“I’ll take her,” Kirby offers and I look over at him, trying to hide my smile, “if that’s okay with you?”
“Works for me,” I say, my stomach fluttering like it’s home to a million butterflies. I give Ariella a hug and then look up at Kirby. “That was a good game.”
“It was”—he nods—“but seeing you in my jersey might be the best part.”
“A dare is a dare,” I remind him and he puts his hands in his pockets as we wait for his SUV. I hold up the bag. “Although now I have two.”
“What do you mean now you have two?” He looks at the bag, then the jersey on me.
“I went to the merch store before I got the official one,” I tell him and his eyes go big and then his face fills with a huge smile.
“Are you hungry?” he asks me and I nod my head, hoping I can just spend more time with him, even though there is no way I can eat another thing. “Come on,” he urges with his head toward his SUV, “I know a good spot.”
He opens the door for me and I get in, rubbing my palms on my jeans as I watch him walk around the SUV and say something to the guy in the red coat. He opens his door and gets in, looking over at me. “Kylie ditched you,” he says, taking off, his voice tight.
“She didn’t ditch me,” I counter. “She got a better offer.” He shakes his head. “I could have taken her SUV if I wanted,” I inform him as he makes it out of the parking lot and some of the fans yell his name. He stops the car, rolling down the window and signing a couple of things before continuing.
“How did you like the game?” he asks me.
“I forgot how much fun it is,” I say honestly.
“It’s only fun because we won.” He chuckles. “It would be a lot different if we lost.”
“Oh, for sure. It brought back lots of memories.”
“Your dad played for LA,” he says and I nod.
“This is where he started,” I state, my chest proud. “Do you know he was traded while he was in rehab?” I add and he gasps. “Yeah, and my uncle Matthew was the one who picked him up and took him to New York.”
“I didn’t know that,” he says and then stops in front of a diner. “That’s wild.” I open the door and step out.
“Yeah, it is,” I agree. “What’s even wilder is, my parents fell in love with each other, and he refused to tell her or even act on it until his one year of sobriety hit.” I wait for him to join me on the sidewalk before walking to the door. He opens it and holds his hand high on the door for me to step in before him. “Only then did he tell her.”
“You can’t fight love,” he declares, looking around at the almost full diner, the only seats are the stools at the counter. “Let’s sit over there,” he mentions at the end.
He sits on the last stool and I sit next to him. A woman comes out to take our order and I order a side of fries and he just looks at me. “I’m stuffed.”
“So then why did you say you wanted to eat?” He turns his stool toward me, his legs opening with mine in between his.
“I figured you were hungry,” I admit to him.
“I would have much preferred to go to my house,” he says and I look around.
“We still can. How about we take it to go?”
“You sure?” he asks me and I just nod my head. He holds up his hand, telling the waitress we are going to take our food to go, and then we make our way to his house.
“We can sit out on the deck. I have heaters.”
He walks into the house and I follow him and halt when I see the cat coming down the hallway and stopping when she sees me. “Well, hello there, Ms. Jefferson.” I bend to pick her up and hold her in my arms.
“She doesn’t like to be held,” he throws over his shoulder.
“She’s purring,” I remark as she looks up at me and I bend to kiss her, but her back paws push my face away. “Well, she lets me hold her,” I say, putting her down as I follow him into the house and out to the back patio. I hear the sound of the waves hitting the beach, but all I can see is blackness. He turns on the heaters before tossing his bag of food onto the table by the L-shaped oversized couch in the corner.
I sit down and watch him take off his jacket and toss it to the side before rolling up his sleeves. “So what’s new?” he asks me, taking a bite of the burger.
I sit back and turn my body to him, putting one leg up and even turning my hips to face him. “I have to talk to my lawyer tomorrow.” He stops chewing after I say what I have to say.
