AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Chase has a personality,” I say. “It’s just buried under fifty pounds of aggression.”
Everyone laughs but Chase. We’re always riding him for being so grumpy all the time—it’s like everything in existence annoys him—but he couldn’t care less.
Movement on the patio drags my attention away as Shayna gets up from the table. My eyes track her as she enters the restaurant. She must be heading to the restroom because she beelines it to the back and disappears down the hallway.
“I gotta hit the head.” I push my chair back and stand.
Miles looks over his shoulder again and turns to me as I’m walking away. “Lee…”
I ignore him and keep walking until I’m standing outside the women’s washroom. It takes everything in me not to go in.
A couple minutes later, she steps out into the hall.
“Shayna.”
She startles and whips around with her hand on her chest to face me where I stand at the end of the hallway. “Lee? What are you doing here?”
“Having dinner with some of the guys.” I step out of the darkness. “What are you doing?”
She fidgets with the hem of her cami and shuffles her feet a few times. Her chin tips up slightly and her jaw takes a hard edge. “I’m here on a date. Which I think, for some reason, you already know.”
I shrug and take another step toward her. “Yeah, I saw.”
We stare at each other for a moment. She’s daring me to say something when we both know I have no right. But the words are on the tip of my tongue. I want to tear that asshole she’s sitting with limb from limb for even breathing the same air as her, for making her laugh, for getting to be the one she’s here with tonight.
“Is it serious?”
Shayna’s eyes narrow. “Not that it’s any of your business, but it’s our first date.”
Her admittance gives me a small amount of relief.
When her gaze flicks to my sling, I’m reminded that we haven’t seen each other since my injury.
“How’s your shoulder?” There’s real concern in her tone. What I don’t know is whether it’s because she’s paid to be concerned or whether she’s concerned because it’s me.
“Brutal. Can’t do a fucking thing with this sling on.”
She frowns. “You’ll get it off soon. Then you can start working to get back on the field.”
“Yeah, well, that feels like a really long time right about now.”
Her hand reaches out, but she retracts it before she touches me. “The entire medical team is going to do everything in our power to help you get back to the level of performance you were at before the injury. Just try to take this time to let your body heal.”
Jesus, this is not the conversation I want to be having with her right now.
“I want to talk about the kiss,” I blurt.
I’ve wanted to talk about the kiss every day since it happened, but Shayna made it pretty clear that she didn’t.
Jesus, getting my lips back on hers again was a special sort of torture. If I thought for a minute that it would sate my need and help me to stop thinking about her, it did the exact opposite. It was even better than I remembered. Everything about Shayna is a fucking turn-on to me—from the way she looks, to the way she smells, the way she tastes, the way she moves.
“We’re not talking about that.” She goes to spin around to leave, but I snag her wrist with my good hand.
“It happened for a reason.”
She whips back around, face red with irritation. “It shouldn’t have happened. And it won’t happen again.”
Fuck. Fuck!
