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Nick rises from his chair and walks over to mine, stopping only when his bare feet are inches from the toes of my sensible two-inch pumps.
He leans forward and places one hand on the back of my chair and the other on the edge of the seat. “If I tell you you’re overreacting, are you going to attack me?”
Chapter Eleven
Nick
Lainey stops breathing. Her eyes are wide and her chest is about a centimeter from mine. This is the closest I’ve been to her since the laundromat. To this day, whenever I get a whiff of detergent, I think of her and my dick gets hard.
She wets her lips. “Where’s Cassidy?”
“Sleeping.” I could kiss her so easily. Her lush lips are barely a breath away, but she’s like a bird—easily startled, hard to grasp. She said at the bar that it’s been years since she had a man. It’s been a while since I’ve been with a woman.
Most people probably find that hard to believe. My teammates think I’m banging in secret, but the sad truth is that sex with women who were only in it for the fame and glory or money is boring and now that I have a Super Bowl under my belt, I want more out of life than just football. I want to have it all, and my definition of all includes Lainey and her daughter. I was lost the first time I saw her at Stacks. Part of it is because she’s so fucking gorgeous. If there’s a hall of fame for bodies somewhere, Lainey’s should be there, cast in bronze, forever immortalized. Wide hips, nipped-in waist, generous rack, thick thighs. She deserves to be worshipped—by my hands, my mouth, my body.
But it’s more than that. It’s her spirit and how she never let her circumstances take her under. No matter how many times she stumbled on the gravel, she picked herself up and moved on.
“Lainey, I—”
“I-I have to go to the bathroom.” She darts off and disappears down the hall before I can recover.
“Damn.” Like I said, she’s going to be hard to catch, especially since I don’t want to damage any of part of her in the process.
Lainey reappears in the living room with Cassidy’s bag of toys and playthings and brushes by me without even one comment. She heads into the guest room where Cassidy is sleeping and hauls the kid into her arms. Cass murmurs sleepily and then tucks her little face into the crook of her mom’s neck.
“I have to go.”
I stare at Cass’s head with a mixture of love and frustration. “I’m going to let you run for now, but get it out of your system because you won’t always get to hide behind your daughter.”
“Where are Lainey and Cass?” Charlotte asks when she gets home to our lonely condo.
“I scared her off,” I admit, not bothering to get up from the sofa where I’ve been planted for the last twenty minutes watching ESPN updates from around the league.
“Oh, Nick,” Charlotte laments. She drops her purse and fifty-pound planner on the table, kicks off her shoes, and joins me in front of the television. Leaning forward, she plucks my beer from the coffee table and takes a swig without even asking. I guess she needs it to deal with me. “I went through all this trouble to get you two together and you ran her off already? What happened?”
I snag the booze back and drink all but the last couple of swallows before handing it back to her. “Just me doing nickthings.”
“Did you just quote your social media hashtag at me?” Charlie says in the middle of tipping the bottle toward her face. I gently give the bottom a push so she has something to do with her mouth other than ask me questions.
“No. They use my last name on social media—#NickJacksonThings—but nice of you to keep up.” I push myself off the cushion and wander into the kitchen to grab another beer. “What do you want to order tonight?” I wave the take-out menus.
“Italian, and bring me another beer. Or better yet, a bottle of red wine.”
“The whole bottle?” I tease and pull a bottle of cab from the wine rack.
“I figure I’ll need it so I don’t end up massacring you with the bottle.”
“Usually I get girls drunk so I’m more attractive.” I open the bottle, pour a large glass, and deliver the wine to Charlie before she attacks me. “But now I’m doing it so I can escape the night without being bashed in the head.”
She rolls her eyes before pointing to the dish she wants. I call in the order, but as soon as I’m off, Charlie pins me with an exasperated look. “Why don’t you just ask Lainey out on a proper date?”
“Because she’s scared and I don’t want her to run away again.”
