When I pulled back, we were both breathless, and I was on the verge of lifting her onto the counter and devouring her for breakfast. “That was…”
“Good morning.”
“Oh.”
Feeling only slightly guilty about knocking her off balance, I forced my attention off the way her diamond pointed nipples were poking through the front of my t-shirt and instead focused on food. “What’s all this then?”
“Well, I figured since you worked up such an appetite, you’d probably be hungry, so I made breakfast. I hope that’s okay.”
I hated that she questioned doing something nice. She shouldn’t have to. But I understood. It wasn’t her place and we were just finding our way. It was too soon to put labels on anything, but we’d get there. That was one thing I was sure of.
“Of course, it’s okay. What’ve we got?”
Focusing on eating the food in front of us, instead of each other, Claire asked a million questions. It was like being interrogated, but any time I tried to turn the conversation back around on her, she shut me down. Eventually I let it go. There was no point picking a fight with her after an awesome night.
“How’s the surfing going?” she asked with a wicked smirk.
“Yeah, I don’t know if I’ll keep going.”
“You’re giving up?” Her voice hitched up so high that I swear I could hear dogs in the neighbourhood whimpering.
“Not giving up. More, picking my battles,” I shrugged.
The truth was surfing was kicking my arse. I wasn’t getting any better and normally, I was a stubborn bastard that wouldn’t back down until I made it my bitch, but right now, I had more important problems to focus on. Like getting my mojo back on the soccer pitch before I spent the entire season with splinters in my arse from riding the pine. That wasn’t an option. My whole career, my whole future, my whole life depended on me playing. I had to get my shit together and time was running out. The season started in three weeks, and I was no closer to getting my hands on a starting jersey than I had been a month ago.
“You’ll get there. It just takes time and patience.”
“Yeah, I’m not really good on patience.”
Claire stood and started collecting dishes. “I never would’ve guessed,” she sassed.
After dropping her home, something I didn’t want to do, I dashed home, borrowed some of Luca’s equipment, and headed back to the club. Claire’s words still ringing in my head.
As she’d gone to climb out of my car, Claire had turned back to me with a deep, thoughtful look on her face. When she reached over the console and took my hand a warmth flooded me. “Seth, I know you probably don’t want to hear this right now, but try to cut yourself some slack. You don’t have to be the world’s best anything. Not today or tomorrow. No one expects you to be…”
“I expect me to be.”
“You need to ease up on yourself or you’ll give yourself a heart attack before you turn thirty. And I’m kinda wanting to keep you around for a while. So, if you could, I don’t know, maybe breathe… that’d be awesome.”
“So, you want me around, do you?”
“Is that all you took from that?”
“Was there more?”
“Boys!” she huffed, kissing me quickly before slipping from the car, leaving me watching her retreating arse with fascination and want.
