Stealing Home(47)

Maybe I should have been panicking that Luke’s sister had just called us out, but then again, maybe I shouldn’t gave gotten involved with a player on the same team I worked for. My should-have radar was seriously misfiring lately. “You just met me. How do you know that’s not how I look at and act around everyone?”

“I don’t.” Alex lifted her shoulders. “But I do know the way my brother looks at and acts around people, and this isn’t how he acts around everyone else.”

I felt a smile tugging at the corners of my mouth. “Really?”

“Really.”

“That obvious?”

“If it makes you feel better, I am especially observant.” She lifted her hand at her sisters when they popped out of their dressing rooms and waved her over. Then she faced me with an expectant expression.

“He’s good,” I answered. “This is my first season with the team, so we’re really just getting to know one another, but he seems good. Happy.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Good. That’s a relief. Luke’s been through a lot. Our parents. His career.” She paused, her eyes moving to her brother. “Other stuff.” I was just about to ask her what other stuff she was talking about when she added, “He spends all of his worry on us, but then who worries about him?”

“You do?” It wasn’t a guess—it was obvious.

“Don’t tell him.” She lifted her finger to her lips. “He likes to think the three of us have nothing more to worry about than what color we want to paint our toenails and turning our homework in on time.”

“Not a word,” I promised.

As she headed for the dressing rooms, she waited for me to come up beside her. “So you guys are seeing each other?”

I guessed my long inhale was all the answer she needed.

“Can I talk in hypothetical terms?” she asked.

“If I can answer hypothetically.”

“Fair’s fair.” She nudged my arm. “If you were seeing him, I’d tell you you’re dating the best guy in the whole world.”

“Yeah? Why would you say that?” Not that I was arguing, but I was curious to know why a teenage girl thought her big brother was the best guy in the world. Most girls her age thought some magazine-cover dude with tattoos and supposed swagger was the height of the male species.

“Because it’s the truth. Luke takes care of people. He’s loyal. He does the right thing.” She squinted like she was trying to focus on something. “Sometimes to a fault.”

I nodded. “I’ll take that under advisement. Hypothetically. Anything else?”

A sales associate was helping Alex into a dressing room beside her sisters, but before she closed the curtain, Alex stuck her head out. Those same hazel eyes I’d seen on her brother locked on mine. “Yeah, if you hurt him, you’ll have three sisters to answer to.”





WE WERE BOTH exhausted. Spending twelve hours at a mall with three girls had a way of doing that to two people as averse to malls as Luke and I were. So would trying to eat as much mall food as one’s stomach could hold without erupting. If I never saw another salted pretzel, tub of cheese sauce, or ice cream cone again, I’d be good.

We had just dropped the girls off at the airport after packing and picking up their luggage at Luke’s apartment and were heading back to his place, both of us looking like we were in a state of mall shock and sleep deprivation. But as soon as we came within a block of his apartment building, our energy zapped to life.

He was still in the Ray’s get-up, although he’d tossed the hat in the garbage can back at the airport, claiming he didn’t give a shit if anyone recognized him without it. He just couldn’t take another second of it on his head.

I’d never been so keenly aware of a man and his desire for me pulsing in waves over me. I’d never been so keenly aware of my own desire for a man, to the point of feeling like I was swallowing my heart with every breath.

Instead of pulling up to the front of the building as I had last night when dropping him off, I pulled into the garage. I told myself it was because wheeling him back to his apartment would take time, but I knew it was because I wasn’t in a hurry to leave. Especially now that we were alone.

Turning off the ignition after pulling into his reserved parking space, I sat there, staring out the windshield, wondering if he could hear my heartbeat.

From the smirk I could see out of the corner of my eye, I guessed he could.

“So I kept my promise for the day, and if my ass never has to sit in one of those things again, it will be too damn soon.”