Page 323 of Well Played

“Uh-huh?”

“Was it from the coach?” she asked, leaning from foot to foot.

“No, it was from a friend.”

A friend? Crap. Was it from Kay? She couldn’t ask. She would just have to wait to find out.

Walker frowned at the text from Kay. “I like your shoes.” He read it again. “What shoes?” He wasn’t sure whether to text or call. They’d been texting off and on since he’d been gone. Some texts were weird, while others were witty and even a little flirty. Maybe he should just call. Before he could stop himself, he punched in her number. The call went to voicemail. “Hey, I thought it would be nice to hear your voice, but I guess you’rebusy.” He tossed his phone down and went to the bathroom to get ready for bed. Thankfully, there was no game tomorrow, but the team had a series of promos they had to do and a few of the guys had individual shoots. Some of the players’ wives invited Grace to go shopping.

His phone buzzed with an incoming face-to-face call. He hurriedly pulled on a shirt and grabbed the phone. “Hey.”

“Hey, yourself.” Kay smiled up at him from the screen. “I wanted to make sure it was really you on the phone. It appears we’ve been pranked.

“What?”

She explained how she found Jimmy with her phone texting him. Something about shoes. When she confronted him, he admitted that he and Grace had sent a few texts to get the two of them talking.

“So, I’ve been talking to Jimmy all of this time?”

“Not all,” she said with a little giggle, “but yeah, some of the time. I think he asked you about your shoes.”

“As long as that’s all he asked me about.”

“Well, how about Grace? Did you start this texting by telling me you were thinking about me and food?”

Laughing, he crawled onto the bed and shook his head. “You and food, yeah, that sounds about right. What did I say?”

She told him.

“I hope I’m not that cheesy.”

“So, you don’t think I’m sweet?”

“Oh, I have no doubt you’re sweet, like a candied jalapeno.”

She snorted. “A candied jalapeno? Well, that’s original at least.”

He laid back against the pillows. “What else did I say?”

“I don’t know if I want to have this conversation.” She sat cross-legged on her couch with a bowl of popcorn. “You said you missed me,” she said quietly, not looking at the screen.

“Well, that I said,” he replied.

She met his gaze through the tiny screen. “I miss you too,” she admitted.

“We’ll be home next week. I’d love to take you out.”

“I’ll be in a ball tournament the last half of the week, and I’ll need to get things prepped and ready for my staff to handle without me.”

“It looks like we’re destined to constantly pass each other.”

“If you really want to see me, you’ll have to get creative,” she said. “I think I’m worth the extra effort.”

Walker was quiet as he tried to think of what he could do.

“Of course, if you don’t agree…”

“Oh, I agree. You’re worth the effort. I was just trying to think of how to spend time with you.”

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