Chuckling, he shook his head. “Man, any black woman with that Halle Berry 90s haircut and that Nia Long swag don’t have time for the bullshit. She’s the type you wife up, quick.”
My lips curled into a scowl. “Don’t even think about it.”
“Who? Me? Nah, man.” Kelvin shook his head, chuckling. “Chicks with short hair don’t play. They don’t have time to waste doing their hair, and they sure as hell don’t have time to put up with my bullshit.”
My head began nodding in agreement before I realized what I was doing. “She’s more beautiful than Nia Long.”
“The fuck? The hell you know about Nia Long?”
I cut a look in Kelvin’s direction before turning back to the beauty at the front of the room. “Don’t worry about it.”
I spared Kelvin little more attention as Destiny McCloud began with her lessons by first explaining her professional background. I got wrapped up in the melodic sound of her voice as she spoke about budgeting and living beneath your means. My eyes followed everywhere she went in the room. And move around she did. My chest tightened when, on more than one occasion, a player would ask a question in an obvious attempt to flirt. Time flew by in that lecture hall as Destiny handled herself well among some intimidating looking men, answering questions about money management and informing us all of the syllabus over the next few weeks. She’d actually written up a syllabus that was passed out to all of us. Had this been anyone else, I wouldn’t have glanced twice at the paper. Hell, I’d barely looked at any of the syllabi I’d gotten while I was actually in college. I’d hated school and just barely gotten by. I’d done the minimum needed to be able to continue playing sports.
Looking over the weekly lessons, I grinned when a question formed in my head.
“Excuse me?” I raised my hand.
Destiny’s head lifted, and our gazes colliding. Her eyes widened just slightly before they returned to their normal size.
“I see next week we’ll be discussing the basics on investing. I was wondering if beforehand you could just answer for me, what is the difference between a stock and a bond?” I asked in my most charming voice, and prepared myself for the verbal assault I’d knew my question would bring.
Destiny didn’t disappoint when her back went ramrod straight, eyes narrowing, pouty lips forming into a frown that made me want to lick all of her remaining lip gloss off, ever so slowly until she begged me to take her.
I’d gotten somewhat lost in that little fantasy before realizing that she’d begun moving up the stairs until she came to stand directly over me. I inhaled deeply and that fresh scent of lavender and mint flooded my airway again.
“The difference between a stock and a bond,” she repeated, arms folded across her chest.
My grin widened as I nodded. “Yes, that’s what I asked.”
“Sounds like silver spoon needs to learn more about money.” A round of laughter in response to Leonard’s joke sounded.
“Hey, Riggs,” I called but my eyes never left Destiny, “do yourself a favor and shut the fuck up before I shove one of these chairs up your narrow ass.” I cut my eyes in his direction before returning to the woman before me. I grew even more pissed when I saw that her gaze was no longer on me, but across the room at Leonard.
“I’m sure what Mr. Riggs meant to say was that it’s interesting you of all people, Mr. Townsend,” she turned her attention back to me, squelching the heat of jealousy in my chest that’d begun to grow, “don’t know the difference between a stock and a bond.”
My eyes made their way from her face down her petite frame, admiring every dip and curve along the way. “Guess I never paid attention to all that stuff.” My voice had dropped low. “Maybe you can teach me.”
She blinked before taking a step back and lifting a perfectly arched eyebrow. “I’ll be teaching you exactly what I teach the rest of your teammates, Mr. Townsend.” She pivoted on her heels, starting for the head of the lecture hall again, but paused and turned to glance at me over her shoulder. “And I suggest you bring a paper and pencil to take plenty of notes because I don’t enjoy repeating myself.”
With that, she turned and walked away, leaving me to watch the sway of her hips.
“I’ve got something you can repeat, over and over again,” I mumbled, feeling energized by our brief exchange. My body felt as if I’d just awakened from the best eight hour sleep I’d had in a long time, instead of having just coming in from a grueling two-hour, early morning practice. I smiled down at the woman who’d just sealed her own fate and didn’t even know it.
Chapter Two
Destiny
“Brenda told me you’d be able to handle this group but I was worried. I should’ve known better.”
I laughed and smiled at Coach Mike McClellan. “Yes, you should’ve.” We were in his temporary office on campus, debriefing, as he called it, after my first money management course with his team. Mike took his role as head coach of the Williamsport Cougars very seriously. There was serious talk of the team going all of the way to the Super Bowl this year. But Coach McClellan didn’t just care about his players’ performance on the field, he cared about them as individuals, hence the reason he’d approached the team’s owners to fund this short money management course. Despite my initial objections, I had to say, the team was paying me very nicely to teach their players what I knew about managing money and planning for the future.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen Leonard Riggs stunned into silence like that. Hell, I don’t think I’ve seen my whole team stunned into silence like that. Not by a—” He stopped.
I lifted my brows. “It’s okay, you can say it. Not by a woman.”
He chuckled and cleared his throat. “I didn’t say it, you did.”
I shrugged. “It’s fine. Just speaking the truth.”
