares.
     
    "When?!" Josie demands I explain.
     
    "Seriously, go out? Undeclared students with no future go out, the rest of us need to find jobs," Michell informs me matter-of-factly.
     
    "Maybe I'll have a nice dinner once I secure an internship," Josie chimes in with dreams in her eyes. I choose this moment to inform them of the opportunity I pissed away.
     
    "Actually met someone last night, guy from Loubin? Said I could talk to him about an internship. Actually can't remember his name though..."
     
    While I know it was stupid to be so careless, Josie and Mitchell look as though I had done something way worse, like I had personally offended them. 
     
    "Loubin and Loubin would be a dream," Mitchell tries to calmly explain. "Most people would kill to get a foot in the door."
     
    Josie just shakes her head.
     
    "You think I should just call him?" I ask even though I don't even remember the guy's name.
     
    "Yes! Skip this class even!"
     
    My phone vibrates in my pocket and when I check, it's Dad asking me to go to dinner with him which makes me uneasy.
     
    "Well it'll have to wait until I go to dinner with my father," I explain and their heads almost explode. "He is the head baseball coach after all."
     
    "But can he get you a job?" Mitchell asks before turning away, done with me. While my father probably couldn't get me in at a good company, maybe he wants to have dinner to explain how much he loves me and how proud he is of me. I kick myself for not securing the internship and having something to announce to my father over this impromptu dinner. If only I had got that internship and not been so focused on Beau, well then I could've made him really proud.
     
    I just need more time to be the daughter he wants me to be.
     
    *****
     
    Father is in the back of the train-car diner and by the friendly conversation he's having with two of the waitresses at his table, I can tell he's a regular or a really big flirt.
     
    "Hi," I say, my body language apologizing for interrupting their conversation as I slide into the booth.
     
    "Didn't know you had such a hot date, Coach," the older of the two waitresses smirks at me.
     
    "Hottest girl in town," he proudly announces before correcting himself upon seeing my reaction. "I didn't mean, you know what I meant. She's my daughter for crying out loud!"
     
    The waitresses laugh at his embarrassment and leave us be. The two waitresses seem completely comfortable with their place of