Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
W hen Jace peeked out the window of the guesthouse to see what the neighbor’s dog was barking at, he didn’t expect to see Hallie climbing over the fence. He stepped outside to find out what the hell she was doing, but all his brain cells evaporated at the sight that greeted him.
Whatever she was wearing was twisted up around her torso, leaving her lower half covered by nothing but a pair of skimpy panties that had ridden up her ass cheeks and were now just a piece of lacy floss.
All those images he’d tried so hard to erase flooded back.
He knew the feel of those perfectly plumped curves. His hands had stroked them and cradled them and gripped them tightly as he drove deep inside her. At one point, his fingers had even dipped into the shadowy crease where that sexy piece of lace rode.
He had to clench his hands into fists and squeeze his eyes shut to keep from racing over and doing it all over again.
“Well, don’t just stand there, Jace Carson!” Hallie’s voice infiltrated his concentration. “Help me get my dress unstuck.”
He slowly opened his eyes, hoping the view had changed. It hadn’t. Those pretty cheeks were still on display and made even more tempting as Hallie struggled to tug her dress loose.
It looked like he had no choice.
He had to help her.
He had to touch her.
“Hold on. I’m coming.” He cringed at his choice of words. God, he hoped he didn’t come. But if the raging hard-on fighting to get out of his sweatpants was any indication, it was possible. Especially when he moved closer and saw the sweet little raspberry-shaped birthmark on one pale cheek.
His cock felt like it grew another two inches as sweat broke out on his brow.
“Jace? Are you there? I swear if you left me dangling—”
“I’m h-h-here,” he croaked. “I’m just trying to figure out how to go about this.” Without touching her and going off in his pants. “You can’t pull your dress free? I’ll catch you if you fall.”
“If I could pull free, I wouldn’t be hanging here.”
He looked away from that glorious ass and tried to think. “Okay. You can stand on my shoulders and that will give some slack to your dress and free up both your hands to get unhooked.” He stepped closer, but then ducked when a flailing boot swung at his head. “Stop kicking!”
She stilled and he took hold of her feet, positioning each boot on his shoulders. “Okay, see if you can stand.” She held on to the top pole and pulled herself up. Her heels dug into his shoulders, but he didn’t say a word. The pain took his mind off his massive boner . . . for about a second. Then all he could think about was Don’t look up. Don’t you dare look up.
He looked up.
All the moisture left his mouth at the small scrap of blue lace nestled between firm thighs. Through that lace he was almost positive he saw a shadowy glimpse of heaven. All the blood rushed from his head to his cock and he completely lost his equilibrium. He wobbled on his feet like a drunk. There was a loud rip and Hallie’s boots slipped off his shoulders as she started to fall backward. He grabbed her calves to keep her from falling and her butt smacked him hard in the back. He stumbled, but kept a firm hold on her legs and pulled her up. Once she was safely sitting on his shoulders, he stood there clinging to her calves and panting with relief.
“Practicing for the cheer team, y’all?”
He glanced over to see Mrs. Stokes standing on her back porch, grinning like the sinister woman she was. Before he could come up with some excuse for Hallie sitting on his shoulders, Hallie spoke.
“As a mater of fact, we are. You can’t have a good football team without cheerleaders.” She held her arms up in a V . “Go! Fight! Win!”
“Wildcats!” Jace bellowed.
Mrs. Stokes tipped back her head and chortled. “I always knew you two would make a good team.” She turned and headed back inside.
When she was gone, Hallie thumped him on the top of the head. “Are you going to put me down? Or are you going to try to kill me again?”
“Me? I wasn’t the one scaling fences. In a dress, no less.” The mention of her attire made him aware of what was wrapped around his neck.
Toned thighs covered in baby-soft skin and a tiny patch of lace . . . filled with heat that burned the back of his neck like an electric branding iron. All he wanted to do was shift her around and bury his face in that heat. Before he could get another boner, she swatted him on the head again.
“Let me down!”
He squatted and reached a hand back to help her off, ignoring the slide of lace and heat and soft thighs. What he couldn’t ignore was the huge rip in the front of her dress once she was standing in front of him. He didn’t know what surprised him more: The view of her sweet breasts spilling over the lacy bra or the fact that this hardworking cowgirl wore matching sexy lingerie.
She noticed where he was staring and jerked the pieces of her dress together. “Why didn’t you tell me Mrs. Stokes had blackmailed you into being the new football coach?”
He lifted his gaze and tried to forget all the delectable naked flesh his eyes had feasted on. “Because I’m still trying to deal with it. Besides, I thought we decided to stay away from each other.”
“Well, there’s no staying away from each other now. Not only because Wilder is the size of a postage stamp, but also because your cousin is married to my sister. If we stop showing up for family events, people will get suspicious.” She released the edges of her dress and threw up her hands. “And maybe we should just tell our families and be done with it. Then Mrs. Stokes will have nothing to blackmail you with and you can leave.” She hesitated, her green eyes intent. “That’s if you still want to.”
“I want to, but I’m not about to leave you with the fallout.”
She straightened her shoulders, drawing his attention to her soft, sweet breasts again. “I’m a big girl. I can handle it.”
She was a big girl. A big girl he wanted to take a bite out of in a bad way. He lifted his gaze and tried to stay focused on the conversation. “It’s not just about you and me, Hallie. Nasty gossip could hurt our families. Decker and Sweetie have been through enough.”
She sighed. “You’re right. I guess we’re stuck with each other.”
The thought of being stuck to those breasts didn’t seem like such a bad idea.
Down boy. That is a bad idea—a bad, bad idea.
He only wished his raging hormones would agree. He still had a semi-erection riding the front of his pants. If he didn’t want to do something stupid, he needed to get her out of there. And fast. Thankfully, she seemed to be of the same mind.
“We can still try to avoid each other as much as possible. I’ll see you around, Jace the Ace.”
He nodded, and once again his eyes traveled down to her tempting breasts. Tempting breasts he didn’t want anyone else being tempted by. “Hold on and I’ll get you a shirt. If you drive home like that, you’ll have half the cowboys in the county following you.” He turned to the guesthouse.
Mrs. Stokes’ guesthouse was one giant room with an adjoining bathroom. It had a kitchenette with a sink, fridge, microwave, and coffee maker. A king-sized bed with a great mattress, a picture window that looked out on the yard, and a flat-screen television in the sitting area.
Jelly Roll slept on the sofa in front of the television. Jace started to introduce him, but Hallie already knew the cat.
“Jelly Roll!” She headed over and scooped him up, holding the drowsy-looking fur ball against those sweet swelling breasts. Damn, if Jace wasn’t jealous as hell. He stopped feeling jealous when she turned her green eyes on him. Eyes that held a look that made him feel like he’d just thrown a fifty-yard touchdown pass. “You adopted him?”
He wanted to take all the credit, but he couldn’t when Melba had pretty much tricked him into it. “I didn’t have much choice.”
“Still, I’m glad you did.” She kissed Jelly Roll’s chewed-up ear and Jace’s heart felt like a puddle of melted ice cream. “You’ve always been good with animals.”
Why did that simple comment make him feel ten feet tall?
“It was no big deal. Jelly isn’t that much trouble . . . unless he sees another cat on the television. Then he starts yowling like his paw is stuck in a trap. I get the feeling he’s been in more than a few catfights.”
“Or maybe he thinks it’s a female and he’s trying to get her attention.” She glanced at the television with the paused football game on the screen. “Watching old game film and reliving your glory days, Jace the Ace?”
“Actually, I was watching recent Wildcat games and trying to figure out the team’s strengths and weaknesses.” He opened the second drawer of the dresser and pulled out the first shirt he touched. It happened to be a Wolverines jersey. He could have exchanged it for something less personal.
He didn’t.
Although he wished he had when Hallie was enveloped in a jersey with his number and name. Why was the sight of her in the oversized shirt even sexier than seeing her half naked?
“So what are our strengths and weaknesses?” She flopped down on the couch and cuddled Jelly Roll.
He looked at the paused screen where the quarterback had just been sacked. “From what I can tell, our weaknesses are that our quarterback is scared to release the ball. Our defensive linemen can’t break a block. Our receivers can’t catch a Nerf ball tossed by a two-year-old. And our kicker sucks.”
She lifted an eyebrow. “And our strengths?”
“I’ve yet to find them.”
She puffed out her breath. “That’s brutal.”
“You’re telling me.” He took a seat on the couch, not realizing how small it was until his knee bumped Hallie’s. While he felt like he’d been electrocuted, she didn’t seem to notice. She was totally focused on stroking Jelly Roll’s ratty fur and looking at the television.
“So what do you think the problem is?”
He scooted as far away from her as he could get without ending up straddling the arm of the couch. “Mrs. Stokes and the school board blame Coach Denny. And I agree that the coach is ultimately responsible for his team’s performance. I get the feeling Denny has grown a little jaded about coaching high school football—probably because most kids nowadays would rather be home playing video games or coming up with a dance routine for social media than putting in the hard work it takes to be a good athlete.”
She toed off her boots and propped her stocking feet on the coffee table. “So let’s see this pathetic team.”
He wasn’t sure that was a good idea. Especially when he couldn’t take his eyes off her legs. But unless he wanted to throw her out, he had no choice. Thankfully, once they started watching the game, his libido simmered down.
He’d forgotten how much Hallie loved football. She pumped her fists when the Wildcats scored and groaned when they made a bad play. She yelled at the refs and any player who wasn’t doing their job the way she thought it should be done. Ironically, Jace always agreed with her opinions.
He was surprised by how well their thoughts meshed until memories trickled out of the recesses of his mind. Memories of Hallie tagging behind him on the ranch and wanting to talk about every single moment of every single high school football game he played—what he thought had gone well and what he’d thought had gone wrong. What calls the refs had screwed up and what calls they’d gotten right.
No wonder they thought alike.
He was the one who had taught her football.
The realization left him feeling a little stunned . . . and a lot proud. When the game was over, he turned it off and looked at her.
“So what do you think? They suck, right?”
“If I remember correctly, you sucked your first year of Pee Wee football.”
“How do you know? You weren’t more than five or six when I started playing.”
“I’ve gotten to listen to the highlights of your football career from everyone in town.”
He couldn’t help the hurt that stabbed him. “Everyone in town thought I sucked?”
“Aww, is your ego bruised, Jace the Ace? Can’t stand the thought of anyone thinking you aren’t the best quarterback to ever throw a ball?”
“I was just a kid!”
Her eyes grew serious. “Right. You were just a kid, Jace. You didn’t need to be the best quarterback on the field.” She nodded at the television. “These kids don’t need to be the best either. They just need to have fun and enjoy learning the game from a coach who loves it as much as you do.”
She was right. He needed to stop doing what the townsfolk had done to him and placing too high of expectations on kids who just wanted to enjoy playing a game they loved. Coach Denny might be a good coach and love the game of football, but he’d always put too much emphasis on winning. And sometimes that pressure could break a kid rather than motivate them.
Jace knew that firsthand. His senior year, he’d cracked under the pressure of winning another state championship game and impressing all the top-ten college scouts who had come to see him play. The townsfolk had wanted him to be a professional football player and he’d wanted so badly to give them that dream. But now he had to wonder if that had been his dream or theirs. Maybe he’d just wanted to have fun and play a game he loved. Maybe somewhere in the mix of him not wanting to disappoint the people who loved him, he’d gotten on the wrong track.
He sighed and rested his head on the back of the couch. “I wish I’d listened to you more when we were growing up.”
She laughed. “You should have. Lord knows where you’d be now.”
He turned his head to look at her. “Maybe I’d be right here coaching football. I just wouldn’t have had all the crap between.”
“Was it that bad?”
He looked up at the ceiling and thought about the question. “The football was fun, but the traveling and constant working out and watching what I ate wasn’t.”
“Oh, come on. You can’t tell me you didn’t have fun in the off season with all those Junkies.”
He glanced at her. “Are you asking about my dating history, Hal?”
Pink tinted her cheeks. “I don’t know if I’d call what I saw on social media dating. It looked more like partying.”
He laughed. “You’re right. There were girls, but I wouldn’t call it dating. I was too focused on football to date . . . I’ve always been too focused on football. Maybe after this month, I’ll completely forget about football and become a travel magazine photographer.”
“A photographer? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you take a picture—even with your phone.” She hesitated. “A month? You’re only staying a month?”
“That’s the deal I made with Mrs. Stokes. Did you think I was moving back permanently?”
“Of course not. I just thought you were staying the entire season. It kind of stinks that the team will just get used to your coaching style and you’ll leave.”
“I never planned to take over the team. I’m just helping out until the school board can find another coach.” He hesitated. “Just like you’re only helping out until Corbin hires a foreman.” He watched her, looking for any signs that he’d been right and Hallie really didn’t want to leave. She did the same. It was like they were both waiting for each other to give in first.
He should have known it wouldn’t be Hallie.
She lifted Jelly Roll off her lap and stood. “Speaking of the ranch, I should get going.”
He had been in such a hurry for her to leave, but now he felt a pang of disappointment. He’d enjoyed watching the game with her as much as he’d enjoyed sitting on Decker and Sweetie’s porch with her. Or having her tag along behind him at the Holiday Ranch. He liked being with her. Talking with her made him feel like . . . he belonged.
The sun had just started to set when they stepped outside. It washed the entire backyard in its flaming burnished colors and turned Hallie’s ponytail into a gold-streaked pendulum that swung back and forth as she headed for the side gate.
“What are you doing?” he asked. “I don’t have a key for that lock.”
“Then I guess I’ll have to make do.” She grabbed on to the fence and started climbing.
“Dammit, Hallie!” He hurried over to stop her, but he was too late. She’d already reached the top and was swinging her leg over. He sucked in his breath at the view she flashed him, then held it until she was safely over the top. “Don’t rip that jersey.”
Her eyes twinkled through the chain link. “Don’t tell me you loaned me your favorite jersey, Jace the Ace.”
“I don’t have a favorite jersey.”
At least he hadn’t.
But as he watched her strut to her truck with his name stretched across her back, he realized he did now.