"Liar."
A flash of guilt shone in her eyes. "Okay, I never thought it would happen with you."
"Because I'm an athlete? Or because you think I'm a player?"
"Both."
"Football is a game for me. I'd never play around with your feelings. What's between us? Not a game. That's another thing I want you to remember when you're dissecting the fact I finally fucking kissed you."
Her eyes searched mine. "How did you know I'd be dissecting it? God, Lund, how do you know me so well?"
"I pay attention when it's important. And make no mistake . . . you are important to me."
The way she kept running her hands over my chest with purposeful but unintentional sensuality kicked my desire to the next level. She'd be a thorough lover-of that I was certain. She gave her all to everything she did; sex wouldn't be any different.
She pressed her palms against my pectorals. "Why did you just growl at me?"
I leaned in and put my lips to her ear. "Because I was thinking about you being naked in my bed and touching me like that."
Rowan shivered. "I worry that I'll be a disappointment."
"Why?"
"Because it's been a while for me." She groaned into my neck. "And I can't believe I just told you that."
"You think telling me that you haven't been screwing around the past six years you've been raising your son alone is gonna deter me?" I softly blew in her ear until she shivered again. "Fuck. No." I kissed the side of her neck and forced myself to push her away. "Go back to work, Coach."
She blew out a deep breath. She turned to leave-man, I loved to watch that ass of hers in motion-but then she stopped and whirled back around.
This time I had no idea what she'd say. But it turned out she didn't say anything at all-at least not with words.
My sexy spitfire cheerleader trapped my face in her hands and kissed me. Her tongue pushing past my lips, searching for mine. Her fingernails digging into my scalp, knocking my sunglasses to the ground. Her quiet hum of desire vibrating between us like a promise.
She teased: a nibble of her teeth on the fleshy inside of my bottom lip. She seduced: a rhythmic sucking on my tongue. The dizzy sensation swamped me, forcing me to curl my fingers into the brick behind me to keep from touching her.
Then she used the damp slide of her lips across mine to gently break the connection.
Rowan had just made it clear that I might've made the first move, but she was making the second.
After a lingering sweep of her hands through my hair, she stepped back and walked away without saying another word.
Best. Lunch. Ever.
• • •
Later in the afternoon, I wandered through the school. Trinity had young artists spread out in a circle on the floor as she demonstrated how to draw a flower with colored pencils.
In the café-torium, Dallas directed the thespians in an improv scene about working in a busy restaurant.
In the music room, Todd strummed a guitar as the kids shared the names of their favorite songs.
In Lucy's craft room, the students were choosing supplies off the long table while Lucy explained the options for the day's jewelry. An angry Jax lurked in the back of the classroom, so I beckoned him out.
"What?"
"Don't do this, man."
"Do what?"
"Make this about you. If you're volunteering to spend extra time with Mimi, then you shouldn't be in Lucy's room glaring at her. Whatever issues you two have, they don't get addressed or dealt with here."
Jax squared off against me. "Mimi is in that class right now. So I was in there because of her. When I tried to help her, Mimi said she wasn't a baby and didn't need my help."
"So you stuck around to glare at Lucy because it's somehow her fault that Mimi didn't need your help?"
"Yes. No." He sighed. "Fuck. I had no idea that Lucy was an expert at this artsy-fartsy stuff to the point of it being her business for a while."
After seeing firsthand what Rowan went through every day being a single parent, I had no sympathy for my whiny-ass, overprivileged cousin. "You didn't know because you didn't bother to ask. It's no secret that making jewelry went from being Lucy's hobby to her livelihood because you refused to support her and your daughter." I got right in his face. "It pisses me off that Lucy was struggling, right under our noses, raising your child alone while you were off hitting the bottle and nailing every chick who so much as breathed on you. And you had the balls to lie to all of us about it. So now that you're finally on the right path, don't put your frustration with yourself and your parental shortcomings on Lucy. Don't turn into that bitter guy who blames everyone else for his crappy decisions."