Chapter 24 #2
“Why don’t I take the kids to the vending machines and get them a snack,” Vero said, still a little breathless, “while you… you know… do whatever it is a grown, single woman might do when presented with a truly, truly spectacular research opportunity.” She leaned close to my ear as she plucked Zach away from me.
“I want to hear all of it. Every. Single. Detail.”
“I’m still here,” Nick said.
“Right. We’ll wait for you outside.” Vero paraded my children out the door. The locker room fell abruptly silent in their wake.
“I am so sorry,” I said, turning my back to give him a moment of privacy only to catch his reflection in the full-length mirror on the opposite wall.
His eyes found mine in the mirror as he secured his towel, and I dropped my gaze, my cheeks catching fire.
“I know the kids shouldn’t be here,” I said to my bare feet.
“Steven was supposed to have them, but something came up and he left them with my parents, and then my dad got a kidney stone and Mom called Georgia to watch them, but she’s teaching a class at ten and—”
“Hey.” He touched my shoulder, turning me gently around to face him, bringing me distractingly close to parts of him that made it increasingly difficult to think.
“I know about the kids. Georgia called me this morning from your parents’ house and asked if it would be okay to bring them. I told her it was fine.”
I blinked up at him in surprise. “You did?”
“It was either that or let you leave.” Nick’s hair was darker, longer when it was wet. The damp waves fell over his warm, mahogany eyes, making them far too hard to look away from.
“I should probably go.” I stumbled backward into a locker. The tantalizing smell of his bodywash wasn’t helping my sense of direction. Or my traitorous hormones. “You’ve got class in a few minutes and you aren’t dressed… like, at all.”
The corner of his mouth twitched with amusement as he snapped open a locker.
He pulled a dark blue dress shirt off the hanger inside and slipped it over his shoulders, leaving it open over his towel.
“I think you mean we’ve got class,” he said as he buttoned the sleeves.
“I expect you to be there on time, shoes on and everything.”
“I don’t have anyone to watch the kids,” I pointed out. “It wouldn’t be fair to ask Vero to miss class to babysit for me.”
His locker clanked shut. His eyes narrowed with purpose as he came to stand in front of me.
“You’re right. You shouldn’t have to ask Vero, or your parents, or your sister, for that matter.
What’s not fair, Finn, is your ex shirking his responsibilities and dumping them back on you.
They’re his kids, too. You should be able to count on him, and it’s not fair to you that you can’t. ”
A knot formed in my throat. “I’ll be sure to remind him of that if he ever decides to answer his phone. Meanwhile, I should probably take the kids home.”
Nick held up a hand, a muscle working in his jaw. “Just… wait here.”
He opened his locker and withdrew his cell phone. He picked a number from his contact list and held the phone out in front of him, putting it on speaker. “Hey, Roddy.”
“Go ’head, Nick.”
“I’ve got a 10–41 at the gym. Actually, make that two. Think you and Ty can help me out for a few hours with a couple of unattended minors?”
“Copy that.”
“And swing by the mess hall for some juice boxes on your way.”
“Roger.”
Nick tossed his phone on the bench. “See? Problem solved.”
“Thank you,” I said as he started to button his shirt, mourning the loss of the view and at the same time relieved he had covered it.
His intoxicating man-smells were scrambling my brain, and after his heroic display on the phone just now, I couldn’t be trusted to stick to my resolutions when all he was wearing was a dress shirt and a towel. “You really didn’t have to do that.”
“I freely admit, my motives weren’t entirely selfless.” He leaned back against the bay of lockers across from me, his smile kicking up on one side as he arched a brow. “So what was that Vero was saying about research?”
I felt every ounce of blood turn hot in my body. “It’s nothing. I’m just… having some trouble with a scene.”
“What kind of trouble?” His grin was a little rakish, as if he knew.
This was the part where the heroine was supposed to be bold.
Where she was supposed to admit how hard she was falling for him.
How much she wanted him. That she was tired of running.
She was supposed to be fearless and take his hard, wet body to the ground and get a sand-rash in her nether regions while the storm raged around them.
“I should probably go,” I croaked, backing out of the locker room.
The knot in his towel looked as precarious as my willpower.
“I should probably find Roddy. And Ty. And my shoes. And Georgia will probably make me do push-ups if I’m late.
I’ll see you after class.” I turned and ran through the door, fleeing into the hall where Vero and the kids were waiting for me.