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“Thanks, Ty.” Dean nodded at my brother. Stepping onto the porch, he took my hand.
“Okay, I’m confused. Ty, why is he thanking you?” Turning to where my brother had been, I found nothing but empty space. The sneak had disappeared back into the house. What were they up to?
“So, why were you thanking my brother? And why are you here?” Nerves mixed with a touch of pissed-off made my tone sharper than it should have been, all things considered. Plus, I wanted to be the one to go to him first and explain things.
“I’m here to see you. I thanked him for not punching me in the face after I explained how I felt about his sister.” Dean took my other hand in his, bringing both up to rest on his chest.
“Before you say anything, I wanted to tell you how much being with you these past few days has meant to me. And to make a confession.”
“Wait, I should go first.”
He kissed me soft and quick, then started speaking again. “I feel like we’ve had this conversation before. The sexy version. But for now, I’d like to go first, please?”
Nodding, I mimed zipping my lips closed.
He tossed his head back and laughed. Lord, I loved that sound.
“Okay, I knew who you were pretty quickly once we spent some time together. Ty has a picture of you and your family in his locker. Plus, you have the same smiles. But I got the impression you didn’t want to let me know who you were, for obvious reasons, right? Worried how whatever was going on between us would affect our working relationship.”
I mumbled my answer without opening my mouth, then nodded.
That earned me a grin with dimples showing.
“Now…since neither one of us acknowledged how we were connected by your brother—which you have to admit that in a kind of perfect, low stress way—it allowed us to get to know each other without any weirdness.”
I waggled my eyebrows, which was hard to do outside in almost freezing temps.
“Stop making me laugh. I’m attempting to be serious here, Nori.”
One nod. No laugh-inducing hijinks. But I did begin feeling the stirrings of hope.
“Okay, so back to the elephant in the room. Your brother, my pitcher slash employee, could have been a real obstacle if we had met any other way. But we had almost three whole days to ourselves, playing silly games, finding out what made the other tick, and the crazy hot sex was, of course, the icing on the cake.”
I nodded vigorously, then had to stop because it was making me dizzy.
“So, what I’m trying to say is I’m not ready to end what we found stranded in my cabin. And I was planning on telling you that on the drive to get your car, but then I changed my mind. No, don’t pull back. I didn’t change my mind about you, just where I wanted to tell you. And telling you that I love you in the cab of my truck after everything didn’t feel like the right place. And then Tyler showed up and ruined my game plan and—”
“Wait!” I may have shouted a little too loud.
“What?”
“Why do men always bury the lead?” I threw up my hands, then put them on either side of his handsome face. I couldn’t believe this was happening.
“Bury the lead? What are you talking about…oh, you mean the L-word.”
“Yes. Tell me again.”
“Man, you’re bossy.”
“You like it,” I said.
Dean gave me a sexy smile, tugging me in closer. “You know I do. I love you, Nori.”
“And I love you. As crazy as it seems, I have fallen in love with my brother’s coach and I’m not one bit sorry about it. He’ll just have to get used to sharing you, although I’m the only one you get to kiss.”
“Um, yeah, thanks for putting that picture in my head.” He tickled my ribs. “I’m going to have to come up with something equally gross to make things even.”
“Stop. Stop tickling!” Gasping for breath, I placed my almost frozen fingers under his shirts, trying to get him to stop. “I promise I’ll never, ever-ever say anything like it again. Just, please stop tickling me.”
