She walked fast, so much so that he was pretty sure she’d break into a sprint if he wasn’t careful. Was she serious? How the hell was he going to be able to focus on a game when he still couldn’t figure out why she preferred friends with benefits to him actuallyadmitting he might feel something more. Haddie was more spooked by all of this than even he was. Why?
“Haddie…” He put a hand on her forearm, grateful for his height and long strides so that just in case shediddecide to run, he could probably keep up for a bit before his knee began to protest.
“We’re almost there,” she told him, her voice too bright, too cheery. “We really don’t need to do this, Levi. We have a game to prepare for. You need to focus.” She brandished her fist like she was trying to pep up one of her own players. “You got this!”
Levi spun so he was walking backward, faster than he’d have liked when not watching where he was going, but he guessed he’d just have to trust that Haddie wouldn’t let him hurt himself.
“Haddie…” he said again, forcing her to look at him.
“Levi…” she replied, mimicking his tone but not giving him an inch.
He stepped in front of her and caught her by the shoulders right before she plowed into him. He had to plant his feet, though, to keep from letting her momentum knock them both to the concrete.
“Is that a…” he asked, narrowing his eyes at the topiary at the foot of the driveway next to them.
“Dragon’s ass?” she said, filling in his blank. “Yes. Part of the rebuild from last summer’s tornado.”
Levi barked out a laugh, but when he met Haddie’s gaze again, she was glaring at him.
“Come on, Birthday Girl. Shrubbery cut into the tail end of a dragon, and the tail endonlyis funny as hell.”
The corner of her mouth twitched, but she fought the smile.
So Levi tentatively let her go so he could back toward the trimmed green haunches and the bulbous behind that extended into a tail that snaked up the perimeter of the driveway. Then, as any grown man would, he hugged the dragon’s ass and asked Haddie to take a picture.
With a full-on snort, she broke.
“What is the matter with you?” she asked, grabbing him by the wrist, but Levi shook his head.
“You need to snap a photo first. And then, whenever you think you want to freeze me out, you look at that photo and remember that I embraced a dragon’s ass for you with no regard for my own well-being.”
She groaned, but she must have known he wasn’t going to budge until she complied, so she pulled her phone from her back pocket and, with a groan, snapped a photo.
“There,” she told him, flashing her phone’s screen at him to show that she had completed the requested task.
Levi straightened and smiled triumphantly. “And now that I have your attention, we’re going to talk about the damned fitting room,” he told her.
Haddie sighed, and he finally felt like he was making progress. “Fine,” she told him. “But not without balls.”
He choked. “I’m sorry…what?”
***
After setting the bag of food from Emma on the bench, Haddie dragged the mesh bag of soccer balls from the equipment shedbehind the bleachers while Levi carried a stack of orange cones.
Balls.
“You have to shoot a goal without being offside. I don’t even care if the ball makes it in the net. Once you get it, we’ll talk,” she told him as she dropped the mesh bag.
“Why do I feel like you’re betting on me to fail?”
She waved him off. “Give me those,” she told him, pointing to the cones, so Levi handed them over.
He watched as she put one just inside the goalie box and one several feet in front of the white square painted on the turf in front of the goal.
“These are the opposing team’s players,” she explained. “The goalie and the defender.”
Levi laughed. “Um, I think I can get a goal past a couple of coneheads.”
