This woman was unbelievable. Maybe what I confessed about the kiss hadn’t resonated yet. Or maybe the couple of drinks had gone to her head.
“Glad we cleared that up.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Did you want to stay with your camera-happy friend? Or maybe bring her back here?”
Valencia happened to be a very attractive woman. Any other night, yeah, I might have hooked up with her, but tonight I had zero interest. “No, I didn’t want to stay with Valencia.”
She squeezed her arms between us and crossed them over her chest. “Great. So now what?”
“Now, I don’t know. You’ve changed everything in a matter of a week.”
Her eyes softening, she relaxed her arms and exhaled. “Sorry. It’s all new to me too. I’m doing the best I can trying to fit in. I’m a fish out of water. When I graduated from college, I assumed my first job would be in medicine while I earned my postgrad degree. Now, I have one that caught me completely off guard, I’m in a different state, and I have new friends… including you.”
“I know.” Charlie was right. Everything in her life had changed. And here I was acting like a fool and putting added pressure on her, when my job was to help her through things. “I’m sorry. This is new to me too. Like you, a lot has changed for me—granted, not as much, but it’s still different. As far as being caught off guard, that I can understand. I thought Charlie was short for Charles.”
I smiled, making her laugh. “Yeah, I’m sure you did. Can we just sit and talk?”
“Sure.”
“Maybe have some popcorn and watch a movie?”
I let out an exhausted breath. “Yeah, okay.”
“Great. I’m going to get out of this outfit and change into my pajamas.”
She turned and hustled upstairs, leaving me to wonder what the hell had just happened.
Chapter 14
Charlie
Men had to be the most confusing creatures on the planet. One minute they looked at you like a kid who still played with dolls and wore braces. The next they wanted to be your protector and tell you they felt something for you. I glanced into the mirror at my freshly washed face. “Collin St. James said he felt something for you.”
How in the heck did I process that? And he never really said what he felt. Probably because I suggested a movie. Did he feel remorse that he was stuck with me? Or had he felt the attraction between us? Give me the topic of kinesiology and I’d scribe a complete thesis for you. I’d explain the mechanics and anatomy of human movement and how they affected your health. Ask me why we had more bones in our bodies as babies than we did as adults, and I could answer you. Ask me why a man acted the way he did, and I was clueless.
This was nothing against the male species. It was the way they were programmed. And despite my love of reading and studying, I highly doubted anyone could write a book on why they were the way they were. The best way to understand a man was to get to know him. Which was what I planned on doing.
The savory and delectable scent that belonged to butter filled my nose as soon as I hit the bottom step. Collin had changed into a pair of navy shorts that hit his knee and a gray T-shirt with the Thunder’s logo on it. And speaking of human movement and mechanics, no matter how Collin moved, muscles seemed to be everywhere. He wasn’t built like a bodybuilder; instead, his muscles were perfectly proportioned for his six-foot-something frame.
“Hey, do you want to pick the movie? I wasn’t sure what you were in the mood for.”
“Anything but sci-fi.”
His hand struck his chest. “You’re kidding. Those are my favorite.”
“Oh. If that’s what you want to watch, then we can.”
“No, it’s all good. I’ve probably seen them all anyway.” He grabbed the remote and began to cruise through the streaming app on his television. We settled on a series about royals rather than a movie.
We sat in silence for thirty minutes. Rather than remain that way, I asked, “Did you always know you wanted to be a football player? I mean, I remember you played in high school. But was that all you ever dreamed of doing?”
Collin paused our show. “Yes. I studied business in college as a fallback, but my main focus was and always has been football.”
I nodded. “That’s how I feel about medicine, and why I feel bad about DiNardo. He probably had the same dreams you did, and now he might not be starting.”
“Don’t feel bad. If you’re better, then you should play. It happens all the time. Each time there’s a draft or a rookie joins the team, the possibility to lose your position is there—no matter who you are. You’re good. You want to learn. It makesyoubetter.”
“Speaking of, did you know the circumference of the center of a football is approximately twenty-one inches? I read that during some research.” He smiled and nodded. “Right, of course you did. But did you know that the average handspan of a quarterback is nine inches?”