“I’m just warning you.” I shrug. “I’ve gotten better-looking, and when you see me again you’re going to want a sequel to that kiss—and a whole lot more. And I’m willing to let that happen.”
“Why are you so ridiculous?”
“Because it’s fun,” I reply. “And I like acting a little crazy. It’s charming.”
“Or it’s just crazy,” she counters and lets out a breath so deep and long it borders on a sigh. “Eli, I never would have let that kiss happen if I realized you’d been drafted by the team I work for.”
“Yeah, but you did let it happen, and we had a connection. Admit it.”
She presses those gorgeous lips together. She’s physically trying to stop herself from answering, which is totally an answer unto itself. I grin. She blushes. I can even see it through the screen, and it makes me grin bigger.
Her defenses seem to be crumbling. “You’re growing a beard?”
I reach up and scrub my jaw. “I was going to try it out. What do you think?”
She smiles but then forces her lips into a straight line. “It’s…it doesn’t matter what I think.”
I lean closer to the screen and decide to really push her limits by hitting her with one of those pickup lines she loves to hate. “My beard wants to know if you would like a comfortable place to sit down?”
She laughs—a loud, high burst of a sound that causes her to clamp her hand over her mouth to try to contain it. I laugh with her.
“It’s good to talk to you.” I say it with a softness and sincerity that shocks even me, and it quells both our laughter.
She’s smiling now though, not looking horrified, which is a victory. “How have you been?”
“Okay,” I reply vaguely. “I’d ask you how you are, but you can tell me in person when we spend the night together after the charity event.”
“Elijah, you can’t stay with me,” she replies sternly. “You have to forget that kiss ever happened. Truly. And you can’t ever tell anyone about it. Please say you haven’t told anyone.”
“I haven’t and I won’t,” I promise. “But it was fun. I don’t have enough fun in my life, and you definitely don’t seem like you do.”
She looks confused, like she can’t decide if that was an insult or not. It wasn’t. I was just stating a fact. The last time I saw her she was way too stressed for a single, sexy woman under thirty. She bites her bottom lip, and for some reason watching her do that turns me on and solidifies my decision. “I’m spending an extra night in San Fran, so book it that way or I’ll just stay anyway.”
“You can’t stay with me or see me. Not outside of the event.”
“We can talk about it more later,” I say and I give her another cocky smile. “After all, I have your phone number now and a week to convince you otherwise.” I stand up, knowing the camera is now directly focused on my bare waist. I reach for my belt and start to undo it. “Would you like to see what you’ll miss if you don’t change your mind?”
“Eli. Don’t you dare.” Her eyes grow wide and her mouth starts to fall open.
I get the belt undone and reach for the button.
“Good night, Eli!”
The screen goes black as she ends the call.
I laugh, close my laptop and continue to take off the rest of my suit, smiling the entire time. Somehow, talking to Dixie completely one-eightied my mood.
I’ve thought about Dixie more than a few times since that night we kissed. I hadn’t had a chance to see her since that preseason game last year because the Thunder didn’t call me up again. They tested me out, and I failed miserably. There was a party after the game at the team owner’s house, and I was feeling like shit and sulked by the bar. Dixie found me and we spent a big chunk of that night bantering—hell, flirting—and even though it didn’t go further than that, it saved me from the darkness of my own thoughts. And this call a year later, out of the blue, just did the same thing.
I walk back out to the kitchen naked and grab another beer, bring it back to the bedroom and crawl into bed. All the bullshit of the night seems less important now. The frustration of losing the game, the anguish of watching that video, the annoyance of talking to my mother—it’s all forgotten by the unexpected pleasure of seeing and talking to Dixie again.
I don’t know how, but Dixie keeps popping back up in my life right when I need something good. And since the bad is far outweighing the good these days, I’m not about to let her disappear again, whether she likes it or not.
2
Dixie
Morning, Dixie!”
