Page 87 of Hometown Hottie

42

CARSON

After camp wrapped for the day, I waited for Nova to finish making arrangements with the soccer team and then I grinned at her when she finally came walking up to her truck. “You have fun today? It sure looked like you were.”

“I did, actually,” she said thoughtfully. Then she blinked it all away and looked at me. “How about you? It looked like you were putting the boys through their paces.”

I shrugged, but I couldn’t stop the smirk that tugged at the corners of my lips. “We’ve been doing that every day. What’s the point of camp if they don’t get something out of it? They didn’t sign up to laze around.”

“Maybe not, but I also don’t think they signed up to be tortured,” she teased. “You heading home?”

I pushed away from her truck, deciding to try this one more time. “I was hoping to be heading out to a late lunch with you. What do you say? Will you let me buy you a sandwich? If anybody asks, we can tell them it was about camp.”

Bracing myself to be turned down again, my eyebrows shot up when she nodded instead. “Sure. I’d love that. I just want to go home and take a shower first. I feel like I’ve been dipped in a vat of lava sweat.” Her eyes finally broke away from mine, traveling to my damp hair first and then to my fresh shirt. “You’ve already showered?”

“Yeah, Vance and I hit the locker rooms earlier. I wanted to wait for you to finish up anyway and you were still busy, so I figured I’d use the time productively.”

“Want to tag along with me, then?” she asked, surprising the socks off me once more. “You can have something cold to drink at my place while I shower, and then we can go get lunch. I’ve been wanting to talk to you anyway.”

“Sounds good.” It sounded pretty fucking great actually. More like we were in a relationship and less like two people bumbling around in the dark, trying to meet each other halfway while they were in two different rooms.

Nova smiled and walked around me to get into her truck, even taking my hand and squeezing it as her smile turned sweet and sexy all at the same time. “I missed you.”

“I missed you too,” I said, my voice suddenly husky with a combination of surprise and attraction. “I’ll meet you there.”

At her house, she left the door open for me and went to grab a quick shower, emerging in a T-shirt and shorts, her wet hair falling down her back. She was a sight to behold like this, and I found myself suddenly clamming up a bit when I felt those sparkling blue eyes sweep across my face. My usual charm was nowhere to be found as I tried to remember my mom’s advice to talk to her instead of getting distracted.

“I’m surprised you didn’t tell me to get lost,” I said, voicing the first thought that came to mind. “How are you doing? Should I take it as a good thing that I’m here? What did you want to talk to me about?”

She blinked, clearly pretty surprised herself. “How am I doing? No one ever really asks me that. Not the way you just did, anyway. It’s the usual ‘how are you’ stuff, but I never feel like they actually want to know how I’m doing.”

“I do,” I said quietly, feeling bad about not having asked her that myself in a long time. I walked up to her, taking her face in my hands and looking into her eyes. “You’re taking on so much, Nova. It hurts to see you stretched so thin and to know that I’m adding to the stress.”

“You’re not.” She let her hands drift to my shirt, running her fingers up along my sides until her palms were resting on my chest. “I didn’t mind coaching today. It was fun.”

“I wasn’t talking about that. Don’t get me wrong, it was great to see you looking so happy for a change, and you really did look happy on that field today, but I was talking about the situation between us.”

“That’s the one good thing I’ve got going for me right now.” Eyes on mine, she let out a deep breath and stroked her fingers over my heart. “I owe you another huge thank you.”

“You do?”

She nodded. “I really was happy today, and once again, I have you to thank for it. So thank you.”

I let my hands drop to her hips and flexed my fingers as I held her, letting her know that I wasn’t going anywhere. “Do you think you’ll be able to keep coaching them?”

“I’m going to try to make it work, but between the ranch and the bakery, I’m not sure it’s going to be sustainable.”

She seemed so sad that the question just shot out of me. “Why do you keep working on the ranch?”

Surprise flickered behind those eyes again. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me, Nova.” I kept my voice soft and gentle, but I really did want to know. I needed her to tell me, in fact. “The truth, if you don’t mind. Don’t tell me that you’re obligated to do it. Why are you still working so hard on this ranch when everyone else seems to have given up?”

It took her a beat, but then she dragged in a shuddering breath, took my hands, led me over to the sofa, and sat me down with her. “I’ve always envisioned my future here. I’ve got my bakery, sure, but it took me years to open it and I don’t want to lose it now that it’s finally doing so well.”

My breath stalled in my lungs. This was exactly what I’d been hoping to get out of her today, and now here she was, telling me without even having to be begged to do it. “What else?”

“What else what?”