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Once the door had closed, Vera appeared, her face creased in a dirty grin. “Ashley Adams, look at you!”
Ashley waved to keep her voice down. “It’s nothing.”
“Nothing? That boy is into you. I invited him, purely so we could have something pretty to look at, but he came through. The way he drooled over you was something else.”
“Stop it. He’s just keeping me sweet to make sure I give him a good reference.”
Vera shrugged. “So what if he is? Doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it.”
No, it didn’t, but she would keep her shields up all the same.
16
Dex put his gym bag in his locker and pulled off his sweatshirt. He’d woken up this morning in a great mood, except for one tricky thing.
The erection that would not quit.
He’d managed to tame it with thoughts of a certain hot mama and how her lips tasted. And that was as far as he got before he exploded all over his sheets.
Apparently a kiss was doing it for him now?
Who the hell are you and what have you done with Dex O’Malley?
He had a whopping big crush on this woman. A woman of substance, so out of his league because she was a real person. Not that any of the women he’d fucked before weren’t real, but he hadn’t really bothered to find out any more about them beyond their willingness to get down and dirty. They probably had problems like student loans or bad bosses or gluten intolerance and he’d never known because he didn’t care to ask.
But with Ashley, he wanted to know things. Her favorite color (though why the hell that was of interest, he had no idea). Or how she liked her tea. Or which of the animals at the shelter was her favorite and why his name was Bandit.
Mostly he wanted to know why she sometimes looked sad and what the hell he could do to fix that.
He’d never wanted to fix anything for another person. People with “issues” like Dex weren’t usually any good at fixing other people’s problems. They were too self-involved.
But Dex was beginning to think he might have more bandwidth than previously suspected. He might be able to set aside his own selfishness for a while and worry about another person.
Like Ashley. And even Willa, if her mom would let him.
During tonight’s game, his guests would be sitting in his seats. Tara hadn’t even done that when they were faking things—she always sat in the owners’ box, which should have been his first clue that she had a thing for Fitz and wasn’t about to give Dex the time of day.
This was better. The first time he’d give his seats to someone would mean something. Real high school stuff.
His seats … shit, he needed to take care of that.
Kershaw and Burnett walked in, chatting away.
“Hey, who do I call about my comps?”
They stopped talking and stared at him. Finally, Kershaw broke into a grin.
“You’re bringing someone to the game?”
“Yeah.”
Burnett picked up the conversational baton. “First time?”
“No, I just …” Now he felt stupid. Here he was getting all gooey about the prospect of giving his seats to Ashley and instead he looked like a loser who had no friends. “I don’t usually bother. But I have guests tonight and I need to get it sorted. Quick.”
Unfazed by Dex’s change of tone and clearly having no intention of being helpful, Kershaw asked, “Who’s the guest?”
“Guests, he said. Plural.” Burnett dropped his bag on a bench. “Does this have something to do with the wine recommendation I gave you yesterday?”
