The Recruiting Trip (The University of Gatica #1) (4 page)

“Success is a state of mind. Start thinking of yourself as a success.”

Aileen read the words painted on the wall across from where she sat on the bleachers inside Wavertree Fieldhouse. The track team members were situated in groups all over the track. Hurdles were set up close by where she sat, the high jump apron was set, with some jumpers were doing run throughs, the distance runners were running in three groups on the inside two lanes of the track while sprinters were doing accelerations on the straightway across from her.

She liked how everyone laughed and joked around with each other. There were all these individual events, but in the chaos of practice, they looked like a team. Several athletes had stopped to say hello and introduce themselves. She felt bad that despite how friendly everyone had been, she couldn’t remember all the names. She watched two girls head over to the starting blocks by the hurdles. Coach Anderson talked to them before pointing over to Aileen and waving.

She waved back and ran her fingers through her hair.

“I heard Sean took you around the school.” Jani had one foot on a bleacher that was nearly as tall as her. She stretched her hamstring and grinned at Aileen. “Glad to see you survived. Did he hit on you?”

Surprised at the question, Aileen stuttered, “N-No. I-I don’t think so.”

Jani burst out laughing. “I was only teasing! I didn’t mean to scare you.” She switched legs to stretch her other hamstring. “After the meet tomorrow what do you feel like doing? Do you want to go see a movie… or do you feel like doing something a lot more fun?”

Aileen leaned back on the bench behind her and rested her elbows on it. Jani reminded her of Becky. “What do you have in mind?”

Jani glanced over Aileen’s shoulder and then met her gaze. “Track party? Someone always plans one when we have a home meet. Tyler’s throwing it tomorrow night.”

“Tyler Jensen?” Aileen straightened and leaned closer to Jani, suddenly very interested in the party.

“The one and only. He’s got this super cool old house off campus that he rents with some football players.” She grinned slyly at Aileen. “Unless of course you prefer to just go to the movies or rent a DVD or something?”

“Hell, no.” The words were out of her mouth before she could even process the thought. She was crushing on a boy she’d never met, drooling over his picture and now panting like an animal in heat over the possibility of going inside his house. What was going to happen next? Would she go and steal a pair of boxers?

Jani dropped her leg and grinned. “Good. I’m liking you more and more by the minute.”

Another girl at the high jump pit called over, “Jani, you coming?”

Jani yelled back, “One sec.” She turned to Aileen. “I’ve gotta measure out my approach. Tee can chat you up a minute.” She gave Aileen an exaggerated wink and whispered, “Try to keep you knickers on.”

Aileen watched her go, unsure what she’d meant by that last bit. It only took seconds for her to find out. The bleachers shifted as someone sat down a couple rows below Aileen. She glanced down and sucked in a breath.

Tyler Jensen
. In the flesh. That beautiful mixed skin, covered in black and burgundy workout clothes, the back of his head showed his tight, curly hair cropped short against his perfectly shaped skull. Long, graceful fingers were busy tying his shoes.

He looked up as he finished and flashed her a smile. “Hey.”

“Hey,” she said in a breathy whisper.

“I’m Tyler.”

“I know.” She shook her head. “Sorry. I’m Aileen. Aileen Nessa. I’m visiting on a recruiting trip. I do the hurdles.” She cringed inside. She sounded like an idiot. A babbling one.

He moved up to sit beside her and ran his eyes up and then down her again. “I know who you are.”

“You do?” He smelled like an expensive musky cologne. It was probably deodorant but she would never forget that smell ever. She inhaled deeply and reprocessed what he had said. “You know me?”

“I watched you race at nationals this summer. You beat a friend of mine to get into the semi-finals.”

“Oh, sorry about that.”

He chuckled. “Don’t be sorry. You looked a little lost in the race, hit the first three hurdles but managed to recover and still run a decent time.”

She shook her head. “That was a crappy race. I was actually glad I didn’t make the finals.” Talking about track always helped her relax. She could talk about it forever.

“You made up for it a couple weeks later, I hear.”

She shrugged. “It was my last meet of the season. I like trying to PR when it’s the last one.”

He gave her an appreciative nod. “Me, too!”

“You won NCAAs.”

“I thought it was my last meet of the season.” He touched his knee to hers. “I didn’t think I’d be running last summer. So I had a crappy meet too.”

“You came fourth…
at Nationals!
”

“Can I let you in on a little secret?” His beautiful eyes met hers and held her gaze. “I don’t like to lose,” he whispered, his warm breath brushing her cheek and ear like a feather.

He was so close she could see little specs of brown and almost yellow inside his blue-green eyes. She couldn’t stop staring at them.

His eyebrows rose. “You okay?”

“P-Pardon?”

“Are you alright?”

Suddenly reality sunk in. She blinked and shifted away from him slightly. Her entire face burned, not just her cheeks. She knew her skin would be tomato red in color. Why did she always have to get so embarrassed? She’d just made a fool of herself. “I’m fine. Sorry.” She bowed her head, letting her hair cover her face before finally looking out at the track. Anywhere but at him, praying the feeling of fire would leave.

“Tyler!” Coach Anderson called. “Let’s go!”

He touched her leg. “I’ll catchya later.” Then he was gone.

Aileen felt the bleacher shift from his weight and watched him go from the corner of her eye. She was definitely not coming here next year. Either that, or she had better start working on being flirty and graceful. How come she could be so smooth and elegant on the track, but such a mess off of it? It was beyond annoying. She fought the urge to lay her head on her knees. No need to let anyone see that. As nice as they all were, they’d come rushing over to check on her. That was the absolute last thing she needed.

Coach Maves came into the field house. “Hi, Aileen. How did the campus tour go?”

Thankful for the distraction and friendly face, Aileen pushed her anxiety aside. “Sean did a good job.”

“Great. I had a break so I went and checked you into your hotel room. I dropped your suitcase off in the room if that’s alright.” She pulled out a little envelope. “Here’s your key cards for the room. You are in room one forty-eight. First floor.”

“Thanks.”

Maves pulled a small stack of papers stapled together and handed them to Aileen. “I’ve got to get working with the long and triple jumpers, but here’s a copy of the girl’s competing tomorrow. It shows all the schools and their best times this season. Thought you might like to look through it while we’re practising.”

“Sure.” Anything to not focus on the conversation she had just had with Tyler Jensen. She also needed to stop referring to him as Tyler Jensen. They had been introduced now and he knew who she was. He was just Tyler. She needed him to be just Tyler.

When Maves headed to the other side of the track, Aileen watched her work with the athletes by her and also watched Coach Anderson at the starting blocks. Tyler worked out by him as well. He raced against the girls but his blocks where ten meters behind the girls. He also had four high hurdles set up while the girls had two, but really only went over the first one.

Tyler had pulled off his long pants and only wore a pair of shorts now. He had on an Under Armor long-sleeve, tight black shirt that seemed painted onto his flawlessly sculpted body. Aileen tried to focus on his form over the hurdles but she spent more time watching his abs and the rest of his muscles ripple in perfect synchronization. Even the two female hurdles spent more time staring than actually racing to the first hurdle.

Aileen flipped through the start time sheet Coach Maves had given her. There were only two U of G girls on the list and both of their times were okay. They were not superfast. Aileen hadn’t competed in the 60m hurdles before, she had never done an indoor meet actually, so she didn’t have her own times to compare to. However, the fastest girl on the list had competed last summer at junior nationals and Aileen had just beat her in the finals by one place.

She glanced over some of the other events and saw that Jani had the highest marked in the high jump. From the looks of it, she was a really good jumper, and it made sense, why else would a foreigner be on scholarship to an American university.

Practice lasted about an hour and a half. Maves drove Aileen to her hotel and told her Coach Anderson would be by around six thirty to pick her up for dinner.

Alone in the room and relaxing on the bed, Aileen skyped Becky.

“GIRLLLLL!” Becky screamed when she connected. “How is it? Are there as many cute guys as the brochure showed?”

“There’s a few.” Aileen laughed, happy to see her best friend.

“Did you talk to any?”

“Just one. The hurdler.” She had no intention of rehashing the conversation. “He’s having a party tomorrow night after the track meet. One of the girls on the team asked me to go.”

“Are you?” Becky was straightening her hair as they chatted.

“Yeah, probably. I hope it’s not like the one in Miami.” Her recruiting trip to Miami had been a disaster. The two girls who took her out ended up getting so drunk, Aileen had to drive their car back. That whole trip had been a waste of time.

“It won’t be. That’s like lightning striking the same place twice.”

“That can happen you know.”

Becky laughed and shook her hair straightener at Aileen through the iPad screen. “If it’s bad, find the cute guy’s bedroom and crawl into his bed. When the party’s over, he’ll find you and then it’ll be a recruiting trip you won’t forget.”

Aileen’s first reaction was to shake her head, but the image that played out in her head didn’t look so bad. Still, the embarrassing flush started to flood her skin and she had to shut the mental image down fast  “It’s not going to happen.”

“Think of it as a backup plan. You should be doing a little recruiting yourself.”

“Is that all you think about?”

Becky laughed. “I’m eighteen. Ninety percent of my brain can only focus on boys and music. The other ten percent likes sex and guitars.” She made a face. “Not sex with guitars.”

“That’s disgusting.” Aileen laughed despite herself. “You’re the rocker and I—”

“—And you need to have someone rock your world. All you do is eat, sleep and breathe track.”

“We’ll see.” She did not want to have this conversation now with Becky before having dinner with the head coach.

“Fine. I won’t bug you. Just remember you picked this trip because of the cute guys. Let your hair down and have fun. You can embarrass yourself and don’t have to care because you’re not going there anyways. Promise me you’ll do something a teeny-tiny bit crazy?”

Aileen laughed. “I promise.”

“And you never break a promise.”

“Never.”

“Good. Now get a video of the hot guy running at the track meet tomorrow and send it to me. Then make sure you take some photos of him at the party.” Becky burst into rocker mode, using her hair brush as a microphone and sang, “I want it all… I want it all.”

“I didn’t take my peeping-tom clothes but I’ll see what I can do.” She wanted a video of him racing herself, now she had the excuse to do it. “I gotta get ready. The coach is going to be here soon. I’ll talk to you again tomorrow.” She turned skype off as Becky continued rocking out to her hairbrush.

Aileen showered and blew her hair out straight. She had packed a skirt and a dress to choose from, and decided to go with the skirt tonight. It was a black and white plaid kilt with red detail. Short, but still “politically correct”, as Becky had told her when she helped her pack for the trip. She added a white button up top and thick tights so she wouldn’t freeze her butt off.

If it snowed more she would be screwed tomorrow night with the dress. It wasn’t exactly warm. She had a cool top and jeans she could wear as back up.

A knock reverberated against her door just as she finished putting her mascara on.
Perfect timing.
She gave herself a once over in the mirror and turned the bathroom light off. She grabbed her coat and tossed it on the bed to make it look like she had been waiting for Coach Anderson.

She checked the peephole to make sure it was the coach. She blinked in surprise when she saw two people out there.

Coach Anderson
and
Tyler Jensen.

Really?

Suddenly dinner was taking an interesting turn. She ran her palms against her skirt. Was she nervous? “Excited,” she whispered as she tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “I’m not nervous. It’s no big deal.”
Ha! Who am I trying to convince?

She turned the handle and opened the door. “Hi, Coach Anderson. Just let me grab my coat.” She spun around and tried to walk, not rush to the bed. The click of the door had her wincing when she realized she hadn’t invited them in or given them a chance to hold the door for her. “Smooth move, dipstick,” she mumbled to herself. She grabbed her coat and double checked that the hotel key was in her purse.

Straightening, she reopened the door and smiled. “Sorry about that.”

Coach Anderson seemed oblivious to her mistake. “I invited another hurdler to dinner tonight. Thought it might be easier to ask another athlete what they think of the program.” He patted Tyler’s shoulder. “I think Tyler spoke to you earlier at practice.”

Should she hold out her hand? Tyler stood beside the coach, his hands stuffed comfortably in his letterman jacket. He gave her a polite nod, and smiled. “Hope you don’t mind a tag along.”

Aileen knew she was staring again. She didn’t mean to, but she couldn’t stop herself. How could someone be that deliciously gorgeous? If Becky were here, she would flirt and know the perfect things to say. “I-It’s fine. I d-don’t mind at all.” She lifted her coat to put it on.

Tyler stepped forward and held it for her to slip her arms through. Heat rose to her face but she pretended not to notice. “Thanks.” She turned around and nearly got lost in those beautiful blue-green eyes again. They seemed more green-gray at the moment. Was that even possible? His eyes never left hers as if he was trying to figure out the same thing about hers.

Coach Anderson cleared his throat. “Shall we go?”

Aileen blinked and refocused.

They began walking down the hotel hallway toward the front entrance. Coach Anderson led the way while Tyler walked beside her.

“What kind of food do you like?” Coach Anderson asked as they stepped through the sliding doors of the front lobby to the cool night air.

“Anything is good with me.” A gust of wind blew Aileen’s hair back from her face. Did the wind ever stop? She shivered when Tyler moved closer to her.

“Winter’s a bit fierce this year.” He huddled inside his coat. “It’s usually not this bad.”

Coach Anderson drove a four door BMW. Aileen walked behind the coach and opened the backseat door. A drop of disappointment hit her when Tyler went around to the front passenger seat.

The car’s heating system kicked on the moment Coach Anderson started it.

“There’s a great restaurant in Campus Corner called Raw Hide. They serve steak, barbecue chicken, a bit of everything.” Coach Anderson pulled out of the parking lot.

“Sounds good.” She stared out the window at the passing night lights, sneaking peeks at the tall drink of water sitting in the front seat.

When Tyler turned to talk to her, she quickly adverted her eyes. “How many recruiting trips have you taken?”

“This is my last one.”

His eyebrows arched. “Where have you all gone?”

“Stanford, Kansas State, LSU, and Miami.”

Tayler chuckled. “You definitely picked the warm places. What made you come here?”

You.
Though she was never going to admit that. Aileen tried to think of another reason that would be believable. “You’ve got a good biology program and,” she grinned when a thought crossed her mind, “if Coach Anderson can turn you into an NCAA champion, I’d like to see what he can do with me.”

Coach Anderson snorted. “She’s got you there, Tyler. And she has faster times than you did coming into university.”

Tyler crossed his arms, pretending to look mad. “Of course her times are faster, she’s got ten meters less to run.”

“No, I’ve compared her time and yours. Split them up so I could compare your hurdle to hurdle ratio. She’s quicker than you were out of high school, comparatively speaking and taking into account other hurdles in your race at high school and college level.”

Tyler put his arm across the seat and turned so he could lean closer to Aileen. “Coach Anderson’s all about splits and times. He’ll find some crazy angle or algebraic equation to figure sh—stuff out. You should see him calculate the way you need to set your blocks up!”

Coach Anderson smiled. “I don’t hear you complaining when the times I predict match the times you run.” He tapped his temple. “Besides years of experience, there’s something up here that works.”

Tyler dropped his arm from the seat. “It’s that picture of me in your head.” He shifted perfectly to dodge Coach Anderson’s fist that swung out playfully to hit him.

Coach Anderson pulled into a parking lot dotted with cars. “You’ll have to excuse Tyler. Since winning two awards last year, he seems to have lost all humility.” He winked at Aileen through the rear view mirror. “That or hanging with the football players messes him up. It usually takes me three quarters of the indoor track season to get him off his high horse… just in time for the outdoor season.”

Aileen listened to their banter and smiled. Just from today she could tell the athletes on the track team respected Coach Anderson because he was a good coach, but he also kept the playing field level for everyone. It sounded like no one got special treatment.

“Raw Hide is just around the corner.” Anderson got out of the car and opened the door for Aileen. “I hope you are hungry.”

“Getting there,” she told him honestly.

They walked with Aileen in the middle of the two of them. As they reached the main street she recognized the road. The chauffeur had driven her down it earlier that day. She pointed to the old movie theater across the road. It looked pretty empty at the moment. “The guy who drove me down here said that was where the varsity sport kids hang out.”

Coach Anderson chuckled. “It’ll get busier later. Just without track kids tonight. If I see any of them down here after dinner, I’ll have them doing a workout before the meet tomorrow.”

“You won’t see any footballers there.” Tyler nodded to the building they were passing. “We hang at the First Down.”

Aileen squinted as she tried to see through the dark windows. The place looked high end. She was beginning to think that footballers believed they were an entity unto themselves. She could imagine what Becky would say to that.

“Here we are.” Coach Anderson pulled the door open to the Raw Hide.

The door handle was actually some kind of animal horn or antler. It matched the wood and rustic look of the interior design.

A large animal hide hung on the wall with pictures of bull riders all around it. Aileen inhaled a medley of savoury flavours, causing her stomach to rumble in agreement.

Tyler chuckled. “Glad to see you aren’t a salad girl.”

“I might be,” she teased.

He shook his head. “No salad girl would close her eyes to enjoy the smell of steak cooking.”

“Maybe I’m stopping to smell the potatoes.” Really? Could she sound any cheesier?

Coach Anderson spoke to a waiter as he slipped out of his long coat. He still wore his suit. “Table is ready.”

Tyler held out his hand to let Aileen go first. She followed the coach to a booth against the far wall. The restaurant’s theme followed what she had seen in the front entrance. Wooden walls, more pictures of bull riders and barn items hung on the beams throughout the place. It actually looked pretty cool.

Coach Anderson slipped into one side, giving Aileen the spot with the best view of the restaurant and the window. Tyler sat down beside his coach. Aileen slipped out of her jacket and purposely shifted on the bench so she was sitting across from Tyler.

The waiter came with menus and filled their glasses with water. The coach and Tyler didn’t open their menus. After a few minutes of looking over it, Aileen closed hers and folded her hands on the table. “I take it you guys come here quite often?”

Coach Anderson smiled. “They do a striploin that is delicious.”

“I like the baseball steak,” Tyler added. “Did you see something you like?”

Aileen ran her fingers through her hair. She didn’t want to order the most expensive or the cheapest thing on the menu. The striploin was on the high end and the baseball steak seemed about in the middle. “I was thinking of trying the baseball.”

Tyler clapped his hands. “Good choice!”

The waiter returned and took their orders.

Coach Anderson talked about Gatica’s track program as they waited for their food. He told her about the conference they were in, how well they were doing, how their program was on the rise. Aileen tried to stay focussed on everything he was telling her. He compared the school to Stanford most of the time. When the food came, he said, “That’s my lecture for the evening. How about we eat?”

Tyler pointed to the ball shaped steak on her plate. “Looks good?”

Aileen inhaled. “Smells good, too,” she said and winked at him, surprised at her own cocky teasing.

“I deserve that.” Tyler cut into his steak. “What does your family think about your recruiting trips so far?”

“My brother thinks I should go somewhere hot. My mom wants me somewhere close by and my dad, he’s the only one who really gets it, he wants me to go where I can run. And get a good education at the same time.” She added for the coach’s benefit.

“I checked out Stanford and Miami on my trips.”

“You did?” She was curious what he thought of the places.

“Loved Stanford.” He twitched and Aileen had to stop herself from smiling when she realized Coach Anderson had kicked him under the table. “Didn’t like Miami.”

“Me, either!” She bit her tongue. This wasn’t the place to gossip or admit that some of the girls on the Miami team had seemed mean and she didn’t like the vibe she got from them. “It just isn’t the place for me.” She stared down at her plate embarrassed to have almost acted like a tattle tale.

“Well, we had better make sure Gatica is.” Tyler rapped his knuckles gently against the table top.

Aileen brought her eyes up and held his gaze a moment before shifting to Coach Anderson. “How do you run your house here?”

“My house?”

“Wavertree Fieldhouse.” She was kind of proud of her play on words. It made her feel like she had the upper hand in the conversation.

“Ahh…” Coach Anderson wiped his mouth with a napkin. “I like that. I might have to borrow it from you.”

“It’s all yours.” Aileen did not miss the low chuckle that came from Tyler.

“Well then I guess I had better answer the question.” Coach Anderson moved his plate and using his hands traced the shape of a track on the table. “The four hundred is basically four parts of a race. I approach the track season in a similar fashion. The first hundred,” he said tracing the curve counter-clockwise, “is preseason training. School starts the last week of August and most of the track kids come the week prior. They start base training, which then gears more into technical training. It then switches to the next phase.” He ran his finger over the straight away of the imaginary track. “Indoor season. For some, the season runs longer than others. That will be your case.”

Tyler leaned forward and whispered, “He means NCAAs. He’s pretty sure you’ll make indoor nationals.”

Coach Anderson ran his finger over the final curve of the track. “After indoor finishes, we move back into some base training and technical stuff. The curve is good to use as an example because it consists of different things. Competitive season is straight forward—”

“Like the straightaway,” she finished.

“You got it.” Coach Anderson moved his plate back to where it had been.

“Unless of course,” Tyler said. “You’re a cross country runner. Then you’ve got, like, six parts to a season. It gets complicated.”

The coach smiled. “Yes, not every athlete followed the curve of the track. I just use it as a simple analogy.” His phone began to ring. He reached inside his pocket and checked the caller. “Sorry kids, but I need to take this a moment.”