Page 18 of A Longtime (and now NFL player) Nemesis

For the next few minutes, she took inventory of the art supplies so she’d know what she needed to buy for next year. When he came back, he helped her clean. She’d meant to log the students’ final grades into the portal, but she’d have to do that on the drive to the cabin since he was in a rush to leave. She wasn’t going to have time to relax at all before her next job started.

On the way to his truck, she asked, “How did you get past the office? They don’t even let parents come back to the classrooms.”

He shrugged. “I told them I was here to pick you up and asked what room you were in. They thought your kids would like to meet me.” He grinned, flashing a set of perfect teeth. “The office ladies are a lot nicer now than when we went to school.”

No, they weren’t. Carson had just become the hometown hero after he started playing for the Broncos. She cast a glance around the parking lot to see if anyone was watching them. A few teenage stragglers were. “People in town are going to talk about us now. You realize that, right? Those kids are going to go home and tell their parents that Miss Travers went off with Carson Clark somewhere carrying a suitcase and bedding.”

He shrugged again, unbothered. “Well, at least we’ll give them something to talk about besides your last boyfriend.”

She gave him the side-eye. Did he actually know about Miles or had Carson only brought up her last boyfriend because she’d mentioned that the town gossiped about her? Certainly, he wouldn’t have taken the time to ask anyone about her ex. He probably considered the details of her life beneath his attention.

Carson unlocked his truck. “Personally, I think it’s a good thing you didn’t put out for the guy. He sounds like a real jerk. My only question is, did you actually pay him anything on Venmo?”

Ugh. Carsonhadasked someone about Miles. “No. I didn’t.”

“Good. The dude was a total loser.”

“Yeah, I seem to have a type. Hope you don’t mind being lumped together with them now.”

Carson laughed, unworried. “I’m definitely an upgrade, Leelee-bug. You can thank me for your boost in social status later.”

Right. She doubted that she would thank him for anything later.

8

Carson had expected Olivia to grab some frozen meals and snacks at the grocery store—things that were full of additives, preservatives, and actual flavor. Carson still mostly followed his training diet which consisted of slabs of meat, lots of greens, and awful-tasting nutrition shakes.

Olivia bought things like fruits, vegetables, chicken breasts, and seasonings. Perhaps she was under the delusion that she’d be well-rested after a day of work and would feel like cooking. No point disabusing her of that notion yet. She could find out for herself.

Carson probably shouldn’t have looked forward to that moment, but it was always nice to see the intellectuals—the people in society who thought they were better than everyone else—wake up to the realities of what real work felt like.

Little Miss Snooty Art Teacher was probably long overdue for that sort of reality check.

He was nice enough to her on the drive up to the cabin. For someone he’d never liked, he found talking to Olivia oddly relaxing. Maybe he enjoyed teasing her. Maybe he enjoyed the way she gave back as good as she got. Most women acted all flirty and deferential around him, bright-eyed and too eager to please. Those sorts of women tended to blend together into an insipid sort of sweetness. Olivia was spice. Each smile he pulled from her seemed like an accomplishment.

When they reached the cabin, the two climbed out of the truck. The guys on the deck all stopped working to stare at Olivia. Carson had told them he was bringing up a woman to join the crew. They shouldn’t have been surprised.

That was Carson’s first inkling that having her here might not be a good idea. The deck crew wasn’t surprised; they were just letting their eyes linger on her too long, checking her out.

Carson walked Olivia into the house, showed her to the attic room, and told her he’d put her groceries away while she changed into work clothes.

He was finding room for her oatmeal in the cupboards—raw, not the prepackaged kind he’d eaten as a kid—when she came downstairs.

He knew she’d come downstairs because he could hear Dustin, the drywall guy, stop work in the living room to introduce himself. Then Dustin asked about Matt.

Carson went to fetch her before she chatted away the day. He turned the corner and saw that the respectable Miss Travers was gaze-stopping in her shorts and T-shirt. Sort of like a construction pin-up girl. Her hair was pulled up in a ponytail, but even that looked seductive—all those dark waves curling down her back.

Yeah, that wasn’t going to be distracting to the men here at all.

He sent her off with Tomas, one of the few married guys on the crew, to pull up the carpet and padding upstairs.

After an hour of sorting through some paperwork, he checked on them. The carpet was gone, and Olivia sat on the floor with Ricardo, who was supposed to be adding more outlets to the master room. Ricardo was in his mid-twenties and the sort who considered himself a ladies’ man. He was smiling and talking to her while she pulled out old staples from the floor with a pair of pliers.

Carson went and stood by Ricardo, hands on his hips. “What are you doing here?”

Ricardo looked up, unabashed. “Just showing the new kid the best way to clean the subfloor. It’s her first day on the job.”

“I think she’s got it,” Carson said. “You’re supposed to be wiring.”

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