Page 31 of The Wedding Deal
She sipped at her drink, cursing when a sucking noise came out after only one gulp. How dare it be empty when she needed it most! She chewed on the straw, way too aware of each step closer Lance took in her peripheral.
Stacy, Bridget, and Grace scooted aside as the guys stepped into the hot tub, and Charlotte noticed Lance’s movements were a bit stiff as he climbed down the steps. He did a double take at her, so apparently he hadn’t expected her to be here, either.
Mitch’s gaze homed in on his fiancée, and a lovestruck grin spread across his face. “Thought we’d work out our muscles.”
“Great minds think alike,” she said, standing and giving him a kiss. Apparently they’d already made up after the game, not that they’d actually had a fight. The love-buzz vibe coated the air around them, drifting over to Charlotte even as she willed it away. It was nice to see such a happy couple who were clearly crazy about each other, even if it also awoke a yearning she liked to pretend didn’t exist.
Of course after the rearranging that’d happened to accommodate the guys, the only open space was to her right. As Lance slowly lowered himself next to her, she stared straight ahead. When she’d packed her swimsuit, she’d known that being in it around her boss was a possibility. But she figured it’d be more like a few towels away if he came out to the beach after she’d already set up, and the reality was different anyway. Especially with their thighs so close that one tiny movement would make them brush.
The water undulated as he straightened and bent his right leg.
“Is your knee bothering you?” she asked.
“It’s just a little stiff. I’ve slacked off on my workouts.”
Her eyes roamed over his chiseled torso, even more impressive up close, and she bit back theit certainly doesn’t look like itthat’d poised itself on the tip of her tongue.
He draped his arms over the edge of the hot tub. “Don’t let me get soft and pudgy sitting in the office too long.”
“As you can see, I’m probably not a good person to be in charge of that,” she said without thinking, and then he was looking at her and her heart was beating too fast and the heat was making her dizzy—both the embarrassed heat and the water temperature.
“I…” He swallowed. “I’d like to say a lot of things about that, but I’m afraid you’ll throw the handbook at me.”
“I do carry my pocket-sized edition on me at all times.”
He laughed, and she joined in, and it dissipated a dash of the tension. “I’ll just say that you look beautiful tonight. Like you did earlier today, and yesterday—like you have since the moment you stormed in my office.”
She raised an eyebrow in warning.
“What? You said compliments were okay. Remember how much you like my beard?” He reached up and ran his hand across it, a mischievous twist to his lips.
“So much regret about saying that.”
“Can’t take it back now, though.”
“I can do whatever I want,” she retorted, reaching for her drink before remembering she’d already finished it.
Everyone else was chatting amongst themselves, leaving the two of them in their own personal bubble.
Charlotte was wondering if she should break out—simply excuse herself in the name of talking to Bridget or Grace.
But then she glanced at Lance’s leg again and the scars crisscrossing his knee. She curled her fingers into a fist so she wouldn’t do something stupid like brush her fingers across them. “Does it bother you a lot? Your leg?”
“Here and there it flares up, which is typical of all my friends who’ve played a lot of ball. We all have that knee or shoulder or joint that makes us say cool old-man things like a storm’s-a-coming. I feel it in my bones.”
She laughed, but she still hated that he had to deal with it. She was sure it was true—that every athlete did have an injured spot or two that would forever bother them. She frowned as her mind reel came up with the hit on the sidelines that’d ended his career. When none of his teammates were open, Lance had run the ball for a first down. He’d gone out of bounds to avoid the oncoming slew of defensemen and to stop the clock. The hit from the giant player on the other team was late, and there’d been a flag, but it was also too late as well.
“Yeah, but if that guy hadn’t hit you so hard, maybe…” Thewhat ifpath was one he’d probably rather avoid. “Is it hard not to be bitter? You gave so much to your team, and they dropped you without even waiting to see if you’d recover.”
“Don’t go feeling sorry for me,” Lance said. “One, they didn’t drop me. I told them to find someone else—it was what was best for the team. I’d already had one ACL surgery, and unlike the first one, I wasn’t a teenager anymore. Recovery was longer, and with all the added scar tissue and worn-down cartilage, the doctors warned me it’d always be weaker. They told me that if I tore it again, I might not have enough left to fix.”
“And two?”
He wrinkled his forehead.
“You said ‘one,’ so I assumed there was a two.”
Understanding smoothed his features, and his mouth kicked up on one side. “I got sidetracked and would’ve forgotten. This is why I need you around. You keep me on task.”
