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Personally, Alex was growing pretty fond of brown. Deep, deep brown like the grain on an old oiled wooden bat. And on that thought, he brought himself up short before he could get too sentimental and sent his friends on their way so he could go back to trying to focus on the damned budgets.
After a day of trying not to think about Alex and practically diving beneath her desk every time she heard his voice, Maggie gave up and decided that if willpower couldn’t drive away the memory of Alex’s mouth on her, then good old-fashioned sweat might.
But after ten laps of the field with some old-school rock pounding in the earbuds of her iPod, she was tempted to admit defeat. Not least because her legs were burning and she was sure she’d sweated half her body weight despite the frigid air. She really had gotten out of shape during her last push at school and the subsequent vacation.
Damn all cheese and gelato to hell.
She gritted her teeth, cranked the volume up another notch, and forced herself to keep plodding forward, counting strides with each puff of breath that formed ahead of her. Then she nearly had a heart attack when Alex loomed up on her side, almost stumbling as she leaped sideways with fright.
She ripped the earbuds loose. “Are you trying to get Maced?” She made herself start jogging again.
“You carry Mace here?” Alex asked, sounding amused as he fell into stride with her.
“No.” Deacon was somewhere she’d always felt perfectly safe. Until now. “But I might start. What are you doing here?”
“Looking for some fresh air, same as you.”
“It’s a big stadium.” She waved her arm at the stands. “Plenty of fresh air.” Hopefully he’d take the hint. She had a horrible feeling she was beet red and sweat stained. Not exactly how she’d wanted to see him for the first time after last night’s encounter. Not that she was entirely sure if she wanted to see him at all. Last night had been good—amazing—but that didn’t mean it wasn’t dumb.
“I like running with a partner.” Alex kept pace beside her. His sweats were brand spanking new, the latest Saints gear, but his sneakers were worn well enough that she figured he was a regular runner. Which meant she wasn’t going to shake him off with speed.
She slowed down. “I prefer alone.”
He grinned at her. “What’s wrong, don’t like team sports?”
“Two isn’t a team,” she retorted.
The grin widened. “It can be.”
Maggie stopped in her tracks. “Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“You know very well what. I’m not ready to talk about last night.”
His grin died a little. “Okay. But if you’re stopping, will you wait for me? There’s something I need to ask you about.” He nodded his head toward one of the gates onto the field. “I brought water and protein bars. You go cool down.”
As if that was likely with him around. Still, she couldn’t think of an excuse to refuse a perfectly reasonable request, so she made her way over to the fence and started to stretch, trying not to be too blatant as she watched Alex lope around the field. He ran smoothly, his face determined, his body obviously easy with the exercise. Male grace in motion. She ignored the part of her that was suddenly wishing it was summer and he wasn’t wearing quite so many layers of clothing so she could get a better look at his body.
Of course he looked good running. He was the devil. He did everything well.
She gulped water and wiped her face on her sweats and kept stretching. If she stopped moving she’d freeze and probably never unkink her muscles. After twenty minutes or so, Alex started to slow. He closed the last fifty feet or so between them at a relaxed pace.
Maggie rolled out of her stretch. “What, you don’t want to finish with a few rounds of running the stadium stairs?”
Alex craned his neck up to look at the highest part of the stand. “How many stairs are there?”
“I’m guessing a couple of hundred. Plus the ramps.”
“I’ll pass.” He reached past her and picked up the other bottle of water. He cracked it open, swigged cheerfully, then stretched his arms out, another grin blooming on his face. But this time it was directed at the stadium, not at her.
“Kind of hard to believe I can jog here any time I want now. Must’ve been a cool place to grow up.”
She nodded. “Yeah, it was.” She walked through the gate and sat on the nearest seats, hugging her knees.
“I take it from the batting cages last night that you played ball growing up? Did you ever play here?” Alex settled in beside her.
“I played Little League and a bit of fastball. But no, never played a game here. It never bugged me though.” She’d loved playing baseball but it wasn’t the same as watching the big games, the spectacle of it. “What I really wanted was to have one of my birthday parties here.”
