Page 53 of Out of Bounds

Letting out a long sigh of his own, Gunnar lay there for a moment, watching her as she rested. He realized that in some ways, this was probably a little creepy, but he just couldn’t take his eyes off of her. Felicity was beautiful no matter which version of her he was looking at—from the uptight professional in the office, to the raging bitch she could be when she was upset, to the everyday girl next door she was when no one was looking—but there was something extraordinary about her like this. He knew it took an exceptional amount of trust on her part to be this vulnerable in front of someone, even if she wasn’t doing it on purpose. But she wouldn’t have answered the phone half-asleep if she hadn’t been willing to risk it—she was too guarded to even think about giving someone that chance. Except, she had for him.

And it meant something to him too.

Grabbing his phone from the pillow, he took one last, long look at her before lightly pressing his lips to the screen, as if she could feel them on her forehead hundreds of miles away.

“Sweet dreams, Effie.”

Chapter Nineteen

Pulling open the door to Bunz, Felicity glanced down at her outfit, once again questioning her choice for what must have been the tenth time since she’d put it on. While jeans were not completely unheard of when it came to her wardrobe choice, they were certainly not something she wore out very often—and even then, it was usually only to run errands on the weekends. However, the sneakers and old college sweatshirt were not items that had seen the light of day in more years than she could count.

There was something incredibly satisfying, even comforting, to Felicity about hearing the clickity-clack of her heels against a hard surface. Like the music baseball teams had started playing as batters approached the plate, the distinct sound seemed to announce her presence in a way that gave her the confidence to enter any room. However, when Gunnar had texted her about meeting for a late lunch, his text had read to “dress comfy,” and was quickly followed by another text telling her “you know what I mean”—and she had known exactly what he’d meant. He’d wanted the version of her he’d discovered when he’d caught her off guard last weekend. And she wanted to give him what he wanted.

“This isn’t sushi Sunday, you know,” she said, approaching the table Gunnar was sitting at not far from the bar. Her entire body ached to throw itself at him and get lost in his embrace.

“Certainly that’s a tradition that’s been broken before,” he replied with a wink, standing to greet her.

Felicity watched as he flinched, as if he were going to lean in to hug her only to catch himself and stop. Her heart sped up a little bit discovering that the excitement of seeing each other after almost a week apart was mutual. He redirected his actions, pulling out her chair instead, and she slid into the seat, trying to ignore her racing pulse.

“Only for a special occasion.” She gave him a little wink before glancing over at Devlin as he placed glasses of water by each of the three menus that had been laid out, before sneaking off again. Three place settings—it wasn’t going to be just her and Gunnar for dinner. The heart that had been soaring just a moment ago sank as she registered the scene.

“Cowboy’s outside on the phone. He should be back in a moment,” Gunnar said, answering her unspoken question as he sat back down.

“You brought a chaperone?” she replied, hoping it sounded like a joke. She didn’t want him seeing how raw and exposed she was suddenly feeling.

“Hey, Felicity,” Cowboy greeted her, almost as soon as the question was out of her mouth. She forced a smile to her face, hoping that neither of the men could tell how she was really feeling. Cowboy nodded toward her sweatshirt, laughing a little. “Dawgs, huh? Shoulda known.”

“Woof woof,” she replied without thinking. The response had been ingrained in her since she was a child, since everyone in her family had attended the University of Georgia and was damn proud of their association with the school and the beloved mascot.

“Hook ‘em Horns,” he said, making the Texas Longhorn hand signal.

“Orange is not a flattering color. Ever.”

Letting out a booming laugh, he threw his head back, shaking the table a bit. “I’ll give you that one. Anyway, thanks for meeting us on the weekend. I don’t know what Gunnar’s told you, but we talked about the pub partner thing a lot while on this road trip, and as Technical Director and Head Coach, we agree that local is the way to go. We think that involving national chains really takes something away from what we’re trying to build with our team. So, I spoke to your brother about it this morning, and he’s on board.”

“Seriously?” she asked, unable to believe what she was hearing. Cowboy and Gunnar had gone to bat for her?

“He told me he’d send out an email giving the go-ahead for the bachelor auction but that it might be tomorrow before he got around to it, so act surprised when you see it. We’re really excited about this idea, though, so we want to get the wheels in motion.”

“Of course!”

The bachelor auction. This isn’t a date. He wanted to talk work…

Felicity felt her stomach lurch at the realization. Maybe the feelings weren’t as mutual as she had thought. Just because they had texted what felt like non-stop while he was away, and video chatted every night—complete with him collecting his “winnings” the day after she’d accidentally fallen asleep on him—didn’t mean anything. She knew she had no reason to be upset—she was the one who’d insisted it was just sex after all. But something had flipped inside her these last few days, and she was starting to think that maybe she’d been wrong. He had told her she was wrong, hadn’t he? No more walls, all that? Or had she imagined that conversation?

"Some of the players heard us discussing it on the trip, and they’re into it,” Cowboy continued. “They really like the idea of it being a community event and a way for the city to get to know them and their personalities.”

“Even the married guys agreed to participate,” Gunnar added in, a proud look on his face. “They won’t go on dates, but Michaels and Henderson said they would host a skills session or something if parents wanted to bid on that for their kid’s team.”

“That’s amazing! We can use that to help promote the event. Less ‘win-a-date’ and more ‘score an afternoon with’ kind of thing. Maybe there’s someone out there who just needs help around the house rather than to be wined and dined,” she managed, turning on her professional self. She could do this; she was used to burying her feelings. She could be the no-nonsense businesswoman all day long. Only problem—that was the exact opposite of what she wanted to be right now. How did that happen?

“I think I’d pay good money to watch Dash mow someone’s lawn,” Gunnar laughed. The deep, rumbling sound sent a tingle straight to her lady bits, making Felicity squirm in her seat. Fuck, did she want to kiss him right now.

“I’m sure we could get a team photog to make it a photo op if need be,” she quipped. “I’m glad you guys and the team are on board with this. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun, plus a great way to show our commitment to the community, both by way of philanthropy and by supporting a local business.” She felt like she was rambling, repeating everything she had said last week during the meeting. None of this was stuff they didn’t know, but she couldn’t think of anything else to bring up.

“We’ll need to invite the media. I have this reporter, Theo Kappas, who keeps emailing me asking for an interview, and I’ve lost track of how many ways I can tell the guy to get lost,” Cowboy commented.

“You could just talk to him,” Gunnar suggested.