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“Coach?”
“Practice dismissed.” I waved about thirty confused faces away and they jogged off the field disorganized and probably still panting over the girls circling the track.
“I meant later.” She paused watching the fastest of the girls finish up.
“Well, I’m not good at waiting.” I grinned urging her toward the golf cart and waited for her to get in.
“I can see that.” Kiara finally chuckled and my chest felt like a weight had lifted greatly off me.
This woman made me feel all kinds of unexpected things. “I never did get to have breakfast with you, so how about we try that tonight at the diner?”
“Can you promise no flying balls or freshman?”
Nodding, “I can manage that.”
“Then I will meet you there at six.” Kiara imparted as I pulled up to the back entrance of the school. I watched her take slow steps inside the building and I slammed my head down on the steering wheel groaning. Nothing was ever easy for me.
10
Kiara
The last thing I wanted to do was rehash the past decade of my life. That was the reason I went out on Saturday night. It was the reason I gave in to a reckless, hot, one night stand with no regrets–except for the whole running into each other thing. Kelsey was going to love hearing about this and I’d tell her if I could trust her to not run off and tell Dijah or the Aunts.
Yet here I was sitting in the diner early, sipping on a coffee milkshake. David Easton made me crazy.
He strolled into the diner right on time. Actually, three minutes early by my watch, but who was counting. I got to observe him talking to the hostess giving her a kind smile that melted my underwear and pooled right off my body when he directed that attention to me. He remained a force to be reckoned with and I should not have been having dinner with him. I made rules about this and not because I secretly believed that they should be broken either. Those weren’t the kind of risks I enjoyed taking. I could count on two fingers the number of sexual encounters I had with guys.
Devereaux and David.
Encounter number two slid into the booth opposite me and tucked his messenger bag onto the seat next to him.
“Hey, you okay?” He asked moving his hands over the table to grasp mine in his.
“I’m good. Thanks.” Hello, awkward meet your friend nerves and tongue tied.
“I feel like I need to apologize again for what happened on the field. I got blindsided into coaching at the last minute when Calloway had a meltdown in the locker room.”
“So that explains your presence on the field.”
“Kind of. Payne asked me to step in and I didn’t think he was giving me an option.” That sounded like our principal for sure and part of me felt bad for David.
“I know Collin didn’t mean it, he’s a good kid. Most of them in athletics know about my prosthetic. My girls get a little protective. It’s sweet.”
“Hellcats more like it.” David squeezed my hand before letting go to pick up the menu. I liked looking at his hands. Strong. Capable. I could have trusted him with the knowledge on Saturday and good old regret reared her ugly little face reminding me of that.
“Speaking of…” I started the conversation wincing. “I don’t typically do Saturdays.”
His face remained neutral and I wanted to dig in and figure out what he was thinking. So far he’d been gentlemanly, polite, and professional as I would have expected inside the brick and mortar confines of the school. Out here, in the wild, under the yellowed florescent lighting of the diner with chipped Formica tables and waitresses with raspy smoker voices anything was possible. David took a sip of his ice water before responding.
“You don’t go to bars with friends to drink, dance, have fun?” There was the furrowed brow I’d been expecting.
An involuntary chuckle escaped as I explained, “I don’t do one night stands.”
“Ah, so it’s fun you’re opposed to.” He teased me, but there was an edge to it. David struck me as someone who would fight fair right up until the end even if it made him hold back.
“Tell me more about you and I’ll trade.” It was the only kind of compromise I could conjure in the moment. He shifted in the seat and when he leaned back, I got a glimpse of the tight dress shirt stretching over his chest. If he wasn’t careful, his cute vest might pop buttons one by one. It wouldn’t negate the fact that he manually ripped my pants, because it wasn’t my hands reaching for his chest tugging them apart, but it sounded fun.
“We sort of did twenty questions already, but I have a few new ones I’d like to ask if that’s permissible.”
