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Funny, he hadn’t mentioned he’d be stopping by in his letter to her. Actually, that letter had seemed like a pretty solid good-bye to her. “Oh, well, I…uh…” She laughed nervously. “I’m good.”
“Good,” he said, shifting his weight to his left foot.
“How are you?” she added hastily.
“Good. Good.” He shoved his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels. “Just the usual. Sleep. Protein. Practice. You know.”
She nodded, even though she didn’t. “Yeah. Sure.”
They both fell silent.
After a while, he cleared his throat.
The awkwardness between them was tangible enough to bottle and sell. “Did you, uh, have a good practice?”
“Yeah, it was a tough one, but we needed that to be ready for the Giants. We had double practice time all week long.”
“Ugh,” she muttered. Last time the teams had played one another, the Saviors had lost by fifteen points. “You’re playing, right?”
“Yeah.” He rotated his shoulder. He’d injured it a few weeks ago when DeMarquez had taken him down too hard. “I’m fine. They worry too much.”
“You seemed fine last week,” she said under her breath, heat flushing through her as she remembered all the ways he’d lifted, twisted, and turned during yoga.
He laughed. “Better than fine, even.”
“Well…” They locked eyes. “I’d hope so.”
“Have you been keeping your promises?” He rocked back on his heels again. “Living life to its fullest, and taking chances?”
“I have.” She gestured down at hersel
f. “Hence the sweatiness.”
“What were you doing?” he asked curiously.
She rested her shoulder on the doorjamb. “I decided to change the layout of my living room for the first time since moving in here.”
“Wow. Crazy,” he said wryly. “We might need to talk about toning it back a little bit. You’re taking this whole living life to its fullest thing a little too far.”
She smacked his arm playfully. “Hey, considering I measured each piece and placed it perfectly in position five years ago, it is crazy. For me, anyway.”
“I’m kidding.” He gave her a half smile. It was the sexiest thing she’d ever seen before. “Can I see it?”
“What?” She glanced over her shoulder. “My living room?”
“Yeah.”
She bit her lip. “Why would you want to see my rearranged living room?”
“Why not? I can think of worse ways for a guy like me to spend my afternoon.” He laughed uneasily and dragged a hand through his hair. “In case you couldn’t tell by my awkwardness earlier, I don’t know what I’m doing here, or why I’m here, but I am because I couldn’t keep driving. That might be bad, or it might be good, but whatever the hell it is, I want to see you, so I’m here. Seeing you. Because I missed you, Kass. And I never miss anyone.”
He missed her. She held her breath, a million things racing through her mind, but she couldn’t catch a single one. The thoughts were too fast. Too fleeting. Too… “In that case, would you like to come in and see my messy living room?”
He laughed. Short. Hard. “Yes, I’d like to see your living room.”
“Then, please, come inside.”
She stepped back, and he brushed past her, a whiff of cologne and sunshine teasing her senses. His smell was somehow familiar and comforting, even though she’d only smelled it one other time. Of course, that had been the best night of her life, so maybe that made sense. Maybe that’s why smelling him made her let out a sigh of relief that she’d been holding in for three days.
