Chapter 5: What goes around...

As much as I could, I tried to keep up with the athletic careers of the Striker and Raven players after they went off to college. Jim told me that his daughter, who had gone to a Division II school not too far away from home, was doing great, both academically and on the pitch. Some of the other girls were a little harder to track down, but I eventually found out that Patti had dropped out of school after her freshman year and moved in with her boyfriend, much to her parents' displeasure. I didn't bother trying to find out about Elena, but I did ask Jim if he knew anything about Susan. He told me that she had gone to a small school in North Carolina, but decided after a couple of years that she wanted to be closer to home. She had transferred to the same local college that I had "rescued" Patti from a couple of years earlier.

I decided I wanted to see her play. I checked the schedule and found a mid-week game that I could get to. I felt some strange emotions stirring inside as I drove to the field. This was more than just the first chance I had to see one of my former players in college; this was Susan, and I had to admit that I still had mixed feelings about her. I wondered what Susan's reaction would be to seeing me. As I neared the field, I realized how foolish I was being. Did I really expect her to treat me as anything other than her former coach? When I got to the field I saw Susan' mother. I guess I should have expected that, but it was still a little surprising. She was sitting with Kelly Jackson, another mother from the Strikers. I hadn't realized that her daughter, Marie, was playing for the visiting team that day. They both seemed to be glad to see me, so I sat with them during the game, and caught up with everything that was going on in their daughters' lives. Well, everything that they knew about of course. Like most kids in college, I'm sure that Susan and Marie didn't tell their parents everything.

Sitting with them during the game made me feel more at ease. I realized there was nothing wrong with a coach wanting to see his players continuing in their career. But after the game things got a little more complicated. Susan and Kelly had seen me, and both came running up to where I was waiting with their mothers. They both gave me a hug, and Susan seemed to hang on a little longer than just a polite greeting would require. I suddenly felt the urge to not just hug her back, but wrap her up in my arms and tell her how much I had missed her. I hadn't expected my reaction to seeing to be that strong, but as memories of our night together flooded my mind I had to admit that my coming to the game had been about a lot more than just soccer. But with her mom standing next to me, I had to control myself.

"It's great to see you again," Susan gushed. "So, what did you think? Did I turn out to be an OK player?"

She had impressed me with her poise on the ball and vision, having made a lot of accurate passes to the forwards, and I told her so. "You looked great. You must have had some really good coaching when you were growing up."

We laughed, and I relaxed a little. I really wanted to tell her how good it was to see her again, but I didn't know how her mom would react. Kelly had to run to catch her team's bus, so she and her mom left. Susan's mom stuck around talking for another ten minutes or so. When it looked like I wasn't going to get the chance to speak to Susan alone, I said my good-byes and headed for the parking lot. As I got to my car I heard someone running up behind me, and turned to see Susan. She came to a halt, inches from me. She stood there, not saying anything, just looking at me with a slight smile, almost as if she were inviting me to take her into my arms and give her the caress that I wanted so badly to do. But I still felt a little guilty about my interest in her, and that made it difficult for me to display my feelings for her too openly.

"So, what have you been up to?" she asked. "Still coaching?"

"I'm coaching an under-12 boys team now."

"Boys?" she laughed. "What does that mean?"

"What it means is that I'm concentrating on soccer now, with no distractions."

"Is that what I was, a distraction?" She was still smiling, but there was some bite to her question.

"Of course not. You were...". I struggled to find the right word.

"I was ... what? A pain in the ass, your worst nightmare, the love of your life?"

I think we were both a little surprised by her last option, but it did open the door for me to find the answer I had been seeking. "You were, and still are, a special part of my life. If we were the same age, I think we might have had something."

She got a funny look on her face then, as if that wasn't quite the answer she had expected. When she recovered, she said, "I think you're making too big of a deal out of the age thing. One of my teammates in Carolina has been dating her high school coach for the last couple of years, and he's ten years older than she is."

"It's not just the age difference, Susan. It was totally inappropriate for me to take advantage of my position of authority over you."

"You make it sound like you raped me or something," she giggled. "As I remember it, I'm the one who crawled into your bed."

I looked around nervously, hoping that we were still alone. This really wasn't the kind of conversation that I wanted to have in a parking lot. "You know what I mean." I really didn't want to talk about that night just then, but I guess I had asked for it by coming to the game. I tried to change the subject. "So, how's your love life now? Got lots of boyfriends?"

"Not really," she sighed. "There was a guy I got pretty close to in Carolina, but he dumped me for my roommate. How dumb is that? That's one of the reasons I transferred out of there."

"Sorry to hear that."

"Yeah, whatever. I cried my tears, and threw a lot of stuff at him, and her, but that's all history now."

"So, you wouldn't mind if I asked you out some time?" I ventured.

Susan grinned. "I wouldn't mind at all. Are you sure you wouldn't be embarrassed to be seen in public with me?"

She knew me better than I thought she did. "Okay, I deserved that. But I think, with your help, I can become a better person."

"I would like to try." She moved even closer to me, and I bent down to the inevitable kiss. It was brief and chaste, just a quick meeting of lips, but it ignited something deep inside me that had been smoldering ever since I heard that Susan was back in town. I felt like a high-school kid finally getting to kiss the girl he had secretly liked since middle school. It was a silly, exciting, mystifying moment, and I loved it. We stood there just staring at each other for a few seconds, no words necessary.

Over the next couple of months we started going out. It was like our one night together had never happened. We acted like two people who had just met and were getting to gradually know each other. Other than a few innocent goodnight kisses, nothing sexual happened. Susan told her mom that we were dating, and much to my surprise she was happy about it. But I was still involved with Linda, and that kept me from feeling totally comfortable when I was with Susan. I didn't tell Susan I was seeing somebody else, and she never asked. In a way you might say it was a perfect time for me; Linda was taking care of my sexual needs, and Susan was making my heart sing. But I knew my selfish behavior had to stop. I knew that Susan meant a lot more to me than Linda ever would, but I still didn't know how to break off my relationship with Linda gracefully.

I managed to juggle having two women in my life over the winter months, when there was no soccer, but when the Strikers' Spring season started the poop hit the propeller. Susan hadn't shown much interest in my current project, but then she decided to surprise me. I looked across the field during pregame warm-ups for one of our games, and saw Susan watching from the sideline. She smiled and waved, and I weakly returned the gesture, hoping that Linda hadn't noticed. I couldn't concentrate on the game that day, worrying about what might happen afterward.

And it was just about as bad as I had imagined it might be. I was putting away the team's equipment after the game when Susan came up and gave me a big hug. "I just wanted to surprise you," she said. Before I could stop her she had her arms around me and gave me a big kiss. "How about I take you to lunch? Of course, being a poor college student, it'll have to be fast food. Is that OK?"

Fast food, or a five-course meal, it didn't matter, I saw Linda and Lee staring at me and knew they were ready to throw me out with the garbage. I tried to disentangle myself from Susan's grasp, and made up some flimsy excuse that I had to meet with the other coaches about what we should concentrate at training the next week. I told her I would call her later, and she left, but not before she gave me another quick peck on the cheek. I heard Linda tell Lee to go wait in the car as she approached for the inevitable confrontation.

"College student?" she hissed. "Do you like them young, Kevin?"

I didn't say anything, just stood there, waiting for her fury, knowing that I had it coming. But all she did was stare at me. It was like watching a nuclear power plant meltdown; nothing showed on the outside, but I had the feeling that something big was about to happen. Finally, with a voice quaking with rage, she asked, "Aren't you even going to defend yourself? At least tell me the truth."

In one of those inexplicable moments of delusion, I felt like the best thing for me to do was come clean, and tell Linda the whole story. "I was Susan's coach when she was in high school, and we developed kind of a special bond. I ran into her again a few months ago, and we've been going out since then."

"High school? Did you have sex with her? Isn't that illegal? What's wrong with you?"

At that moment, I didn't have an answer for any of her questions. Why I had confessed one of my deepest, darkest secrets to a woman who was obviously furious with me is something I don't think I will ever understand. "It wasn't like that..." I started, but I knew that to anyone other than Susan or myself, that's exactly what it was. Technically, I had had sex with an underage girl, and one who I was supposedly responsible for. I was one of those guys whose mugshots you see on the eleven o'clock news. And I knew at that moment that Linda had the power, and motivation, to make life very difficult for me.

I'm not a religious man, but if I were, I would describe what happened next as a small miracle. Linda, with tears streaming down her cheeks, shook her head slowly. "OK, I get it. I'm just your roll-in-the-hay girl. Go ahead, Kevin, have a nice time with your little girlfriend, and I'll leave you alone. Just tell me one thing, where there any other girls you coached that ended up in your bed?"

By now I had come to my senses, and even though part of me still felt like I owed Linda completely honesty, the rational part of my mind knew better. "Come on, Linda," I sighed, "what kind of guy do you think I am?"

"That's what I'm still trying to figure out," she said, as she turned and headed for her car.

I called Susan later that day, and asked her to come over so we could talk. She showed up wearing soccer shorts and a T-shirt, with her hair in a ponytail. She looked very much like the girl I had first met three years earlier. I smiled at that memory, and at last admitted to myself that I had probably been in love with her all that time.

I still seemed to still be in an almost self-destructive mood, and decided that I needed to tell Susan about Linda, just in case anything nasty happened. She seemed a little stunned when I told her, and for a few moments I feared that I had lost both of them in the same day. But she quickly recovered. "So, I bet she was pretty pissed when she saw me kiss you."

"Yeah, you could say that."

"Hmm, I guess I could apologize for that, but really, don't you think you should have told me you were seeing somebody else?"

"Yes of course I should have. But, what can I say, sometimes I do stupid things."

"Like sleeping with your players?" She smiled at me, and I began to relax a little.

"Yes, I am a horrible person, who often thinks with his small head. I'm very sorry I didn't tell you before, and I hope you will forgive me."

"Is that the same speech you gave her?"

"No! Look, that's over. She was getting a little too serious for me anyway. I really didn't want to become an instant father."

"Oh, so I came along and rescued you from something you couldn't get out of yourself? I'm glad I could be of service." I couldn't tell from Susan's tone if she was angry, or teasing me. I decided to shut up then. My grave seemed to be deep enough. "So, I guess you own me something for my help," she said.

"Like what?"

"Like this." Susan got up and came over to the sofa were I was sitting. She plopped down on my lap, put her arms around my neck, and nibbled my ear lobe. "I want you to fuck me, like you did that night in Miami," she whispered. "I've been waiting for it ever since I saw you at my game, but you've been treating me more like a friend than a lover. Give me a good night of sex, and I'll consider your debt paid."

That sounded like a plan to me. I slid my hand up her wonderfully smooth, finely sculpted leg, bringing back even more memories of when I had first fallen for her. She continued to plant wet kisses on my ear, even probing inside with her tongue. It tickled more than excited me, so I turned my head to bring my lips in line with hers. As we kissed, long and passionately, my roaming hand continued its journey up her shorts until I discovered that she wasn't wearing anything under them.

"Is this how you dress for practice now?" I teased.

"Only when you're the coach," she replied between kisses.

We made out on the sofa for a few minutes, then I suggested that we move to the bedroom and get comfortable. When we got there she quickly stripped off her clothes, then started working on mine. It was like she couldn't wait for us to be naked together again. I sat on the bed to make it easier for her to pull off my pants and underwear. When she had accomplished that goal, she started to push me back and climb on top, but I stopped her. "Wait, slow down a minute. Let's make this last awhile."

"This?" she said, grinning. "Do you think you're getting away with just one 'this'. I intend to keep you hard, and inside me, most of the night. So ... no waiting, I want you now."

And she wasn't kidding. I stopped resisting and lay back as she threw a leg over me and squatted over my loins. It only took her a moment to position my hardness where she wanted it, and a second later I felt myself pulled into her warmth. She began riding me like a cowgirl in a barrel race, bouncing faster and faster, while somehow adding a twist in her hips that made the feeling even more special. If we had been a couple of teenagers steaming up the windows of my Dad's Chevy, I would probably have cum already, but pushing thirty, and having had sex with Linda twice in the last week, I was able to extend my visit in Susan's heaven. I watched from below as she brought herself off twice. It was like she was using my phallus as a tool to achieve her happiness, but I was more than willing to be used that way.