Kendall looked back at him.
Chapter Twelve
* * *
DREW THREW HIS front door open and reached out for Kendall. He pulled her inside his house, nudged the door shut with one elbow, and wrapped his arms around her. He took a deep breath of her green apple scent. She slid her arms around his waist and snuggled against him. He laid his scratchy cheek against her softer one.
“When did you decide you were coming to visit?” he said.
“Last Tuesday morning,” she said.
“How long can you stay?”
“My flight leaves at ten AM tomorrow,” she said. “Quick trip.”
“It’s a good thing I didn’t go out with the guys tonight.”
“Yes, it is.”
Their mouths met in a sweet, fleeting kiss. He nibbled at her bottom lip and heard her soft snort of laughter. He had ten hours with her at most. He was exhausted from today’s game, his parents were upstairs, and he was going to be sore as hell later from getting knocked on his ass for three hours by guys who outweighed him, but he’d cherish any time at all with her.
“Would you like the good news or the bad news?” he said. He smoothed the hair out of her eyes.
“I’ll live dangerously and take the bad news.”
“My parents are here. They’re in the bedroom next door to mine.”
“Aren’t they asleep?”
“I don’t think so. That’s why I’m downstairs.”
He felt her laugh. “Oh, no.”
“I understand it’s the twenty-first century, but I do not want to think about my parents having sex, let alone overhear it.” He let out a breath. “Maybe they’re reading the Bible to each other or something.”
“The last time I visited my parents, I found out they can get pretty loud,” she said.
“Reading the Bible?”
“Yeah, that’s it,” she said. “Let’s say I’m happy for them, but I don’t want to know, either.” She looked up at him. “What’s the good news?”
“You’re here, and my mom baked a cake earlier. There are leftovers.”
“If you’ll point me toward your kitchen, I’ll race you there,” she said.
A FEW MINUTES later, Drew shut off the television and dimmed the lights in his family room. He also flipped the switch to turn on the gas fireplace. He and Kendall sat down on the family room couch with a piece of cake and a glass of wine for her. He slid his arm around her shoulders. Kendall took a bite of the cake and let out a little moan.
“Does your mom visit often? I might have to move in here. This is unbelievably good.”
“My mom will be thrilled you liked it. Move in anytime,” he joked.
“Maybe I could telecommute.” She let out a sigh and balanced the cake plate on her lap as she laid her head on his shoulder. “You can’t stop thinking about me and I can’t stop thinking about you. I don’t want you to get in trouble because you’re seeing me, but I miss you. Do we meet up in an airport once a week or something?”
She fed him a bite of cake. It tasted even better than it had earlier. He wondered if she would object if he swiped his finger through the frosting, touched it to the tip of her nose, and licked it off. She’d asked him a question, though. He needed to come up with a substantive answer. The blood had left his brain and rushed to another part of his anatomy, which was currently hard. Verbal communication wasn’t his strong suit right now.
He’d met Kendall a little over a week ago. She worked twelve to fifteen hours a day during football season for the Sharks’ most hated rival. She’d cut back to ten hours a day or so during the offseason. She lived two states away. She couldn’t move, and he had to live in the Seattle area during the six months a year he played for the Sharks. He didn’t want her to become the punchline of late-night comedians’ jokes or endless discussions on sports radio about a powerful female executive getting romantically involved with what could potentially be a team employee, but he couldn’t stand the thought of her with another man, either. He reached out for the plate she balanced on her lap. Setting the plate down on the coffee table in front of them, he wrapped his arms around her.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I do know, however, that I want to spend more time with you.”
He saw her eyes sparkle as she smiled. “I want to spend more time with you too.”
“So we’re in agreement on this,” he said.
“Yes.” She moved a little closer to him.
If his parents hadn’t decided to visit, they could have had this conversation with a whole lot less clothing on. He wasn’t about to entertain in his room with his mom (who had hearing like a bat) one wall away from them. He thought he’d left the worries behind regarding what his parents were going to think or say about his having a female guest over after he qualified for a jumbo mortgage loan. Evidently not.