So to speak.
He glanced at the pool. She did too. The bola floated to the bottom in a slow circle. Waves rippled out on the surface of the water, shimmering in the floodlights. If she could see her own panic level, it would probably look something similar.
“Oopsies,” Kaci said.
Jackson gave Anna an amused once-over. “Darlin’, this one’s gonna cost you.”
“I’ll go get the pool skimmer.”
That made him grin bigger. “You afraid of the water, or you afraid of having fun?”
She was afraid of what seeinghimwet might do to the funny thumping in her chest.
He snagged his shirt behind his neck and stripped it off in one smooth motion. “Mind holding that for me?”
Reflex made her accept the warm fabric. She caught a flash of solid chest, a tiger paw tattoo and a sprinkling of dark hair. Her mouth went dry. He hopped into the pool, then dove down in one fluid stroke to snag the bola off the bottom.
Anna gulped. Her thighs quivered and her heart banged her chest so hard she checked to make sure her breastsweren’t bouncing.
He surfaced and held the bola up.
She reached for it and fumbled it twice before she had a solid grip on it, and even then, she almost dropped it back into the pool.
He pushed up out of the water and grabbed a towel. He gave his head a quick rub-down, making the muscles in his arms flex and stretch. Droplets sluiced down his chest and abdomen toward his waistband.
He tossed the towel aside, then pinned her with an amused look while he held out his hand for the shirt.
Caught. She nodded at his tattoo, which had the number 33 in the middle of the paw. “Huh. Thought that’d be your momma’s name.” Her voice almost sounded normal. She surrendered the shirt, praying it didn’t have any sweat marks from her clammy hands, and turned her back on him. She waved to Lance. “Ready when you are.”
Jackson stepped up beside her, his shirt on againthank God, and quietly watched Lance score a couple more points.
But once they’d gathered the bolas to take their turns, that ornery spark returned. “Sure you don’t want to go first?”
“I’m good. Thanks.”
“Starting to think you’re fixing to throw the game so you can get into my kitchen.”
If he’d promise to help with his shirt off… “Interesting. How big is it?”
“What you really gotta be thinking about is how I plan to use it.” He lined up for his first throw. “You watch this right here. I’m gonna show you the right way to ring a three-pointer.”
Anna suppressed a smile. “Uh-huh.”
“What? You think I can’t do it?”
She rolled her shoulders back. She’d forgotten the thrill that came with flirting. “Everybody gets lucky now and then.”
He chuckled. “Tell you what. I hit this one, you tell me how late you were to class that day we met.”
She hoped Kaci was right about his momma raising him right, or she’d be answering too many personal questions tonight. “And when you miss?” she said with more composure than she felt.
“IfI miss. Whatcha wanna know?”
The heat must’ve melted what was left of her brain, because she couldn’t think of a single decent question. “Why you thought of the Windex,” she finally said.
“Deal.” He let the bola fly. It circled through the air, then hit the three-point rung and wrapped itself neatly around.
That one would be impossible to knock off. “Sixteen minutes. My professor gave a pop quiz to start the semester, and I flunked it because I wasn’t there.”
