Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
CHELSEA
“Can you say greedy paws just one more time?” Brad says, earning him another whack on the arm. I seem to be doing that a lot lately.
I straighten up, knowing I’m being ridiculous. “You should be thanking me.”
“You know, I kinda like this sass from you,” he chuckles. “It’s very demure.”
“Ugh, please stop speaking.”
He leans closer. “I don’t think it’s me who needs to think about his words. After all, we are apparently fu—” My hand slaps over his mouth before he can repeat himself. Just as I do, Deaton runs past and waves again. We both quickly wave back.
“Let’s just try to forget this ever happened,” I whisper-shout. “I lost my cool for just a second—”
“Because you were jealous, just admit it, and I’ll stop with the jokes.”
I hold my head higher, unwilling to say the words.
He is, in fact, completely correct. Losing my cool with Mindy and blurting out a complete lie about Brad and I is nothing short of insanity, whether I was jealous or not.
My brain obviously malfunctioned and my mouth just took over.
Not something usual for me in the slightest, but I guess anyone can have a slip.
What is more disturbing is that I really am still rattled about the way she was just pawing over him.
Of course, we’re not a thing, nor do I have any claim over Brad just because we’ve known each other so long, and we’ve been besties forever.
But it’s becoming more evident with each passing second that it could inevitably be true that yes, I do have feelings for Brad.
I’m not quite sure how and when it happened.
But the erratic thud of my heart against my chest cavity is telling me it’s true.
I try to muster my answer and my thoughts all at once, but it feels like it’s going to come out in a jumbled mess whatever I do.
So I take a little breather and dare a glance up into those oceanic shiners of his.
It’s not often he’s grinning his head off, but he certainly looks like the cat that got the cream right now.
I even feel the edges of my mouth moving towards a smile. “Fine, maybe for some strange reason, I saw red. But Mindy has the ability of doing that to anyone.”
“Some strange reason?” His eyebrow quirks and I avert my eyes toward the pitch by way of distraction.
“It had to be a pretty good one to tell Mindy, and now her posse, that were fu— well, you know.” He nods over to their gaggle-fest, comprising of a tight circle where Mindy is no doubt giving them all a rundown on my motor mouth.
I would facepalm myself no end if Mindy hadn’t just turned our way, followed by the rest of the group, who are now all staring over at us. Lorelei looks especially unhappy. Yep. That took all of two seconds to spread the word. Kill. Me. Now.
“Fine. I was jealous. Are you happy now?”
He stumbles out a laugh, shaking his head.
“What’s so funny?” I ask.
“You,” he states. “Seems like it’s hard admitting you might have feelings for me.”
Now it’s my turn to sputter, my eyes bulging wide. I guess I started this little charade. “Now wait a minute!”
“No point protesting now, hey look!” His head whips back to the field, where he points down the field to Deaton, dribbling the ball with a clear gap toward the goals.
The excitement of the crowd grows, and I instantly feel guilty for almost missing my child play, possibly about to score a goal. “GO DEATON!” Bradley yells through cupped hands.
I clap my hands over my head as I watch Deaton take the kick toward the goal, the little goalie dives for the ball but misses, and it sails into the back of the net.
I’m elated for him as we all cheer and I watch his teammates run up to him and give him high fives, as well as pats on the back.
Okay, it might be a practice game, but it’s a big deal to the kids when they score.
Deaton laps it up and runs over toward us waving. “Mom, Brad, did you see me?”
“Yes, we did, honey. Well done!” I beam at him, at the same time he jumps up in the air to high-five Brad at the sideline.
“Nice going, Deat. That was awesome,” Brad says as Deaton runs back to join his teammates. “You really wanna give them something to talk about?” Brad adds out of the side of his mouth as the game is about to start again.
Instantly, I’m intrigued. “As in?”
“As in, kiss me.” He curls his finger toward me, taking his eyes off the game for a second. Deaton has his back to us as the game continues.
I stare up at him and it’s like my feet are suddenly made of lead, or just plain frozen to the spot. “K-kiss you?”
“Might seal the deal for the posse over there, and they’ll stop handling me like I’m an object and don’t have feelings.” He casts me a wink for good measure. “It could just be the thing that pushes Mindy over the edge to take her meat hooks out of me.”
I press my lips together, even with the weight of what he’s suggesting. I mean, should I go for it? Would that be irresponsible parenting with my son mere metres away?
Casting my eyes quickly to the field, I can see the whole team is practically in the center, their coach is telling them to spread out and watch the ball. “Do you really think—”
“I really think it could help,” he says, then rolls his lips as he adds; “Just imagine it’s like seven minutes to Heaven.”
I snort a laugh, then I find myself shrugging, it’s like my shoulders are moving all on their own. “I guess for your own safety, it couldn’t hurt. But fair warning, it’s been a few years since seven minutes to Heaven.”
His cheek pulls up in a smile and I turn my body toward him.
“So, just a quick peck?” I clarify, “I mean, I wouldn’t want Deaton to see and—”
Out of nowhere, Brad wraps an arm around me and pulls me to his side.
I gasp from the movement, my heart thudding a million miles an hour.
Is he really going to kiss me at my son’s soccer practice?
He wraps his other arm around me and pulls me into a hug.
“You’re so fucking cute, do you know that?
” he breathes close to my ear, his breath warm on the side of my face.
“And the sexiest mom here if I do say so myself.”
My breath hitches because that can’t possibly be true. Mindy might be a gossiper and a little-miss-know-it-all, but she’s a full-blown babe. There’s no denying it, even by me. “Sexy?” I laugh. “I smell like cake batter.”
“And I’m all the better for it, Mama.”
My insides do a flip, and so does everything else when I feel his finger under my chin, slowly tilting it up so I look at him. “You are?”
“I love that you smell like your bakery.”
I blink up at him as he dips his head, and I feel my heels lifting to reach him, he’s a breath away from meeting my lips when I hear loud voices yell, “LOOK OUT!”
Just as we break apart, we both gasp as the soccer ball comes flying toward us, it narrowly misses Brad’s head as he deflects it away from landing on me.
My hand flies up to my heart, from not only nearly being smacked out by a wayward soccer ball, but from Brad’s close proximity and that musky scent, mixed with a little spice.
It’s so him, and I feel temporarily dizzy and disorientated, that almost-kiss humming over me like it actually happened.
And if it weren’t for Brad holding me up, I might even lose my footing in front of everyone.
Brad swiftly throws the ball back to the coach like nothing happened, and I let out a breath. “Now that was a close call.”