Page 97 of Courtside

“Me too,” he replied, resting his chin against her stomach. “So we’re doing this?”

“Dating?”

“Mmhm.”

One of her hands came up to comb through his hair. “Yeah, David. We’re doing this.”

David smiled. Somehow his chest grew even warmer, even more full and content. He pressed a quick kiss to her exposed hip before looking back up at her. “Every year my buddies from college make a trip out to Lake Murray over spring break. We rent a big house and grill out and swim and a few of us make fools of ourselves trying to fish. Will you come with me?”

Sage blinked down at him. “Are you sure?”

“I’m sure,” David didn’t hesitate to reply. “Please?”

She looked at him like she couldn’t quite believe that he was serious, as if asking her was something unexpected. “Okay.” She paused, seeming to consider her question before she spoke. “Do you think it would be alright if I invited Maggie?”

“Of course,” David said, confident that his friends would welcome both Sage and the fiery bartender with open arms. “She’ll drive Keaton nuts,” he added, already imagining his tightly buttoned friend clashing with Maggie’s brash and unrestrained sense of humor. “It’ll be perfect.”

Sage smiled. “I’ll ask her tomorrow,” she said.

David pressed another kiss to the skin of her belly, already imagining Sage stretched out on the hot wood of the dock with miles of bare skin for him to explore. How her blonde hair would look catching the pinks and oranges of the sunsets.

“Breakfast tomorrow?” David asked as he got up, tangling his fingers with Sage’s just because he could.

“Deal.” She went up on her toes, silently asking for another kiss.

David smiled even as he kissed her, their tongues meeting for a brief moment before he pulled away again.

“Goodnight, Lefty,” he said, still not quite able to believe that this was real, that he was kissing Sage Fogerty after she’d come so beautifully on his leg and cleaned up his mess with that perfect mouth of hers.

He was still smiling when he walked into his apartment and was greeted by Daisy, whose tail wagged hard enough that her entire body wriggled. Leaning down to scratch at her ears, David whispered, “We did it, Daisy. We got the girl.”

CHAPTER26

A BASEMENT DATE

SAGE

Sage had her backpack slung over one shoulder and her duffel in hand as she approached David’s Bronco idling in front of her apartment.

“Hi.” David flashed his wide smile at her through the open passenger window.

Dark sunglasses rested on the ridge of his nose, and a black baseball cap was pulled down over his head. He wore a white t-shirt that stretched over the muscles of his chest.

This man washers. Hers to touch and kiss and climb like a tree.

It was all a bit hard to believe, even as she tossed her stuff in the back seat and climbed into the front. Even as she leaned across the center console and pressed her lips to his. Even as their tongues tangled, caressing with growing urgency until she felt the warmth of pleasure ignite in her lower abdomen.

Pulling away, David reached out a big hand and squeezed her thigh. “Ready?”

Sage nodded, looking into the back where Daisy was curled up on a blanket, fast asleep.

The drive to Lake Murray would take about two and a half hours. The rest of the group had left earlier that Friday, but Sage had had an afternoon meeting with her advisor about a project for his class. David had been entirely unbothered when she’d told him about the delay to their departure, claiming it gave him extra time to “shop for road snacks.”

Maggie had immediately agreed to come when Sage asked, claiming that she was due a holiday from the bar and that she was “really good at lakes,” whatever that meant. She would be driving her own car up the next morning.

“I made you a tea,” he said, gesturing to the to-go mug in the cup holder. “I also brought chips, sliced apples, three different kinds of chocolate, those weird mustard pretzels you like, and cheese sticks.”

This ridiculous, beautiful man.

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