Page 56 of Second Go-Round

Jarod

I couldn’t keep my hand from shaking as I knocked on Christine’s door. I’d debated on simply texting to let her know I’d pulled into her building’s parking lot, but that felt too impersonal. The way she’d sounded on the phone, her invite alone, caused my head to spin.

Why ask me of all people to go to the game? Why reach out after walking out on me as though our night together had been nothing but an impersonal hookup? Why think of me at all unless she’d been just as haunted by the memories of our time together too?

Hope had me on a high, and while I’d hated canceling our guy’s get-together at my place for the day’s games, I’d done it without hesitation.

Cooney, Sean, and Micah had all wished me luck. They’d seen firsthand what Christine’s breaking my heart had done to me.

Her door pulled inward before my thoughts went any further. She wore a blue Pats pullover sweatshirt and tight jeans that hugged her curves in all the right places.

Shoving my hands in my pockets, I stepped back rather than pulling her into my arms. She’d sounded wary on the phone, and I wasn’t about to push my luck. “Ready to go?”

“Yep.” She turned and slid her key into the deadbolt, her shaking hands stilling my insides a little bit. Christine nervous had to be a good thing.

“Thanks for the invite,” I said as she locked her house up. “It’s been two years since I’ve gone to a game.”

“I’m just glad I didn’t have to go alone.”

I cringed at her bored tone. “At least I made it on your to-call list—even if I was the last resort.”

“Look.” She stopped at the bottom of her stoop’s stairs and turned, that chin of hers lifted. “I like you. A lot, but I’m not doing a relationship. I suck at them and don’t want to break anyone’s heart. We have some things in common and get along well enough, so let’s just keep it at that, okay?”

Her eyes lied. She felt the energy radiating between us, that draw toward something bigger. Better than friendship and mere fucking.

“Okay,” I agreed, amicable as shit and thoroughly chuffed inside.

She opened her mouth but snapped it shut as though surprised by my easy response. “Just like that?”

I made sure my gaze made my intentions known as I descended the stairs to stand beside her. I was all in. Ready to go to war since she’d given me an in. “Just like that.”

Her lips pressed tight, and she hummed as though trying to figure my mind out.

A car’s horn sounded up the street, seeming to pull her back to the present. “Fine, but none of those emotional I’m-crazy-about-you gazes shit. I can’t handle it.”

Rocking on my heels, hands still thoroughly buried in my pockets, I elbowed her arm. “How about I-want-to-fuck-you stares? Can you handle those instead?”

Her breath caught as our eyes met and held. “Barely.”

I stared at her flushed face, imagining my lips on hers, my body pressed against her curves.

“I’ll try to hide what you stir up inside me, Christine,” I finally said, my gaze slipping down to the pulse throbbing in her neck, “but I can’t help wanting you. I can promise to keep my hands to myself though. Deal?”

She nodded, her chest rising on a sharp inhale. “Deal.”

I nodded toward my car waiting at the end of her walkway. “Then let’s go enjoy the game.”

“So.” She stepped away from me, voice breezy as though determined to lighten the sexually charged atmosphere between us. I followed on her heels like a horny dog. “I’m dying to know what Micah had to say after our little exhibition the other week.”

I bit back a groan while pulling out my car keys. “You really want to discuss sex with me right now?” I asked, keeping my voice low as she drew up beside my car.

“Did he tell you that he offered me a job?” She angled toward me, the warm sun glinting fire in her hair.

A muscle ticked in my jaw as I made sense of her question. The resulting possessive flare of jealousy heated me through—and not in a good way.

Christine raised an eyebrow.

“No.” I clipped the word.

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