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“Call me crazy, but I just sense something between you two.” He twirls a necklace around his finger, almost hitting me in the face with it before he stops. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you have a little thing for Miss Klein.”
Fuck. Could I really have been that transparent?“I mean, I’ve definitely enjoyed getting to know her so far.”
“But...”
“But what? She’s working for the team.”
“So?”
I freeze. “So?”
He leans in closer and lowers his voice even more. “I’m not one for sneaking around, but if something’s there, I say go for it. Don’t ask for permission. Make the decision, and if something happens, just apologize later.” Leaning back, he winks at me.
Even though in my mind I had already decided on that, it’s nice to know that someone else would do the same thing in my shoes. “Thanks, man.”
“No problem. Just be careful. We do have a lot of attention on us right now, and even more is coming. But women like that? They don’t come around that often. I should know—I snagged one myself and married her the second I could.”
With a pat on my shoulder, he walks back to where Penelope is starting to gather the players before we go meet the kids. I reach down and grab a red-haired wig from the basket and fix it securely on my head.
“All right, guys. Just go in there, and be yourselves. Have fun, even though seeing some of these kids and what they’re going through may not be very fun. But they’re really excited for this, and I know they’re going to appreciate it.”
My teammates start to file out of the room, and I hang back nonchalantly so I can have a moment alone with her. Once the last guy leaves, I make my move.
She looks at me and instantly tries to hide her smile. “Oh boy, Mr. Taylor. You look like a modern day Merida... you know, if she took steroids and threw a football for a living.”
I brush an errant curl from my face. “I always liked Merida, though. She was badass and didn’t need a man to validate her existence. I think a strong, independent woman is sexy, if you haven’t caught on to that by now.”
She squints, dropping her eyes up and down my body. “You watch Disney movies?”
“Yeah, I do. My cousin’s kids happen to have quite the collection, and whenever I go home to visit, her daughter always asks me to watch a few with her.”
Her face softens as she locks eyes with me. “That’s really sweet.”
“What can I say? I guess I’m just a sweet guy.”
“Sweet and dirty,” she teases. “You haven’t told me a joke today yet. Are you feeling all right?”
“Do youwantme to tell you a dirty joke, Penelope? Could it be that you’re actually starting to enjoy our little interactions?”
She twists so I can’t see her face, but I hear her response that’s just above a whisper. “Maybe...”
“Then we should interact more, don’t you think?”
Sighing, she spins around to face me again, looking far more irritated than she did just a few seconds ago. “Why didn’t you ever text me back?”
“What?”
“When I texted you about the flowers and the massage you left me in Vegas... you never texted me back.”
“I never got a text from you.” Lifting the bottom of the dress up, I reach down to pull my phone from my pocket, open the screen, and scroll through my messages at the speed of light. “No. Nothing is here.” I may have programmed her phone number into my phone as soon as I left our first meeting. It was on her business card, so I figured that was okay. And even though I wanted to reach out a hundred times, I also wanted her to make the first move, so I kept my thoughts to myself.
“Are you sure?”
“If you texted me, Penelope, I would have fucking replied.”
“Oh. Well, then, something must have happened.”
“Maybe you have my number wrong, because believe me, it’s all I can do to wait patiently for you to meet me halfway here.”
