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"Hey, tell me what’s going on. You seem nervous."
She stared back at him, but since he wasn’t wrong, she admitted at least half of it. "Yeah well, maybe you intimidate me. It’s not everyday a hot shot pro athlete shows up on my doorstep."
He contemplated her claim for a long moment, then shook his head. "Nah, that’s not it. You’re not scared of any man. That’s why Lori likes you so much."
He had no idea how utterly wrong he was. Every word. He hadn’t described her, he’d described the woman she so desperately wanted to be—and left her speechless in the process.
"What’s that?" Landon asked, pointing at the card from Kyle still in her hand.
"Nothing," she answered around a sigh.
She finished making her way to the kitchen where she dropped the card on the counter, then turned on the stove for the tea kettle. Landon, right behind her, snatched the envelope up and looked inside.
"Oh by all means, go ahead," she said, pulling two mugs from the cabinet. "You want some tea?"
He didn’t look up from his reading, but asked, "Got anything stronger?"
Katie popped the cork on a bottle of red wine, thought about it for two seconds, then turned off the kettle and filled both cups with the pinot noir.
"So what’s up with this?" he asked. He waved the card, then discarded it for the mug of wine she held out to him.
She did her best to keep her voice casual. "I told you about how I was engaged to that guy and how I moved here to get away from him. He’s apparently still carrying the torch or whatever."
A bit of an under exaggeration, but any time she had with Landon didn’t need to be ruined with stories of her crazy ex.
"Uhhh, that’s not exactly what you told me," he said. "Any chance of getting back with him?"
Katie nearly choked on her wine. "No. Never ever. One hundred million percent, not going to happen."
"Why’d you give him your address then?"
"I didn’t. He must have gotten it from one of our mutual friends."
Or more likely, her very own mother, but that was another bushel of drama she wasn’t going to dump out right now. Especially not when the wine was giving her nice buzz in her head and Landon Ryan standing in her kitchen was giving her a nice buzz somewhere much lower. Hell, in for a dime, in for a dollar at this point right? What harm would it do to sleep with him again?
"What’s he apologizing for?" Landon asked, jolting her back to talking about,ugh, Kyle.
Katie shrugged. "Nothing. Everything. Who knows? It doesn’t matter anyway. Want some more wine?"
She gulped down the rest of her own mug and refilled it, then offered the bottle to him. He held his mug out for her to top off, but his eyes stayed on her face as if he knew there was a lot more to the story. Time to redirect.
"Soooo, did you catch that home run by Hendrix in the second? First one of the game…" Katie teased, eying him coyly over the rim of her mug.
"Ah, ok, that’s how we’re playing?" Landon asked. He put his wine on the counter, then came over and did the same with hers, dropping a kiss on the tip of her nose in the process. "If you’ll recall, sweetheart, we agreed that one run in the first inning wouldn’t be much of an impact, so naturally I abandoned that plan," he explained.
Katie's dimple popped up, but she played along, wrapping her arms around his waist. "I wouldn’t say we everagreedon that, buuuut, if you’ll recall, we talked about a grand slam, that’s four whole runs, if you didn’t know."
He tucked a wayward strand of hair behind her ear. "Doesn’t my three in the seventh count for something?"
"Hmmm..."
While Katie pretended to be thinking, Landon cupped her chin and ran his thumb across her lower lip.
"You don’t let me off the hook for anything do you?" he murmured.
He grazed her nose with his making it impossible to think of a witty response, but he wasn’t looking for one anyway. His mouth angled down to meet hers, testing the waters before easing his tongue into the mix. When there was no question she was on board and kissing him back, he lifted her up and carried her to the bed.
chapter 15
