He half-grinned. “She’s a character.”
“You literally don’t know the half of it.” I shook my head and pulled my purse up onto my shoulder. “Where do you want to go?”
“I figured we could go to the park. I doubt you want to go all the way to my place, and I guess Avery isn’t at work?”
“She’s home.” And she’d have a field day if I took you with me…
“Park it is.”
We fell into step beside each other. My fingers twitched, and it felt weird to not reach for his hand. It’d happened so naturally when we were in Key West. Our hands had simply gravitated toward each other.
Adam stuffed his hands in the pockets of his shorts. Did he feel the same? I knew I felt weird. I couldn’t believe he was actually in front of me—or next to me, whatever. It was all the same.
And I was not over him. Not even a little bit.
Damn it.
We turned to the park, and I let him lead me to a private spot where nobody would see us. I was grateful for that—I didn’t fancy my face plastered over sports pages or whatever.
I sat on the grass and put my purse down next to me. Adam sat opposite me, leaning back on his hands and stretching his legs out while I leaned back against a tree trunk.
“How are you doing?” he asked, looking at me with his bright blue eyes.
“I’m good,” I said, somewhat evasively. “You?”
“I’m good. Training. Working.”
“Yeah, Avery was watching you on TV yesterday. Something about a sponsorship deal?”
His eyebrow quirked. “You didn’t watch?”
“I have no interest in sports,” I reminded him. “Why would I watch?”
“I’m pretty interesting.”
“Depends who you ask and whether or not it’s dark and there are sharks around.”
He choked back a laugh. “How’s your foot?”
“Healed. I saw a doctor when I got back just in case. Just a slightly deep cut from a stone, so you were right.” I shrugged. “But it solidified I’m never getting in the ocean in the dark again.”
“I’m right there with you on that, Red.”
Why did that once-hated nickname now give me chills? Damn damn damn it.
“So. Why’d you come find me at work?”
His eyebrow went up again.
“That came out a little blunt.” I bit the side of my bottom lip. “I mean. Shit.”
Adam laughed, dropping his head back slightly. “I get it. I should have called you. Sorry.”
“Eh, it’s all right. I needed to call you anyway.”
“You did?”
“Don’t even think about it. I asked you first.” I pointed at him.
He held up a hand with another laugh. “Okay, okay. Your dad called me this morning.”
Oh no.
“Oh no.”
Adam looked at me with a wry smile.
“Wait—how does my dad have your number?” I frowned. What sense did that even make?
“He…kind of asked me for it at the wedding. I didn’t see how I could say no. I didn’t think he’d ever actually call me.”
I rubbed my temples. “Sweet baby Jesus on drugs. I bet I know why he called.”
“Dinner. Saturday night.”
“Yep. He called me yesterday and told me Mom wants to see you. I was growing a pair so I could call you and ask you, but I guess Dad beat me to it.”
“He called and invited me. I didn’t want to just show up, and I had today off training, so I thought I’d come see you in person.”
I pushed hair behind my ear. “You could have called.”
“I could have called,” he said, tilting his head to the side. “But, Red, I wouldn’t have gotten to see you then, would I?”
I blushed lightly. “I don’t suppose you would have.” I paused and played with the hem of my shirt. “Look, you don’t have to. I told him you were busy so probably couldn’t come. It’s fine.”
“Do you want me to come?”
“You’re busy. You have a million other things you need to do—”
“That’s not what I asked, Red.” He shifted so he was closer to me and I could all but feel his leg as it got close to mine. “I asked you if you want me to come.”
I took a deep breath and looked away for a minute. “Do you want to come?”
His lips pulled to one side. “Well, I don’t particularly want to have dinner with your mother, no. I feel like there’ll be all sorts of questions I don’t want to answer.”
That was the story of my life.
“It’s fine,” I said. “I’ll just—”
“But I want to have dinner with you,” he added softly, his eyes capturing mine. “And if that means your parents are there, too, then that’s perfectly fine with me. And pretending to be your boyfriend for a few more hours isn’t such a hardship, either.”
“I…” I trailed off.
This didn’t help. This was a step backward. I was trying to get over him—and failing, but whatever—and this wasn’t going to do that.
But, fucking hell, I missed him.
And that was crazy. I knew it was crazy. How could you miss someone after only a few days? It was meant to be a fling, nothing more and nothing less. Yet here I was, three weeks after said fling, with a severe case of feelings-itis.
“If you don’t want me to, say the word and I won’t. I can be busy. It’s not a problem,” Adam said. “That’s why I asked you.”
“No, I…” I sighed. “Do you think it’s a good idea?”
“No. Absolutely not. But I think we should do it anyway.”
“Okay,” I said quietly. “Pick me up at five-thirty.”
“You got it.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE – ADAM
A Series of Bad Ideas
“You’ve lost your mind,” Warren said, shaking his head. “One weekend was bad enough.”
“He ain’t wrong,” Kyle piped in, putting down the weight he’d been using.
I stared at them both. “I like her, all right?”
“We know. You’ve been a miserable bastard ever since you got back from that wedding. I told you to just fucking call her.” Warren snorted.
“I didn’t want to. She made it perfectly clear that what we do, all the traveling, all that shit, isn’t for her,” I said.
“Then why the fuck are you having dinner with her family on Saturday?” Kyle sat on the weights bench in front of me and leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “Just…why?”
“If you had the chance to see Keisha one more time, would you?” I said, referring to his girlfriend. “Poppy was pretty clear that she’s not the kind of woman who can hack what we do. That’s fine. But I didn’t exactly tell her that I wanted to try it.”
“So that’s what you’re gonna do? Pretend to be her damn boyfriend and tell her how you really feel?”
“Maybe. I don’t know.” I hadn’t thought that far ahead. I just wanted to see her again, ‘cause fuck me, I missed her. I missed her mouth and her laugh and her sass. I missed fucking everything about the feisty redhead who’d barreled into my life like a tornado.
Warren smacked his lips. “It makes sense, but only if you’re gonna be honest with her. You have to get closure on this chick, because she’s been distracting you since you got back.”
And wasn’t that the truth. Poppy Dunn had consumed my mind. I’d thought about her every single day, and it’d done nothing but piss me off that I hadn’t had the balls to call her.
It was easier to walk into her damn restaurant and see her in person than it was to pick up the phone.
“Makes sense. I’ll do dinner, then after, we’ll get a drink and I’ll tell her how I feel. If she tells me no, fine. She can leave without being under pressure.” I rubbed the back of my neck. “If she tells me yes, we’ll figure it all out.”
“Okay, but you’ve never had a relationship with anyone since you got drafted,” Kyle pointed out. “It’s not like Keisha and me where we’ve been together since college. By the sounds of it, Poppy doesn’t even like hockey.”
“She didn’t know who I was when we met,” I reminded him. “Of course she doesn’t like hockey.”
“See, that’s my favorite fuckin’ thing about this,” Warren said. “All the girls in the world throw themselves at Mr. Fuckin’ Superstar over here, and he picks the one damn girl in the world who has no idea who he is.”