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For the next hour, we practiced a passing play that he had created specifically for Charlie. One that if executed correctly had little to no chance of failing. The best part was it also protected her from getting hit.
Her passes weren’t perfect, but they would do the trick. Given enough time, her spiral would be as tight as most new quarterbacks.’ Once again, she’d proved there wasn’t anything she couldn’t handle.
When Lucas said it was a turn-on watching a woman play football, he had no idea how right he’d been. Charlie Nicholson was getting under my skin, and I was starting not to care one bit that she had.
Man, I was in trouble.
###
Charlie sat crisscross style, staring at the board. Why I had agreed to play Scrabble was beyond me. As it was, she’d cleared her tiles twice already. She straightened and looked at me.
“I’m thinking.”
“Did I say anything?” she asked.
“No, but I’m getting to know you.” I ignored her giggle and brought my attention to my tiles. Finally, I started to place a few on the board. “J,E,Z,E… I’ll use theBthat’s already there…E,L.There.JEZEBEL. That gives me twenty-eight points. Ooh, wait. TheJis a double point, so that’s thirty-three points. Beat that one, rookie.”
“Nice word,” she said, rolling her eyes. She focused on the board, moving her eyes to her letters, then the board, then back to her tiles. Her lips twisted to the left, then right; then they spread into a smile. Charlie grabbed a tile, and the way her face lit up, I knew I was about to lose. “C,H,U,T… I’ll use yourZ,P,A,H.There. That gives me… let’s see… twenty-seven, but then the lastHis a double-letter word, so that’s… thirty-one. Then I used all of my tiles, so that’s an extra fifty points, giving me eighty-one points.” She scribbled on the scorepad before looking up at me.
“That is most certainly not a word,” I argued.
“Yes, it is.”
“How do you pronounce it?” I then said something unintelligible, making her laugh.
“You’d pronounce it, hoots-pah. I’ll use it in a sentence. ‘He has a lot of chutzpah.’ Or ‘She’s full of chutzpah.’”
“Yeah, she’s full of something.”
Charlie burst out laughing. “Look it up if you don’t believe me. It means courage or audacity. It’s Yiddish.”
“You can’t use foreign words.”
“Most words derive from different languages. If we’re getting technical,Jezebelwas a Phoenician princess.”
I shook my head. “You sound like one of those ridiculously smart spelling bee kids. ‘Can I have the country of origin? Are there alternative pronunciations?’” I laughed, but Charlie rolled her lips between her teeth. My eyes instantly narrowed. “Fess up. How many of those bees were you in?”
“Three. But not on the national level.”
“How many did you win?” When she didn’t answer, I decided to offer one. “Let me guess, three?”
“Maybe?”
“Ringer!” I shouted, making her laugh again. Disregarding the board between us, I lurched forward and tackled her. She fell backward, and a sweet giggle flew from her lips. I straddled her waist, and her squirming beneath me almost threw me off course, but I brought my hand to her sides and began tickling her.
She burst into a fit of laughter, tears streaming out the corner of her eyes. Her knee shifted, and if I hadn’t moved at the same time, I would have been crying for other reasons. Except when I did shift, I ended up on top of her.
Charlie’s chest rose and fell, her giggles fell silent, and before I knew it, my lips were on hers.
Chapter 16
Charlie
My brain felt fuzzy, yet I was breathtakingly aware that Collin was in a serious lip-lock with me. All I could do was inhale his fresh masculine scent, which resembled a crisp lake breeze and toasted spices. I wanted to curl up in it. When his lips parted, his warm tongue grazed the seam of my mouth at the same time his hands framed my face, and his fingers slid into my hair.
It was a completely different and heady feeling kissing Collin. What was it about the first kiss with someone? Were the flutters in my belly nerves? Excitement? Was it that all-knowing spark that people talked about? Thinking back to when I’d ever felt that before, I’d have to say it was the day Sally had introduced me to him. Except back then it was definitely nerves… it had to be.
Everything about this moment felt surreal. All I wanted to do was make it the best first kiss he’d ever had—especially since he’d probably had countless first kisses.
