Chapter Fifteen
Another soul-crushing dayin the corporate world where the most exciting part was a coworker accidentally clicking on an ad and moaning filling the office.
I walked from the Beemer to the front of my building while loosening my navy tie. Coming home to this brick beauty was my favorite part of my day. Where I shed the corporate lawyer skin and became me again—the change from Anthony to Fritz that I looked forward to all damn day. Inside the foyer, I checked my mailbox, and Nora’s singsong voice carried over from her unit. The front door was cracked open, and a sliver of irritation hit me. Did she not realize the door wasn’t closed?
“I’m so glad you’re doing well, Dad. I wish I could’ve come home. Uh-huh. Yeah. Sure.”
I couldn’t hear what he was saying, but it pleased her. She laughed, and the sound got louder when she pushed her door open. Her gaze landed on me and her eyes widened, and I was pretty sure she was happy to see me. The knot in my chest loosened at her warm expression.
“I gotta go, Dad. I need to tell you about my experience with ordering a cable guy. Yeah, I love you too.”
“A cable guy?” I asked, moving closer to her with the mail tucked under my arm. She moved within two feet of me and eyed my forearms like a kid at the candy store without a budget.
“Fritz, you look so handsome. Wow.” She grinned and swatted at my sleeves rolled up on my arms. “You look so businessy and professional. Were you on the job? Or an interview?”
“On the job,” I said, the lie running off my tongue like butter. “When did you call a cable guy? I could’ve arranged that for you.” I didn’t like the thought of some guy coming in there, seeing her and the plants, her not knowing what to do…
“Oh, it was no big deal. Angelica gave me the afternoon off, and I wanted to install cable so I could watch news and sports. Everyone talks about sports at the office, and while we didn’t entertain the idea of them at the house, they are pretty popular.”
“What sports do you intend to watch?” I asked, unable to help myself. These moments used to annoy me. Now, I loved them. I liked seeing small parts of her out of her element. I liked that I got to share these learning moments with her, so her calling a cable guy made me feel cheated. Experiencing her firsts had become a secret obsession.
Which—Wait, what? I blinked at the hard truth and took a step back. Then another.
“What are you doing?” she asked, making my heart rate spike.
“Nothing.” I stepped back again, my shoulder hitting the wall with our mailboxes. It stung, but I ignored it. “So what sports?” I asked, hoping to bring her attention back to the conversation and not me.
“Um, baseball. That’s what’s playing right now, yes?”
“Well, NBA playoffs too.”
“Right. NBA.”
“Basketball.”
“There’s also golf, NASCAR, and rugby if you want to watch international sports. Really, the sky’s the limit here.”
“Wow.” Her lips—pink today—formed anObefore they curved into a smile. “I should stick to baseball.”
“It’s my favorite sport.”
“Maybe we could watch a game together? My dad was telling me I need to get ‘real life experience’besides the foundation, and it seems sports are big around here.”
“And watching a baseball game with me would be experience?”
“Maybe?” She scrunched her nose and trailed her gaze over my face, chest, ending on my forearms. I swore she licked her bottom lip for a second, and a piece of my mail fell onto the floor, name up.
I bent down too fast, the same time she did, and we bumped heads as my pulse raced in my chest.
“Oof!”
“Shit, sorry.” I snatched the mail up, hiding my name, and rubbed the top of my head. “You all right?”
“Yeah. Dang, Fritz. Your head is like a rock.” She winced and ran a hand over her pink hair.
Without thinking, I reached over to make sure she didn’t have a bump. Her hair was feather soft, smooth, and my god, my skin tingled with want as I made sure her head was okay. She grimaced when I ran my fingers over the top part, and my stomach sank.
“I’m so sorry. Come on, I have an ice pack.” I let go of her hair, unwillingly, and gripped her elbow to drag her into my place. I set the envelopes on the counter and got an ice pack from the freezer and handed it to her. She gave me a weak smile before placing it right on her noggin. “Need some painkillers?”
