Page 110 of Tangled with the Tight End

She laughs and the sound fills my chest like helium.

“This was my second, and possibly last, time watching Jenny,” Winona says with a soft laugh.

“Did you have pets growing up?” I ask.

I want to know everything about her—everything I’ve missed all these years we were in the same town but separated.

“We had dogs. And I brought in random wildlife at times.” She shakes her head, biting a side of her lip, looking up at me briefly and then glancing over at Jenny who is innocently chomping away at the apple.

“Wildlife, such as … ?” I ask her.

She glances over, blushing slightly. “Frogs. Bunnies. Caterpillars. Lots of caterpillars. Once I brought a field mouse. It got out of the cage and Cass was freaking out that a mouse was going to creep into her bed at night. I secretly hoped it would sneak into mine. I named it and everything—Fluffball.”

I smile.

“What?” she asks.

“You’ve always been you.”

“I don’t know how to be anyone else.”

We drop Jenny back home and get back in Winona’s car.

“What are you doing the rest of today?” I ask.

“After I check your cast?”

“Yes.”

I’m trying my hardest to act neutral. Inside I’m practically chanting, “Say you don’t have plans! Say you don’t have plans!”

Delaney and Linc would have a field day right now. They’d have every right. No woman has ever been my undoing. I’m so out of my depth here.

“I’m not doing anything,” she says. “You?”

“I thought I’d eat this chicken and scalloped potatoes meal Claudette left. She made an apple pie too. Of course, there are two portions …” I glance over at Winona. “And the game is on.”

“The game!” Her face lights up.

“Want to stay? Eat and watch the game?”

She looks over at me. “I was hoping you’d ask.”

She looks back at the road too quickly for me to get a read on whether that hoping was platonic or if it’s the kind of hoping that’s been waking me up in the middle of the night to thoughts of her.

“I’m really looking forward to this game,” Winona says. “The Chiefs. They’re great in third-down situations. And their defense is versatile. I bet you experienced that in person. But their offense is their weakness. Inconsistent. They need a stronger left tackle this year. They could use you, since you’re so strong in both defense and receiving.”

She keeps driving as if she just sang a nursery rhyme instead of reciting a game day analysis that has me wanting her to pull the car over so I can finally kiss her. My jaw is on the floor.

She glances at me. “What?”

“What do you mean, what?” I smile, my brows dipping low as I try to figure this woman out.

Will she always be a puzzle, surprising me at every turn? I kind of hope so.

“Oh, that? Well, I’ve been watching some sports talk things. Did you know there’s even whole talk shows on the radio just about sports?”

“I actually did,” I say with a soft chuckle.