I blinked. “You want me to try to intoxicate, sleep with, or flirt with the guy while I’m supposed to be watching his son?”
“Yeah. It looks like you’re working real hard right now,” Lindsey said. She mockingly threw her arms behind her head and pretended to kick back and relax on the bench.
I grinned. “The kids get along too well. I can’t help it. They don’t even want me to play with them. And you know, Griff’s teacher said he has been more behaved lately. Not perfect, but they haven’t suspended him again, which is something.”
“Don’t change the subject,” Lindsey said. “Look. I guarantee this guy is going to try to get you on your own again. He’s fighting his feelings right now, but it’s only a matter of time before he has a moment of weakness. And that is when you strike.” She made a clawing gesture at the screen.
“Yeah, well, the other problem is I’m not sure I want to strike.” All I had to do was blink and I could see the green text on a computer screen in my head. Available.
Perceptive as always, Lindsey worked her lips to the side in thought. “You’re thinking about the Florida thing?”
“The unit’s available.”
Both Luca and Lindsey’s eyebrows went up. After the accident, I’d very un-prettily spilled just about every detail of my life, dreams, and fears to Lindsey and Luca. There was nothing they didn’t know.
“That’s good?” Lindsey asked carefully.
“It would be a year from now. Maybe once I’ve had time to earn all this money Jack is going to pay me and could invest it in the restaurant. But if I waited that long, someone else would take the place.”
“If you don’t, you won’t have money to do it. So what’s the dilemma?”
I shook my head. “There’s not one.” I said the words, hoping they’d solidify into truth if I didn’t stop to question them. “I’m going to find a way to make Florida happen. Nothing else can come before that.”
“Can I say it?” Luca asked. He squeezed his hands together, pleading.
I rolled my eyes because I had a bad feeling I knew what he was going to say. “Fine.”
“Both of you can come plenty of times before Florida if you get a move on.”
Lindsey side-eyed him but was smirking. “Not if Noles won’t hike up her she-balls and go spit some game.”
“Spit game? When have I ever had game to spit?”
“Good question. But this guy seems to have the hots for you, so maybe something is wrong with his judgment. Take advantage before he fixes his flawed assessment of you.”
“Wonderful. As always, I’ve found it absolutely no help to ask you two for advice.”
“Oh, we’re not here to be helpful,” Luca said. “We’re the biggest fans of the ‘Nola gets herself into unlikely mess after unlikely mess show.’ Pretending to give you advice is just how we make sure you keep spilling the juicy details to us.”
I gave them both the middle finger and a smile to let them know I didn’t mean it, then hung up on the call.
One thing was for sure, the part of my brain in charge of writing up the script for my dreams at night wasn’t conflicted. That little composer upstairs had whipped up a true masterpiece last night.
I rolled to the side, hugging a pillow to my chest as I replayed the highlights. I could still feel my illusory experience of Jack’s fingertips against my scalp—of my nose buried in the crook of his neck and my fingertips digging into his broad back. The best part? Dream me hadn’t been conflicted. She’d just enjoyed the ride—euphemism intended.
Why couldn’t I just live in my dreams, anyway? Reality was so messy.13JackI handed off my car to the valet outside my place and stopped in the lobby to take a call. It was Damon. I considered ignoring it because part of me just wanted to go upstairs and see Ben.
Part of you also wants to see those red braids and the way the dress she’d been wearing this morning hinted at a perfect ass and showed off her thighs.
I pinched the bridge of my nose. Focus. It wasn’t usually this hard for me to control my impulses, and I was starting to wonder if there was a world where I could just have one taste of Nola then set things back to normal.
The phone vibrated again. I finally put it to my ear. “Yeah?”
“Good news,” Damon said about as enthusiastically as one might announce that the walls were painted gray. “I managed to play your little stunt against Bobby and convince him a fatter check would keep you around.” Bobby was my team’s general manager, and gateway through which all financial decisions regarding players passed.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean you nearly quitting on the season just earned us both some extra money. Congratulations.”