Page 34 of Vital Blindside

I’m almost back where I left her when I hear a male voice. My heart jumps in my chest when I realize it’s Adam’s friendly vibrato.

“I’m not much of a cook myself, but Cooper is a great help.”

“What a sweetie,” Mom sings. “My Scarlett has never been much of a help in the kitchen. That is, unless I’m baking. She loves to lick the bowls right clean.”

Horrified, I pick up my pace and turn down the aisle. “Mom!” My steps falter when four sets of eyes fall on me. Mom shrugs as if she didn’t just say something incredibly embarrassing before turning back to the group of three.

My eyes gravitate to Adam, finding him watching me with a grin I feel low in my belly. He’s wearing a pair of ripped jeans and a plain navy T-shirt with white sneakers. His hair sticks out beneath the backward cap on his head and curls behind his ears.

He looks good. Really good.

“Hi, Scary Spice,” he greets me, voice soft and welcoming.

“Hey, Adam.”

We haven’t talked much since Willow caught us doing . . . whatever it was we were doing on Thursday morning. Friday’s therapy session was so awkward I was tempted to twist my shoulder the wrong way just so I could finish earlier.

Neither of us made any effort to talk about the day prior, so we just pretended nothing happened. The only thing wrong with that plan going forward is that something did happen. And I’m not sure if I can continue to pretend otherwise. Not when even being a grocery cart distance away from him in a crowded supermarket with my own mother as a witness can I keep the air between us from thickening with something I’m too scared to define.

“Scarlett, darling. Have you met Adam’s son and girlfriend yet? They were just telling me about their dinner plans.”

It’s like a bucket of cold water being dumped on my head.

His girlfriend? I chomp down on my tongue to avoid saying something I shouldn’t in front of his son. Jealousy threatens to tear my insides to ribbons.

It makes more sense as to why he didn’t say anything about our almost kiss when he saw me yesterday. Why mention something you so clearly want to forget?

Against my better judgment, I look at the woman standing beside him, one hand on the strap of her purse and the other fidgeting with her thick-rimmed glasses. She’s shorter than me and quite a bit shorter than Adam, but it fits her. Her hair is glossy and black and hangs well past her shoulders. She’s almost pixie-like. Adam is a giant beside her.

“No, I haven’t,” I answer with a calmness I sure as hell don’t feel. Lowering my eyes, I meet the stare of a young boy with a messy head of dark brown hair and eyes to match. They’re Adam’s eyes but more curious.

“Scarlett, this is my son, Cooper. Cooper, this is Scarlett. She’s a trainer at the rink and a friend of mine,” Adam says, and I have to bite back a laugh.

Friends? Not likely.

“Hi,” Cooper says with a quick wave. His cheeks are tinted a soft pink that makes him look even more adorable than he already is.

“Hi, Cooper.” My smile is more genuine now.

“And this is Beth,” Adam says. He’s looking right at me now. I can feel it. But I look elsewhere. “Cooper’s mother.”

“And not his girlfriend. Adam is too far out of my league,” says this Beth woman.

I try to hide the onslaught of relief I feel with a forced smile, but Adam only laughs, grinning like he knows something nobody else does. If it wasn’t already obvious that I didn’t like the idea of Beth being his girlfriend, it sure is now. Triumph flashes in his eyes.

Embarrassed that I let myself get jealous over a misunderstanding, my cheeks warm.

“Oh dear,” Mom mutters. She runs a frantic hand over the top of her hair, flattening it. “I’m sorry.”

Adam shakes his head. “No need to apologize, Amelia. It was an honest mistake.”

“My mom doesn’t get to spend a lot of time with us, but when she does, that usually always happens,” Cooper says.

I flinch. Adam watches me, a silent apology splattered across his face. Knowing that he doesn’t have anything to apologize for, I give my head a subtle shake.

I don’t know when it happened, but things between us got complicated. And it’s for reasons like this that we need to focus on uncomplicating them. He’s my boss. My much older boss. Hell, he’s standing across from me with his son on one side and the woman he had a baby with on the other.

I don’t belong in that lineup.

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