Page 30 of Big Balls
“Hi,” I say, once she opens her window.
She stares at me flatly. “So you’re here.”
I force a smile onto my face. “This is my house. Where else would I be?”
Zoe shakes her head then opens her door and moves toward me, her eyes narrowed and her lips pursed. She pokes me in the chest with her finger. “You should be crawling on your hands and knees, begging me to forgive you.”
Okay, this is already way out of hand. “I was on my way to see you, actually.”
She sizes me up. “That’s what your friend said. The one with the mean-looking face, like he is physically unable to smile.”
My eyebrows rise at her characterization of Sebastian Davenport III. “He smiles plenty. Believe me. He’s in there with Katy right now, cooking up some mischief.”
She nods. “I’m sure he is, but he looks like he’s never been happy a day in his life unless he was making someone else miserable.”
Then she pokes me in the chest again. “Kind of like some idiot wide receiver I know. That guy doesn’t have a nice bone in his entire body.”
I droop a little at her words. She’s right about Sebastian, who definitely feeds off the misery of others. That can only mean that she’s right about me, too, and maybe I’m not a decent human being after all. But I am a hell of a good player, and the best dad I can be.
“I deserve that.” My hands drift up to loosen my tie, but I manage to stop them in time.
A look of hurt flashes across her face. “You deserve much worse than that, but that’s the best I can do on short notice.”
“Is it, though? You came all the way over here after three whole days, and all you’ve got is that I’m an idiot and a meanie?” I hate myself for picking at her, but there’s nothing about this conversation that’s going the way it’s supposed to.
She flinches, and I take her hands in mine. “Zoe.” I say her name, low and close to her face as I lean toward her. “I’m so sorry for the way I behaved at the hospital. You didn’t deserve to be treated that way, and I was wrong to let you go.”
But if I’m expecting her to melt at the intimacy of my tone, I’m wrong again. Instead, she pulls away from my touch, turning her face back toward her car, purposefully not meeting my gaze. “I told you that you don’t deserve me, and that’s still true. I know you were upset, but the way you acted was beyond horrible. Do you have any idea how upset I was?”
I nod then shake my head, but I can’t help but reach for her hands again, folding my larger hands around hers and tugging her toward me. Until we are close enough that I can smell her hair, and feel the heat from her body. I can’t let myself get distracted, though. Not when I’m this close to winning her over.
“I was on my worst behavior. I cannot apologize enough for the way I acted. I was beyond upset, but it wasn’t about you. It was never about you, Zoe.”
She looks up at me, a little furrow across her brow. “I know that. Everybody knows that.”
I give her an encouraging smile. “I told you why I was leaving my house today. Now would you mind telling me what you’re doing waiting here outside?”
She pulls her hands away from me again, and I have to let her go. I’m not the kind of man to rush a play, and I know that this is the time for patience instead of action.
“I came here because Katy doesn’t deserve to be punished for your bad behavior. She was doing so well with me.”
By now I’m positively aching to reach for Zoe, to fold her against my body and smooth my hands along the long curtain of her hair, planting a little kiss on the crown of her head. But she would only get angry—even angrier than she already is.
I have to fight the urge to cling to her, to lean in and kiss her again until all of her anger melts into that sinful moan that I’ve had echoing in my head ever since our lips met. I want her. I want her to want me. It should be easy enough to get what I want in this situation, but there’s nothing easy about this thing between us.
“I’m so grateful that you feel that way. I would love to have you back taking care of Katy. I’ll pay you triple what you were making before.”
She shakes her head. “That’s not good enough.”
“Quadruple then. Name your price and I’ll pay it.”
She raises her finger and pokes me in the chest again, and it actually hurts this time. “You stupid man. You can’t buy me like you would an airplane. I am not a commodity.”
She’s breathing hard, and as much as I’d like to think it was because she is thinking about kissing me, I’m not entirely stupid. She’s much more likely thinking about punching me right now, possibly in the throat but perhaps also in the dick.
“I’ll come back to take care of Katy, and you’re going to pay me quadruple to offset the part where I have to deal with you.” She tilts her head back to meet my gaze squarely, and damn if that doesn’t make her even more attractive to me.
I’ve stared down many of the fiercest men in the league, and here’s this cute little slip of a woman refusing to back down even a little tiny bit.
