Page 6 of Playing for Love

I heaved a breath and tried to steel myself against the melting. It was like he’d read my mind.

“You’re awfully sensitive for a big strong football player, aren’t you?”

His mouth, perpetually quirked to show off his right dimple, mesmerized me as he leaned forward, bringing said mouth close, but not close enough.

“Nah. I’m the quarterback. Good at reading situations.”

“And people?” I sat still, in a daring mood and I hadn’t had a drop to drink.

“Especially people.”

But it wasn’t a brag, more a statement of fact which I knew from my personal experience just this evening that he could back up. After a silent pause during which I couldn’t think what to say, he sat back against the cushion of our booth, easing the tension between us a fraction.

“I have a guy in mind. He’s in need of a good woman. He’s new to town like you. And lonely, I think.”

“Like me?”

“No. I don’t get a sense that you’re lonely. Or needy. You’re too . . . self-contained.”

“Like you?”

“Touché. You got me.”

“So who is this poor lonely man?”

“Tate Fontanna. We picked him up in a free agency deal on the off-season. A defensive player.”

“You don’t have to couch terms for me. I know football. And I know who Tate Fontanna is. Your new linebacker. Usually plays the middle, but he’s versatile. A quarterback pressure specialist who led the league in sacks last year.”

He let out a whistle. “I’m truly impressed, young lady. Did you do your homework for the occasion or are you a true fan?”

“True fan. You probably don’t remember that I was a cheerleader at Auburn.”

“Oh, but you’d be wrong about that.” The look in his eyes was hot but it made me shiver.

“In fact, before Denise started dating you, before she ever met you, I had a crush on you from afar.” I laughed at myself, unsure why I was confessing. “Like every other coed at Auburn did.” Must have been a fit of conscience that made me admit to it. If possible, his eyes intensified as the corners of his mouth lifted and his pearly whites gleamed.

“Is that so? I wonder why I never met you then?” It sounded like a line, or would have if it wasn’t for the stare that held me. Get a grip, Mia.

“Unless you hung out in the library or physiology labs, that would have been unlikely. I didn’t go out much, didn’t travel in your social circles.”

“No, I suppose not. You’re a serious one. The kind of woman who could be a model yet chooses to be a nurse with purpose, putting yourself into life and death situations on a daily basis.” He sounded impressed. Hell, even I’d be impressed with the way he talked about me, if I didn’t know better. Compared to my father, I was merely a foot soldier though.

“You’re far too kind and generous,” I said.

“You don’t care that every man who sees you stares? To the point of walking into traffic rather than turn his head away from you? I think I saw it happen a dozen times in college.”

“You’re trying to make me blush now.” And I did. He’d watched me from afar in college. Same way I’d watched him. Warmth flooded my cheeks as if I were a child. But the moist heat in my panties told me I was far from an innocent little girl. This man did things to me and I should know better, needed to shut this overexcited reaction to him down. Banish that old crush. I wasn’t that young coed anymore. A lot had happened since then. I’d lost my father.

“A very charming blush.” He paused, his face tilting away, amused. “I bet you don’t even notice, do you?”

“I’m sorry—notice what?”

He laughed. “Notice men walking in front of trucks, getting themselves killed so they can stare at you.”

“Oh, that’s all,” I said. He was being funny now and that made me more comfortable.

In a fit of conscience, I rushed in to stay on track with the fix-up. I rummaged in my bag for my card.