I wasn’t about to argue and tell her she was wrong, but shewaswrong.
“My place is just here on the right.” She pointed to a Spanish style house with a tiled roof and a wide lawn in front, similar to all the houses around this neighborhood.
I pulled up, and she rested her hand on the door before opening it.
“Thanks for the ride, Jupiter.”
“You’re welcome.” And because I wanted to see her blush again, I couldn’t help adding, “I didn't know geeks looked like you.”
“Like what?”
“Hot.”
Her cheeks flared pink as quickly as her eyes widened, and I was still chuckling to myself as she got out and slammed the door closed. I didn’t even complain she’d slammed it too hard.
“See you around, Stars and Stripes.”
She looked back at me twice with a quizzical frown as she walked up her front path, and it had me grinning until bedtime.
Chapter 66
Present Day
Lowe hadn’t been kidding about taking over New York with images of The Lions team.
In fact, if I stood on a chair and pressed my face against the corner glass of my apartment window facing due east, I could clearly see the highest billboard screen in Times Square…
the one where Jupiter’s face appeared every seventy-five seconds.
The one I’d spent an hour watching yesterday, and the day before, while I sipped my morning coffee.
And that wasn’t even the worst of it. If he wasn’t content to haunt my days – his piercing blue eyes following me withevery Lions poster I passed – he was haunting my nights too. I’d dream of his lips brushing along the surface of my feverish skin where a flurry of goosebumps followed the tickle of his hot breath. I’d dream of being trapped against the cage of his muscles, where I’d trace my fingertips around the delicate patterns inked into his skin. I’d dream and dream until I’d wake up dripping in sweat and shaking uncontrollably with longing, frustration, and anger.
I’d gone from nothing to all in.
From avoiding him, to him being unavoidable.
He was everywhere.
And since yesterday, our conversation had been playing on a loop in my mind. I hadn’t lied when I said I didn’t know him; the Jupiter I’d met this past week covered in tattoos compared to the high-school Jupiter I knew with his dimples and wicked smile were as different as night and day.
Except,except, when he pounded on my office door and told me he planned to win me back, I saw that eighteen-year-old, the one with dimples and a wicked smile; the one who used to pick me up for school and make me hot chocolate to watch the stars. The one who made sure the last thing he did every night was kiss me.
The one who was doing his hardest to get me to notice him again.
It was confusing as hell.
I took a deep breath as another bout of rage threatened to ambush me.
With one last look in the mirror, attempting to stretch out the new wrinkles which seemed to have arrived from all my recent frowning at Jupiter’s face, I gave up and headed into the bustle of the city for my new commute.
I was so used to driving to work in Houston that I thought it might be fun to walk, but that lasted precisely one day whenI realized it was nearly eighty blocks, and took an hour and a half. For the past week I’d used the subway, and managed to get my commute down to a slick thirty minutes. I wasn’t counting the twelve it took to get through the two sets of security at Lions Stadium, across The Lions plaza and into my office, however.
But today things were a little different, as tonight we’d be leaving for a series of away games; my first ones.
Security waved my Uber through the gates and the driver pulled up at the executive entrance, where I tried to hop out but hadn’t packed light, so ended up lugging my bag into the stadium. As with every morning so far, it was quieter around the club before eleven a.m., and I liked it. It wasn’t exactly solitude, but there were few enough people around that I could absorb the space, the atmosphere, the love everyone had for baseball, and this club.
The club everyone longed to succeed.
