Page 76 of You've Got Male

“Do you want me to slide my hand down your pants, sunshine?”

God, say yes. Not that he would right there in the middle of the cheer competition. But knowing that she wanted him to would be enough. His body’s response at even the possibility was like a chemical reaction.

She turned to him, those beautiful brown pools connected with his and he was certain she was going to answer, but instead she plastered a fake-as-shit smile on her face and said, “Fun fact. Did you know that my dad was the cheerleader of the family?” she said, avoiding the topic.

He’d let her deflect—for now.

“He used to coach at the high school. Now he’s Camila’s team parent,” she went on. “Just about everyone knows him here.”

Lenard was walking up and down the bleachers kissing nearly everyone he came across. “I can see that. Was he your coach, too?”

Now that he was picturing Evie in one of those skirts, he decided they were the perfect length. In fact, he wouldn’t mind helping her pull it out of the attic and having her teach him more about this dirty bird.

“I didn’t have time for cheer. My parents had just expanded the shop so I spent my time after school making lattes and cappuccinos.”

It was said with a casualness that he knew was a front. And some of that anger dissipated at her openness. At her selflessness. “That must have been hard.”

“Why do you say that?”

“You’re just so social, it must have been hard watching your peers have the teen experience while you were working.” Didn’t she say that she’d had a key to her parents’ shop by the time she was fifteen? He hadn’t thought about what that meant then. But he was sure thinking about it now. Thinking about how he’d just reacted to her uncertainty about the situation and that made him a dick.

“That’s why I went away for college.”

Only I got pregnant and had to come homewas left unsaid.

“It was what it was,” she said. “Plus, I liked helping my family.”

He noticed she used the past tense. “Do you still like it?”

She opened her mouth and closed it as if debating on whether to tell him the truth or deflect. She let out a big breath and he watched as her body deflated. “Does it make me a terrible person if I told you no?”

He cupped her cheek. “I think you’re an incredibly unselfish person who does more than most would.”

She leaned into his palm. “My family gave up a lot for me when I was pregnant. They put their retirement years on hold to help me raise Camila.”

“That doesn’t mean you have to give up your dream.”

“I didn’t give up on it, I just put it on hold.”

“Is that why you want to go back to school?”

“I loved school, but it was too hard raising a kid as a teenager and keeping up my grades. I know other people do it. I just couldn’t give one hundred percent to a million different things.”

She’d given other people all one hundred of her percent until there was nothing left over for herself. “And if you couldn’t do it perfectly then you didn’t want to do it at all?” he guessed.

“More like, I was sick seven months of my pregnancy and then I had to work full-time to support Camila.”

He ran a thumb down her jawline. “That must have been hard, too. Didn’t Mateo help?”

“He’s never missed a payment, but in those early years he was just an intern at a law firm, and it took him a while to work his way up. As for emotional involvement, he’s pretty much hit or miss. Mostly miss, actually.”

“I can’t imagine not being in my kid’s life.”

“Me either. Even though it’s been hard at times, I wouldn’t change it for anything.”

A dreamy smile overtook the exhaustion and his heart rolled over. This was the most she’d opened up to him, and all he could think was he wanted to know every little thing about her. Even if this was pretend for her, it felt real to him.

He took her hand again and she didn’t pull away. “What are you studying?” he asked.

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