Pretty sure my lungs stopped functioning at that point.
Twelve
JENSEN
Rowan blinked at me. A sexy slow blink, and my heart started to pound.
When she sank her teeth into her lower lip, I experienced that incredible rush of anticipation.
Finally.
I would finally get to kiss her.
She'd tilt her head and it'd be on.
It'd be one of those slo-mo¸ soft-focus, romantic movie kisses. Lips sliding together. Parting only to suck in a fast breath before the intense I-wanna-fuck-you sex kisses overwhelmed us both.
Then Rowan reached out . . . and playfully patted me on the cheek. "Dude. If you're that hungry I could fix you something to eat."
What?
She wasn't serious . . . was she?
My gaze narrowed on her lips. Her mouth moved. But I couldn't hear anything over the rat-a-tat-tat-tat sound of machine gun fire as she thoroughly shot me down.
Thoroughly.
Man. I needed a traffic cop to sort out the number of mixed signals this woman was sending me.
So I did what any self-respecting guy with a Titanic-sized hole in his ego would do . . . I said fuck it and kissed her anyway.
Not the tasteful, soft-porn type of kiss I'd envisioned. Not even the teeth-clacking soul kiss I craved. I gave her a hard, swift kiss, right on her surprised mouth, followed by a light head-butt, because apparently I was still a twelve-year-old boy and that was how I let her know I liked her even after she'd torpedoed my ego.
"You are tired if you thought I was talking about food," I said offhandedly as I stood.
"Jensen . . ."
"It's late. I just wanted to share the good news about camp. Astrid is creating registration documents, release forms, medical forms and all that necessary stuff that's out of my wheelhouse. So it'll probably be Monday before I can get that to you."
"Jensen."
"She mentioned that she'd like to have a phone conference with you early next week to discuss the best way to get in contact with the other parents whose kids were displaced. Oh, and during the cost analysis, we determined we need to add another ten kids to the camp for a better balance in the classroom. So if you have other kids in mind, talk to Astrid about adding them to the list."
"Jensen."
"We're opening up the building next week and I'll be there as much as my training schedule allows, getting it ready for opening day so you probably won't see me much-"
"Hey, dickhead. Stop babbling."
I turned around and faced her. "That's twice with the name-calling tonight, Coach."
"You brought it on yourself by talking over me."
"By all means. You've got the floor."
"Thank you. I . . ." She inhaled and slowly let it out. "I'm a shitty friend too, all right?"
Do not say anything even remotely smart-ass-y, Lund.
"This is new to me. It wasn't supposed to happen-"
"But it did. And ignoring it won't make it go away."
"As if I ever had a chance of ignoring you," she retorted.
My body language said, "Is that a bad thing?" even when I remained quiet.
"And I don't know what to do with it, okay?"
"I could give you a hint."
"I'm serious."
"So am I."
She sighed. "Fine. What is your hint?"
"The next time I want to kiss you? Let me."
"Oh for fuck's sake."
I laughed.
"Stop joking around." She blinked at me. "You are joking, right?"
I didn't answer. Let her come to her own conclusions. Or . . . let her stew. I smiled and said, "Good night, Rowan."
• • •
It'd been a long week.
Things weren't completely ready, but I'd called a staff meeting for Friday morning anyway.
A staff meeting. Me. Mr. Tune-Out during any meeting longer than five minutes where I wasn't watching guys get pummeled.
I had a feeling karma was about to bite me in the ass.
Every other camp-type situation I'd been involved in had been with other football players. So the work was split up between at least half a dozen of us. The camps never lasted long: three hours at the most. Then we'd have an autograph session.
This summer camp sent me into unknown territory and I'd dragged poor Astrid along for the ride. She'd been great this past week, but I needed her to be on top of everything the next three months because I'd be hit-and-miss. Realizing I preferred being a worker bee to being the big boss when it came to my LCCO responsibilities meant I had no ego about putting Astrid on the payroll and upping her responsibilities. But the truth was, my main responsibility was to train and prepare for football season.
I rolled out of bed and headed to the fitness center in the apartment complex. I wouldn't have time for a full workout before I met with the staff, but I could at least get cardio out of the way.