A Better Man(23)

"I'll be in touch." She slung the bag over her shoulder and headed toward the door.

For a moment he watched her walk away, if only to get a good look at the way her straight black skirt hugged all those nice curves he'd noticed last night. On anyone else, the white Keds tennis shoes she wore would be far from sexy. But he couldn't deny the woman's veiled sensuality.



       
         
       
        

As soon as she reached the café door he tossed money to cover their bill on the table, grabbed the box of cookies, and followed her outside.

"Hold up." He caught her at the curb. "You forgot the cookies."

"You really don't expect me to eat all those, do you?"

He grinned. "I can come over and help you make them disappear."

"Flirting again, Mr. . . . Jordan?"

"Always, Lucy."

"Have a nice night." She opened the door of a white Honda and set the cookie box on the passenger seat, giving him a nice view of her behind. "Feel free to contact me through the school with any relevant information on the situation and I'll do likewise."

Wait.

That's not how he'd planned for this to go.

He wanted a chance to talk to her now and again. He liked her. Or at least he'd liked the girl she'd been. He wanted a chance to get to know the woman better.

"I have another idea."

She straightened and curled her hand over the top of the car door. "Oh goody."

Despite her sarcastic tone, he moved up beside her. "How about we get together a couple of times a week to compare notes?"

"A couple of times a week?"

He nodded.

"A note or a phone call would be sufficient."

"I'm not much of a phone guy. I always do my talking in person. That's why I'm so successful on the ice."

"Yes." Her gaze dropped down his body, then came back up to search his face. "I'm sure you are."

Did she just check him out?

"So we can get together?" He tried not to sound hopeful and needy. But at the moment, that's exactly what he was. He didn't know how to reach his sister any better than he knew how to break through Lucy's barrier.

"Will you continue to pester me if I refuse?" she asked.

"Yes."

"How did I already know that?"

"How about I call you tomorrow to set up a place and time to meet again?"

"Tomorrow? I don't see how much can change in just a day."

He smiled. "I like to remain optimistic."

"So do I. Just be careful you don't put too much pressure on Nicole. Optimism is often disguised by impatience." 

"See, that's the kind of thinking I need right now. But all I've got are replays of past goal shots in my head."

"You were never a dumb jock, Jordan. You just need to take a breath before you deal with this. Teenage girls are complicated."

"Got news for you. So are grown women."

She gifted him with another chuckle. "Give me your phone."

He pulled it from his pocket and handed it to her. He waited while she tapped in her number, then handed it back.

"Give me a call. You'll find me in your contacts between Bambi and Portia."

"So you're saying you're into threesomes?"

With an eye roll she slid inside her car, closed the door, and started her engine.

Before she put the car in drive, he tapped on the window and waited till she rolled it down.

"Did you forget something?"

"Yes." He took a deep breath. "I forgot to say I'm sorry."

"For?"

"For not showing up on graduation night to take you to the dance."

Her silence confirmed that she'd not forgotten that night any more than he had.

"That was fifteen years ago," she said. "It hardly matters now."

"It matters to me. It always did. I tried to call you to apologize and explain that when my friends found out I was taking you to the dance, they waylaid me and got me shitfaced before I knew what was going on."

"I'm sure they thought they were doing you a favor."

"I didn't give a shit what they thought. The massive amount of alcohol they poured in my soda was what stopped me."

"Like I said, it doesn't matter now."

"You're wrong, Lucy. And I'll prove it."

"No need."

As her little white Honda disappeared down the street, Jordan wondered how the hell he was going to multitask everything when so far in his life he'd been one-­dimensional. But he'd made promises and he meant to keep each and every one of them.

Even if it killed him.

A regular school day could melt a teacher's energy depending on whether the students behaved or whether they'd chosen the wild kingdom rule of the day. Today, Lucy's students had called upon their inner hyenas, and by the time she'd reached her car in the school parking lot, she'd felt like a zookeeper on her first day on the job.