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She covers her mouth with a hand to suppress a giggle and nods. He sighs melodramatically. “The things I do for you people.” Then he lowers his bald head. Ceecee reaches up with both hands and rubs it for luck, giggling all the while.
James wishes her luck, then jogs back to the young amputee, helping him remove his prosthetic leg and sit in a wheelchair. When the young man turns to us, Ceecee gasps. It’s quiet, but I hear it loud and clear. I look down at her to find her eyes wide, mouth parted, and a small blush on her cheeks. Lifting my head, I look back at the boy. He looks a little older than her, maybe fifteen. When he spots her, he stills. His face becomes void of expression as he watches her watching him. I peek behind me to find Willa and Felicity chatting and laughing with Max.
Glad for the girls’ distraction, I lean down to Ceecee and say, “Why don’t you go say hi? Make friends? Isn’t that why we’re here?”
Ceecee nods, never taking her eyes off the boy. A small smile plays at his lips, and I can’t help but notice how handsome he is for a young man. Chances are, he’s going to be gorgeous when he grows up. Standing, he was tall, and sitting, he still looks tall. With messy brown hair, light eyes, and tanned skin, the harsh angles of his face make him look like a young version of Matt Bomer.
As she starts to wheel herself over to him, my heart smiles with pride as the boy wheels himself to meet her halfway. They simply eye each other carefully before the boy smiles and says something to Ceecee, holding out his hand. She takes it reluctantly, her blush now a blazing inferno, shaking it and mumbling her own greeting.
He talks to her as they stroll around the court. He points out things and laughs while he chats to her, completely comfortable in her near silence. When he nudges her with his elbow, smiling, she laughs. And it’s such a sight that my heart swells. I also think I might cry. The boy leads her to a group of kids in wheelchairs, both boys and girls, and introduces her to them. They all smile and talk to her, and to my absolute shock, she smiles and talks back. This was a great idea.
Felicity breaks my thoughts with, “Let’s take a seat; they’re about to start.” We all move to sit, but I notice Willa’s missing. I spy her at the side of the court, fingers hooked into the wire fence, watching James like a love-sick puppy as he instruct the kids.
He calls out, “You know what to do, guys.” He points to Ceecee’s new friend and says, “Sam, I’m leaving Ceecee in your charge. Show her how things go, but take it easy on her. You’ve got ten minutes of free ball time before I blow the whistle,” he grins, “then it’s on!”
The kids cheer and clap before they disband, grabbing basketballs and playing with each other. I’m not even a little surprised when Sam leads Ceecee to the other side of the court, bouncing the ball to her and explaining how things go, watching her all the while. I am, however, surprised when Felicity gasps, “Oh my God! Look, look, look!”
James joins Willa on the opposite side of the fence. His fingers linked into the fence, dangerously close to hers. My eyes widen. “I told her he liked her!”
Max looks over at the fence. “Who likes who?”
Felicity fills him in. “We’ve been pushing Willa and Whit together for a week solid. She loves him and he likes her. He’s just fighting it, like men do.” She bunches her nose and looks at Max. “Why do men do that?”
He swallows hard, looking away, letting out a strained, “No idea.” He shakes his head and looks to me. “But I thought he liked you.”
I raise a brow at him and scrunch my face in my famous are-you-crazy look. “What? We’re friends; that’s all. We flirt a little,” I look back to him meaningfully and bat my lashes, “but there’s no harm in a little flirting. Is there, Max?”
Felicity immediately gets my jab, tipping her head back and roaring with laughter. “Ooh, she got you good.”
He looks down at our entwined hands and murmurs, “I don’t flirt no more.”
I snort. “Yeah, I know. Not even with me!” I side-eye him and ask quietly, “Why don’t you ever flirt with me? You never did, right from the beginning.”
He plays with my fingers a moment before looking up and stating, “Because I think you deserve better than that.” He leans forward and kisses my temple. “A woman like you deserves real words, not pretty words that don’t mean nothin’.” He says this so sincerely that my heart skips a beat.
Crap. I wasn’t expecting an answer like that. I lean into lips and he presses another soft kiss to my temple.
Felicity watches us closely, her face crumbling. “Oh my God. It’s finally happened.” She fans her face, blinking rapidly. “Someone took the flirt out of Max Leokov,” she sniffles, “and it was my friend who did it.” She blinks away tears. “I’m so proud.”
I reach over and shove at her shoulder. “Shut up, Flick.”
Watching Ceecee, I mutter to no one in particular, “Would you look at how happy she is? I don’t think I’ve seen her smile this much since I got here.”
Max puts his arm around my shoulder and agrees, “She’s loving it. And it’s all because of you. You’re the best thing that’s happened to her.” He places his lips at my ear and whispers, “To me, too.”
My chest pangs. Lip curling, I turn and smack at his chest. “Stop it. Just don’t.”
The look of shock on his face is adorable. The asshole. He holds his arms out and shrugs, “What’d I say now?”
; I shake my head, anger easing out of me, leaning into him once more. He just gave me a speech on not using words for fun. It’s not fair for him to say something like that to me when he doesn’t mean it. Both of his arms come around me, squeezing me tight, and I bask in the warmth of him.
Lord knows, I won’t have it forever.
Watching Ceecee squeal with laughter and smile so much is the highlight of year. My own cheeks hurt from smiling while watching her during the basketball game—if a basketball game is what you’d call it. It was more forty-five minutes of kids in wheelchairs steal the ball from each other and speed away from the others while they tried to catch the person who had the ball. Every now and again, James would run onto the court, snatch the ball, and run around, laughing as they made chase.
He was right. Ceecee loved it. And she made friends. I saw her exchanging phone numbers with her new friends, but I saw the special light she had in her eyes for Sam. True, he isn’t in a wheelchair full-time, but I’m guessing whatever caused his injury meant he was in a wheelchair for a long while before he walked again. And as much as Ceecee had eyes for him, he had eyes for her. I saw how his face fell watching her go. I believed Ceecee might’ve been experiencing her first crush.
