Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Asher
“ S o, between the gala fundraising and the volume of donations you have received in the almost six months since, you have two years of operating expenses covered if you run the football and hockey camps at full capacity.”
I look at Jeremy sitting in the seat next to me. His elbow is on the chair’s armrest, his chin resting on his palm. Eyebrows drawn together, he’s clearly deep in thought. We’re sitting in Emma’s office as she goes over the financials for the sports camps Kids Play is establishing. She specializes in nonprofit law and is the foundation’s outside counsel. Handling financials for the camps seems like something an accountant would do, but when I asked about it, Jeremy’s glare practically melted the skin off my face.
Message received.
I don’t know why I have to be here for this, but when Jeremy texted last night to be at the law firm at three, I didn’t argue. I want to help where I can this offseason, and the thought of stopping by Julie’s office after the meeting to get in her way has had me grinning all day.
It’s been more than two weeks since I’ve laid eyes and…other parts of me on her, and that’s two weeks too long. My dick is probably two minutes from falling off with the number of times I’ve jerked off to the thought of Julie’s leg wrapped around me, her hips pushing forward, grinding into mine while our mouths danced. Fuck, it was hot. I shift in my chair, trying to counteract the blood suddenly rushing south. A hard on right now would be inconvenient.
Not the time, Asher .
I might not have seen Julie in the two weeks since the kiss, but I’ve been texting her every morning. Sometimes she responds and sometimes she doesn’t, but she reads them all and that’s fine with me. Until this morning, I hadn’t asked to see her. I want to see her. I’m dying to see her. To be in her orbit. I’m not stupid—Julie Parker, of the fierce competence and fiery attitude and brilliant mind, is the kind of woman men fall for. The kind of woman men ask to see and take to dinner and a movie and home to their place for a night rolling around in the sheets. The men who see what’s on the surface and think they know all of her.
They don’t. I know that with as much certainty as I know the feel of a football in my hands.
I’m starting to understand what’s beneath her armor. She has so many sides. The successful attorney. The dedicated friend and sister. The girl after the football game with the deer in headlights expression as she stood alone, trying, and failing, to find a familiar face. I want to know all of her. I want all of her to be mine.
I get the sense no one has ever taken enough time with Julie to really get to know her all the way through, which is weird considering she has such close friends and what seems like a tightknit family. What I do know is that Julie is too smart to fall for the expected, which is why I’ve been texting. Letting her see me through tiny snippets of my day, funny stories, the strange and the mundane. I even sent her pictures of my new nieces on the days last week they were born. I want to keep her a little off-balance. I want to take my time.
And I want to woo the fuck out of her.
“Okay, so how much additional funding do we need if we add girls’ lacrosse and volleyball in year one? Do we have the funds to run all four camps the first year? We can always worry about year two and beyond later.”
Jeremy’s response to Emma has me tuning back in to the conversation.
Emma gives him an exasperated look that has me thinking this isn’t the first time he has suggested a big change.
“That wasn’t the plan, Jeremy. Ten months ago, you came to me and said you wanted to fundraise for hockey and football camps, so I gave you a plan for that. We executed the plan for that. I have no idea how much it would cost to run lacrosse or volleyball camps because you didn’t ask me to run those numbers . But you know what I do know? Exactly how much it costs to run your football and hockey camps for two years. So do that and stop trying to change the plan.”
I stare at Emma, fascinated that this is the same woman who didn’t say a single word to me the first time we met and turns bright red and stammers every time Jeremy talks to her in a social setting.
“We can’t even give it a try?” Jeremy looks like someone kicked his puppy, and I wonder what his deal is. Two camps seem like a lot to take on when the foundation hasn’t done anything like this before. Why would he want to add two more?
Emma closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, as if willing herself to be patient. She opens her eyes and talks to him like he’s a child refusing to brush his teeth.
“Jeremy. I know these camps mean a lot to you. I know you want to go big. But you hired me to help you be successful . You hired me to make this work and I’m telling you, adding two additional sports on top of the two we planned for is going to overextend the foundation, and you’ll run the very real risk of all four camps failing. You know hockey. Asher knows football and is here to help all winter. Start with those two and I promise, I can help you grow.”
Jeremy blows out a breath and leans forward, elbows on his knees. “Fine. We’ll do it your way Ems. I don’t like it, but I’ll do it.”
Emma’s smile is both smug and satisfied. “Good. Glad you see things my way. Now, you both know what you need to do, and I have another client coming in half an hour so it’s time for you to go.” She stands, straightening her skirt and walking around her desk.
Jeremy practically shoves me out of the way to get to her. He tosses an arm around her shoulders and as they walk toward her office door I hear him murmur, “I love when you talk lawyer to me.”
I cough to cover a laugh when I see Emma duck out from under Jeremy’s arm, her face bright red and her eyes a little wild; she’s now a far cry from the poised, competent attorney who just handled the six-foot three former hockey star like she deals with stubborn athletes every day of the week.
Standing in the hallway outside Emma’s office after she practically shoved us out the door and slammed it shut before we had even crossed the threshold, I glance up and down the hall, wondering which closed door is Julie’s.
“It’s the one at the end of the hall.” I turn as Jeremy gestures to the last door on the right .
“What is?”
Jeremy smirks at me. “I’m not stupid. You were wondering which door belongs to a certain female Parker twin.”
I shrug. “Thought I would go see if she wanted to have lunch.” She may have said no when we were texting, but I’m willing to bet that was a knee-jerk reaction. Besides, I do my best work in person.
“It’s a little late for lunch, buddy.”
“Coffee then. Or dessert. Whatever she wants.”
Jeremy laughs. “Damn, you’ve got it bad. Good luck, dude. In all the years I’ve known Julie, I’ve never seen her date anyone. Not seriously anyway. I think she scares them all away.”
It makes me happier than I have any right to be that Julie doesn’t date, so I let the “scares them all away” comment go even though I want to tell him that’s not what she’s doing. She pushes them away before they get the chance to see her. She’s afraid if they do see her, they’ll walk away themselves.
“I’m not anyone, and I don’t scare easily. You’re one to talk about having it bad. ‘I love when you talk lawyer to me’? How long have you had a thing for Emma?”
“Too fucking long,” he mumbles under his breath. “But I fucked it up,” he says, staring at her door. “You know what? I just remembered something I forgot to tell her. You okay to leave on your own?”
I smile at him because he’s ass over tits for the freckled, redheaded conundrum who just unceremoniously kicked us out of her office. “Yeah man, I’m good.”
He turns and knocks on the door, and I head straight for Julie’s office.
I knock twice and wait, but there’s no answer. I knock again, disappointed I missed her and already thinking about what I can do later to get under her skin. I wonder if Ben will give me her address so I can send her something ridiculous.
I’m just about to head out when I hear what sounds like a faint gasp from inside the office. I knock again.
“Hey Blondie, you in there?”
I hear the gasp again, louder this time, and then another one.
“Julie?”
No answer. The gasp again.
Dread pools in my stomach. Instincts honed from years of reading defenses scream that something isn’t right.
Mind made up, I call “Blondie, I’m coming in,” and push open the door.