“It’s all downhill from there, I take it?”
“You have no idea.” He shakes his head in mock dismay. “The older they get, the more they think they know. Dean, though, he’s got the touch. I’ve had older kids hang around just to listen to him talk to the Hurricanes. And it isn’t just the boys that are drawn to him.” Ellis points to Dakota. “That little girl looks at him like he hung the moon, and she looked that way even before he gave her the pink skates. He’s patient and speaks to the kids like they’re important. You don’t see that in a lot of college students. Hell, you don’t see that kind of behavior in most adults.” Ellis shrugs. “If Dean took an interest in coaching, he’d be great at it, but I guess spending your days with middle-schoolers isn’t a glamorous job like being a lawyer.”
“Dean didn’t pick law because it’s glamorous,” I object, feeling the need to defend him again.
“Then you should talk to him about teaching, or coaching, anything that lets him work with kids. He’s made for it.” Ellis starts to get up but I stop him.
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because you also look at him like he hung the moon. And I get the sense he feels the same about you.” Ellis tips his head and then he’s gone, skating over to join Dean and the boys on the ice.
*
Dean
“What were you and Doug looking all serious about?” I tease, linking my fingers through Allie’s as we cross the parking lot toward my car. I click the key fob. “Please don’t tell me he was hitting on you.”
She blanches. “Oh, God no. In front of children? That would be so inappropriate.”
I can’t help but laugh. For someone who’s such a dirty girl in bed, her obsession with propriety and labels is kinda ridiculous. “So what did he want?”
We slide into the car. Allie still hasn’t answered the question, which brings a frown to my lips. Okay, now I’m starting to think she lied to me, and Coach Ellis was hitting on her. But she opens her mouth and startles me by saying, “He thinks you should be a teacher.”
My eyebrows fly up. “He said that?”
She nods. “A teacher, or a coach, or anything that lets you work with kids. Those were his words. Personally, I think you should consider being a Phys Ed teacher. Then you get to blow a whistle and wear those tiny gym shorts. Your ass would look great in them.” A slight smile tugs at the corners of her mouth. “Anyway, I guess Ellis saw your something.”
“My something?”
“That’s what happened to me when I was twelve,” she explains. “I went on my first casting call and the casting director told me she saw ‘something’ in me. It’s what convinced me to keep auditioning and pursue acting as a career.”
I scoff. “Yeah, but you were talented to begin with, babe. All I did today was give a kid a skating lesson and run some hockey drills with the boys.”
Which was a lot of fun, I can’t deny that. But the idea of making a career out of running around a gymnasium and blowing a whistle at little kids is…crazy. It’s crazy, right?
“I don’t know…” Allie says teasingly. “Maybe dodge ball games are your destiny. Or coaching, at least. You’d be amazing at that. You love working with those boys.”
True. But…oh, for chrissake, why is this even a topic of discussion? I’m headed to law school next fall.
I start the car and reverse out of the parking space, changing the subject before Allie can tease me again. “How’d rehearsal go?”
“Good, actually. Mallory memorized the final act, so Steven is happy. But I’m still a tad worried.”
“How come?”
“We’re taking a three-week hiatus for the holidays. What if she falls into an eggnog coma and forgets all her lines?”
I chuckle. “I’m sure it’ll be okay. When is opening night?”
“First week of February.” She pauses. “By then I’ll probably know if I got that Fox pilot, too.”
There’s no enthusiasm in her voice, and I glance over with a frown. She told me she’d sent an audition tape to the producers in LA, but other than that, she hasn’t mentioned the role, and I don’t think she’s even called her agent for an update.
But she ought to be clamoring for an update, right? I don’t know much about show biz, but a Fox pilot feels like a pretty big deal to me.
“Do you want the part?” I ask slowly.