Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Dane
I push a button on the screen of the treadmill in the team training room, increasing the speed. Sweat rolls down my chest. When I swipe the back of my hand over my forehead, droplets of sweat go flying. I kick the speed up as high as I can manage for the next three minutes.
HIIT training is good for endurance, and it also helps calm my mind when I’m restless.
I can’t stop thinking about Josie. Though I can’t pinpoint exactly when it happened, I’ve gotten used to having her around. More than used to it, actually.
I like having her around. That’s something I’ve never experienced. Usually, once I’ve spent the night with a woman, there’s nothing more to talk about. No reason to see her.
Josie is funny, though. Interesting. Smart. My physical attraction to her started after I got to know her better. That’s another first.
My so-called date with Abigail Matthews is just a few days away. We’re meeting up for lunch on the day of a game in Chicago. The only bright side is that I haven’t forgotten Josie’s offer to “coach” me on a suitable date.
I’m going to have some fun with that.
“What’s this about?” Josie asks me after the game that night. “Am I dressed up enough?”
I just showered and dressed in a dark suit with a white dress shirt and a blue tie. I pretend to think about her question, studying her from head to toe.
When I texted her earlier and told her to dress up for our after-game plans tonight, she took me seriously. She’s wearing a red dress cut to show off her cleavage perfectly. It falls just past her knees, so I take in her shapely calves before I get to her nude low-cut heels. Her black wrap covers her arms and all I can think about is tugging on it and throwing it aside.
Hopefully later.
“You’re dressed perfectly,” I say, offering her my arm.
She wrinkles her nose in confusion. “You didn’t answer my first question.”
“I’ll tell you in just a minute.”
I tilt my head in the direction of the exit, and we walk toward it.
“This better not be about my job,” she says in a low tone that carries a note of panic. “Please tell me you aren’t trying to get me a different job. Or to start my own company. I’m not ready for that.”
A few people have glanced at us, and I don’t want to say anything about our plans with anyone else in earshot, so I just shrug.
“You’d be great at it,” I say.
“Where are we going?” she demands, stopping. “If I’m walking into some business pitch session, a) I’m going to put hair remover on your head while you’re sleeping tonight, and b) I need to prepare myself. Which I literally cannot do if I haven’t had any notice.”
“It’s nothing like that.”
She gives me a skeptical look. “I’m not a charity case. If I wanted your help starting a business, I’d ask for it.”
Now I’m getting irritated. There’s a car waiting outside and I’m going to tell her where we’re going as soon as I know no one can hear us talking.
“For fuck’s sake, Josie. I just played twenty-five minutes and I’m starving. Can we go?”
She keeps walking, her eyes narrowed slightly as she looks up at me.
“Good game, by the way,” she says.
“Thanks.”
We won 3–1. I got a pregame boost when I heard the news that Sam Styles broke his ankle when he took a bad fall shooting hoops with teammates.
That bastard deserves two broken ankles and lifelong impotence. He and my ex are equally responsible for what went down between the two of them, but he’s the only one whose ass I can beat.
As soon as we reach the end of the hallway and walk through the double doors toward the player exit, I tell Josie what’s going on.
“We’re going on a practice date.”
“A practice date?”
“Yep. You told Tamara from PR that you’d coach me before my lunch with what’s her name from TikTok.”
“Abigail,” she says wryly. “Her name is Abigail.”
Damn, she looks hot in that dress. Her eye makeup is slightly darker than usual and she’s holding her chin just a little higher. I hope it’s because that dress makes her feel confident. She sure as fuck should feel that way.
“You ready for this, Coach?” I ask her with a grin.
She laughs lightly. “You’re telling me I have one night to make you into a perfect gentleman?”
“Something like that.”
Her teeth sink into her lower lip as she gives me a sexy smile. An invisible current passes between us. She makes me want to be anything but a perfect gentleman, but I also want her to know she’s special. Not just another random lay.
“Okay, first tip,” she says. “Start out the date with a sincere compliment.”
“You take my breath away in that dress.”
I didn’t even have to consider what to say. There are a hundred compliments on the tip of my tongue. And the shine in her eyes right now makes me want to say all of them.
“Thank you,” she says, slightly breathless.
Breathless is good. Breathless is very, very good.
I offer her my arm again. “We have a reservation. Are you ready to go?”
She nods and takes my arm. Operation Practice Date is underway.
“Movies were our thing,” Josie says a couple of hours later. “And SNL . She introduced me to SNL .”
We finished our steaks and sides an hour ago, but we’re still sitting in a downtown Nashville steak house, a curtain hiding our private booth from onlookers. It’s going on one a.m., but as Josie tells me about her mom, I don’t feel remotely tired.
“What were some of her favorite skits?” I ask.
“She loved Chris Farley and Mike Myers. I think ‘Van Down by the River’ was her all-time favorite.”
“Did you guys watch movies at home or at the theater?”
“Usually at home. But if there was a big movie coming out, we’d go see it on Friday night. Always with a huge bucket of popcorn and Cherry Cokes.”
“My mom always loved movie popcorn, too,” I say, smiling as I think about her.
“Is she gone? If you don’t mind me asking?”
“You can ask me anything. She’s still around. My parents live in Naples, Florida. Dad’s a financial planner and Mom does interior design, but just for fun.”
“Isn’t it funny how even as an adult, you see people with their moms and just long for your own? I’d give anything to make cookies with her or go for a walk with her. To hear her voice again and see her smile...it would be everything to me.”
She clears her throat and looks away. I reach across the table and take her hand gently in mine.
“Just checking in,” our server says, opening the curtain slightly. “Anything you guys need?”
“No, I think we’re good,” I say.
“Okay, great.”
We had drinks and dinner, split a piece of raspberry cheesecake and I already paid the bill. If the magic of our time together will be over when we leave this curtained booth, though, I don’t want to go.
Josie stifles a yawn and smiles sheepishly.
“I guess we should go,” I say.
“Yeah, we have to get up at four thirty.”
She gets her wrap and bag and slides out of the booth, and I follow. I fight my urge to cup her cheek and kiss her. This is the moment. If I’d asked her on a real date, I’d kiss her here and take her back to the hotel, where we’d do a lot more than kiss until it’s time to leave for our flight.
This night has been very real to me, but I don’t know if she’s ready for more yet.
“You did great,” she says over her shoulder as she moves the curtain aside.
“We’re not done yet.”
I wink at her and she smiles. It’s scary how hooked I am on that smile. And her laugh creates an actual, physical warmth in my chest.
What the hell is happening to me? Is it just that I haven’t had sex in what feels like a lifetime?
Our hotel is close to the restaurant. The driver drops us off at the front door and I put my hand on Josie’s lower back as we walk inside.
“I had fun tonight,” I say.
“Me too.”
We have to share the elevator with a man in a rumpled suit, so I don’t get her alone again until we’re walking to our room. When we get there, we face each other.
“So,” she says softly.
“So.”
“This is where, if you like her and want to go out again, you kiss her.”
“How do I know if she likes me back?”
She holds my gaze, opening her mouth and then closing it before she finally speaks. “You’ll know.”
“I guess if she didn’t like me, she’d try to rush inside,” I say softly. “She wouldn’t look at me like she’s waiting for something.”
Josie swallows, breathing a little faster now. “Exactly.”
I reach up and cup her cheek. Her skin is soft and warm. She leans into my touch and her eyes flutter closed.
“Dane...”
“Josie.”
She opens her eyes again and says, “We can’t.”
“No?”
She shakes her head and I deflate. I won’t ask her to explain or try to change her mind, because I only want her if she wants me just as much.
I take out the key card and open the door, Josie going straight into the bathroom. She emerges ten minutes later in boxers and a T-shirt, her makeup off.
“Good night,” she says stiffly, climbing under the covers.
“Night.”
She turns her back to me, the last of tonight’s magic disappearing.