“Why didnae ye stay in the library? Ye said ye would be there until it closed. I came back tae find ye. I spent all day Saturday waiting for ye to show up. I said I would be back, why didnae ye wait?” She looks back at the pitch. Claire, I beg her silently, please look at me. I couldn’t bear it if she walked away again.
“I figured when you took off, it was just supposed to be a quickie. That’s all you were looking for, right?” I put my finger under her chin, tilting her face up to meet my eyes.
“A quickie?” I ask, shaking my head. “Ye Americans have such a strange way of labeling things. Naw, I dinnae intend for it tae be ‘a quickie.’” She laughs lightly, but keeps her distance.
I sigh, “I have tae go start the camp. Can I count on ye tae at least survive me enough tae help for a couple days? Maybe apply whit ye learned in child psychology? We can talk aboot this later. As a matter of fact, count on it.”
“You remember what I was studying?” she asks. I remember everything about her.
“Claire,mo ghaol, I remember everything aboot ye.” I can’t think of any reason to hold anything back. I’m not interested in playing games with her. She takes a tentative half step toward me. Running her fingers lightly over my shoulder, she looks up at me in concern.
“Are the bite marks still there?” She almost brings me to my knees with just her touch. Can I really be this gone after seeing her again for only a short time? I can’t even fool myself, I was gone as soon as I entered her in the back of the library.
“They’re wee scars now. Tim made me get a shot, something aboot rough doggin’ in the library.” I grin at her when she laughs. My eyes follow the red as it creeps up her face. “Dae ye even know whit that means?”
“I have an idea.” I can’t resist reaching out to tuck a loose strand of hair that’s come out of her ponytail behind her ear. Before I can do anything really stupid, I take a step back.
“Listen, I have tae get back, yeah? Will ye be joining us?”
“Yeah, just let my complete mortification die down a little.” I smile at her before leaving to rejoin the volunteers.
“Hey Claire?” I say, stopping to turn back toward her. When she looks up at me, I add, “I’m really glad I found ye again.” Jogging back over to the group waiting for me, I falter to a walk. Standing in a line, arms crossed over their chests, are a dozen very angry-looking women clad in purple.
Tim is standing behind them, laughing into his hand. Asshole! The men’s team seems to have chosen the farthest possible distance away to wait for instructions. “Umm,” is all I can come up with when I come to a stop in front of them.
“Let’s go, ladies. Everybody has their assignments. Let’s set the water station up over here.” Claire walks past me, directing volunteers to their jobs. Christ, she’s amazing! Everyone except the tall blonde, Lily, run to get the field set up. Instead she saunters over to me.
“I don’t know what that was about, but if you have done anything to hurt my friend, I will cut off your balls and feed them to you, Mr. Ross.”
“Nicely said, Miss Rhett!” Tim says.
“Shut it, Tim!” I growl. He walks past me toward the goal.
“I bet that’s not how your fantasy played out in your head, huh?” he asks.
“Naw exactly,” I answer as Tim walks off laughing. I busy myself working as close to Claire as possible, fielding glares from the rest of her team. “Did ye have a good holiday with yer family?” I ask when I get close enough.
“It sucked,” she responds, “except for the time spent at the university library.” She grins at me.
“I agree,mo ghaol, that was a very good day.” My Claire has a lot more sass to her than I thought. Why is that a complete turn-on for me? When did she becomemy Claire?
“Alex, what do you keep calling me?” I just smile at her moving toward the other end of the field.
3
Claire
“Ican’t believe I made a scene,” I tell Lily at the break. “I mean, I’m as much to blame for what happened as him.”
“What I can’t figure out,” she says. “Is why in the hell you didn’t tell me you had a quickie with Xander Ross in the library over Thanksgiving? We sat through ladies’ night listening to Izzy tell us about her pregnancy and subsequent proposal from Grayson. We even listened to Maggie describe whatever in the hell is up with her and my brother. You didn’t think at any time that night you could have mentioned you were fucked against a stack of books by Xander Ross?!”
“Lily! Someone will hear you,” I whisper to her. I’ve been filling her in on everything that happened in Oregon while we oversee drills. Alex gave everyone a fifteen-minute break, so now we’re relaxing in the shade beside the pitch. Lily doesn’t even take a breath as she continues her tirade.
“Now, I’m stuck threatening to rip off Xander Ross’s balls for hurting you. I have waited forever to meet him and his giant teammate, but now I’m forced to threaten his gonads.” She stops her rant to stare at me. We both start laughing at the same time. Laying back on the grass, tears falling from my eyes.
“So I understand my teammate’s testicles are in serious question.” I open my eyes to the deep voice above me. Tim stares down at us. “He already has a high squeaky voice. I’d hate to hear it get any higher.” He sits down as Lily and I start our second round of laughter. “For what it’s worth, he really did run back to that library hunting for you all day Saturday. He didn’t tell me why until that night and five beers later.”
“Is it safe enough tae join ye?” Alex squats down next to me. “Yer team really disnae like me. They’re starting tae scare me a wee bit.”
