Balance (Off Balance Book 1) by Lucia Franco Read Free Book Online Page A

perfectly. A square jaw with hollow cheeks but profound cheek bones. I loved that he was tall and had broad shoulders. All my other coaches had been short and stumpy.
    “Well...I mean, yeah, he’s hot, but I can’t think of him like that. I’m going to be working closely with him for like forty hours a week.”
    “Send me a picture.”
    I burst out laughing. “Avery! And how the hell am I supposed to do that? I can’t just bring my phone in there and be all ‘Hey, Coach, let me take a picture of you.’”
    “Fine. I’ll Google him. He’s an Olympian so there’s bound to be a picture of him out there. Hang tight, what’s his name?”
    I paused for a moment, my brows pinching together. “Well, he addressed himself as Konstantin, but search Konstantin Kournakova. I mean, Kournakov. Or Kova. My dad called him Kova. I think he changed his last name, though.”
    “Okay. Let’s do one name at a time because you just threw like thirty at me. Core...ne—”
    “Konstantin Kournakova,” I said in a terribly fake Russian accent.
    “How do you spell that? There are too many vowels and corn in it.”
    Rolling my eyes, I laughed under my breath from her exaggeration then spelled it out. Dead silence for a good ten seconds, then...
    “Fuuuuccckkk, Adrianna, seriously.”
    I chuckled into the phone. “What?” I said blandly. I knew what she was getting at.
    “Fish lips and all, he’s smoking hot!”
    “Fish lips? You did not just say that. He most definitely does not have fish lips.”
    “So you admit to checking him out,” she replied swiftly.
    “No!”
    “Admit it!”
    “So what? I already said he’s hot.”
    Avery laughed again. “Okay—I won’t call them fish lips, but they are nice and full. Kissable.” She paused, then shouted, “Oh, my God! Coach Kissable!”
    I groaned loudly. The last thing I wanted to think about was my coach’s full, kissable lips.
    “And it appears he is...actually thirty-two years old.”
    “Wow. If you saw him in person, you’d never guess.”
    “Seriously, though. He’s fucking gorgeous. Have fun with that. I wouldn’t mind having a cheerleading coach who looked like him. Shit, I wouldn’t mind having a damn co-ed team in general. All those strong guys to lift me and then cradle me to their chests with their huge ass arms? And have you noticed how hot the guys are? What the hell are they eating to bulk up the way they do?”
    “You’re crazy, Ave,” I laughed, cutting her off. Avery lusted after every boy who crossed her path. She took boy crazy to a whole new level.
    Sighing, I looked around at the boxes that still needed to be unpacked.
    “I need to finish getting things unpacked and hit the sack early. I have practice at 6:30 a.m., which means I need to be awake by 5:30 to get ready and be there on time.”
    “Oy. Why so early?”
    “Practice, lunch, school, practice again. I won’t end until close to six-ish, I think? I’m not really sure.”
    “Wow. Well, try and call me tomorrow if you can.”
    “Will do.”
    “Have fun! And remember—snap a picture for me.”
    “I’ll do my best.”
    “Later, girl.”
    The smile I heard in her voice made me miss my best friend dearly. Moving to Florida’s West Coast was my choice and something I desperately wanted. I’d prepared for it, and was ready the day it finally came, but I hadn’t anticipated missing my friend so much so soon.
    I needed to stay focused on my goal, all these sacrifices would be worth it in the end.

 
     
    T he sun hadn’t even begun to peek above the horizon as gray clouds drifted across the charcoal sky when we pulled up to World Cup. Thomas, my driver, knew exactly where to go.
    My eyes were swollen and puffy from the restless night of sleep I had. I’d been so anxious for the following morning, I tossed and turned all night in bed, thinking about how my first day would go. I was finally going to begin the next phase in my gymnastics career, and it was all I could think about.