Qualified: A Sports Romance Read Online Free PDF

the past behind,
Adam relaxed enough to jostle a friendly shove at her shoulder. “You should
come to our practice. I’ll be benched for scrimmage, so I can point out the
rules. It will be fun.”
    “Is there even anything to see?” Allie couldn’t
help but be shaken into a smile. It softened the dubiousness that she tilted up
at Adam. “Isn’t it all in the water?”
    “There’s plenty to watch. Passes and goals and all
the swimming back and forth. You’ll probably not be able to see most of the
wrestling,” Adam admitted. “The worst of that does happen under the surface.”
    “Wrestling.” Allie shook her head. She was having a
hard time matching the image that the word conjured with anything that could be
done in a swimming pool.
    “We basically try to drown each other where the ref
can’t see,” Adam said with a too-eager grin. “Some people claim it’s the
roughest sport, between the sprint-swimming and the contact play. And the ball
game, on top of that, of course. Though it’s really the girls’ teams that are
the worst. They’ve got nails.”
    “Is that so? I can’t say I’ve ever progressed
beyond the doggy paddle.” Allie flapped her hands at the air in sheepish
example. “Well, all right then. If you think it’d be fun. I’d like that.” It
wasn’t like she was going just to stalk Marc, she reasoned with herself. “I’m
on schedule to assist your physical trainer later this week, so it’ll be good
to know ahead of time what you boys are actually getting up to.”
    “Sweet. We’ll probably do the first scrimmage the
day after tomorrow. Do you think you’ll be able to get away around three?”
    “I’ll have to check my schedule, but I can maybe
shift my break. And yeah, I’m supposed to be there at four to do Marc’s sample
anyway, so.” Allie shrugged her clipboard up into a hug against her chest.
    “It will be very scientific,” Adam promised her
with a wink as he turned to head off to the dining hall. “Observing the wild
animal in its natural habitat.”
    “Yeah,” Allie grinned. Wild animal —perhaps
it was a little too close to the truth when it came to the one specimen to
which she’d gotten closest.

    Allie ate at her desk so she could
finish all the scheduling she was responsible for. She had to fit in nutrition
and psychology appointments for dozens of athletes around their multiple
practice times, gym workouts, and strategy meetings with their coaches. It was
quite a puzzle, but after all of this experience, if anyone could figure out
how to fit an impossible number of things into one day it was Allie.
    She hadn’t been down to the aquatic wing of the
center since part of the Halloween festivities had happened there. The smell of
chlorine hit her as soon as she walked into the glass-windowed entry hall.
Whistles were ubiquitous. There was a particular way that they and the coaches’
hollering voices echoed off the rocking surface of the pool.
    Wet. Spandex. Balls. Allie was greeted by all of
these things even before she ducked inside the opened doors of the large space
that enclosed the big pool. Trails of dampness over the cement deck told of
exercises that must have brought the guys up onto land. Near the pool’s edge,
discarded vests slumped in puddles beside a strange assortment of what looked
like metal construction materials.
    She tried to keep from staring at the boys wearing
nothing but tiny speedos clustered around their coach. It took her a moment to
spot the blue bleachers in the far corner as the obvious place to sit. While
Allie made her way over, the group broke up and a damp-haired Adam sat himself
on the first bench while the rest of the team plunged back into the water. He
spotted her walking around the pool’s edge and waved her over.
    “I haven’t missed it, have I?” Allie asked quietly
as she slid herself into the seat beside him.
    Adam shook his head, leaning in to better speak
over the strange acoustics of the room. “Perfect