"Noah wasn't much of a video game player back in high school," Jilly said quickly. And then, more slowly. "At least not based on how many times I kicked his butt at Mariokart."
He shot her an incredulous look. She was teasing him?
"How come you don't have any video games now?" The younger boy asked. His voice was projecting toward Jilly, not Noah. At least, that was how it sounded.
"Video games are a privilege," she said quietly. "We can talk later about how you might earn some time to play."
There was a moment of awkward silence, and Noah again thought about closing the door. This wasn't a neighborhood chat. Why were they still here?
"I saw that football up on your shelf," the younger boy said, voice projecting at Noah this time. "Did you play football? Before you were blind?"
"Running back," he said. His voice was suddenly rough. "It was a long time ago."
This time, the awkward pause was shorter.
"He wasn't that great," Jilly said.
"Excuse me?" He coughed the words out.
"Our high school was small," she said. "We needed every guy in our class to make up a full team. I mean, I could always outrun you in flag football."
He laughed out an incredulous burst of air. "No, you couldn't."
He couldn't believe she would tease him like this. Nobody had dared to since high school. Nobody had gotten close enough to have the chance.
"Don't believe her," he told the boys.
"Hey!" she said.
"We've never seen you play flag football," PJ said quickly.
"She probably doesn't even own a football," Casey muttered.
Ouch. Guess she wasn't the boy's favorite person. She was making him fix his mistake, after all.
After that, the conversational pause stretched long and awkward. Finally, Jilly excused herself and the kids.
It was the middle of the night when he woke from a visceral dream of playing football tackling a laughing Jilly. Holding her in his arms. Looking down into her smiling face. Seeing her sparkling eyes.
He rarely dreamed, but when he did, he almost always dreamed as if he were still a sighted person. And this one made him feel as if he'd been tackled by a three-hundred-pound lineman.
He went to the bathroom and splashed cold water on his face.
This was not gonna work. Two days of her presence outside his house, and he was dreaming about her.
Not good.
