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She took the chair with a nod and a glance. “I’ve hit a wall over Erik and Rhett so I was hoping talking to the players would give me some insights. Would you mind if I do interviews tomorrow or will that interfere with your practice?”

“The players you’ll want to interview will be the easiest to fit back into practice. Their positions on the team aren’t in question, just their conditioning.”

She nodded like that all made perfect sense. Maybe it did. Maybe Kate was an athlete herself. I had no idea because I didn’t really know her.

“I appreciate your flexibility.” Her voice still had that warm vibration to it that I liked so much at Red’s.

After my night back home I swore I would keep things professional with Kate when I saw her again, but I already felt my resolve slipping. What was it about her? She was a woman. There were lots of women. Why her? Sure she was beautiful and smart, but all she had to do was walk near me and I was drawn to her like a damn magnet. I couldn’t stop memorizing every detail of her body or wanting to find something—anything—to make the conversation last just a little longer. I felt good when she was near.

“Where did you grow up?”

She started. “Fort Myers. You?”

Just south of here. So close and yet so very far for two kids. “Calusa Key.”

She smiled. “We grew up just an hour from each other. We might have met before and don’t remember it. Are you that kid who dropped ice cream on my feet at Sea World?”

When I laughed, her eyes lit up in a way that made my skin heat. “Are you the girl who photobombed my family photo at Cape Canaveral?” It was strange to think it was possible. Improbable, sure, but not impossible. “Have you ever been to Calusa Key?”

She nodded. “Twice. Once on a field trip and once with a friend.”

“Field trip?”

“My high school had an environmental education track. Nerd, remember? We took field trips to different ecosystems to study them in person.”

“You’ve been to my sanctuary.” For some reason that made me excited. It wasn’t like it was mine when we were teenagers. “I was the ranger for the Calusa Key Sanctuary for the last five years.” We regularly had school groups through the sanctuary. It was one of my favorite parts of the job, actually.

“You’ve…been a ranger for the last five years?”

I guess she hadn’t gotten to my resume yet. “Yep. Bet you’re wondering how a guy like me ends up in an office like this.”

“I am utterly fascinated.”

A wonderful, terrible idea hit me. “Have you had dinner yet?” Was it pushing things to have dinner alone with the woman I was desperately attracted to? Yes. Was I going to stop myself?

Hell no.

“No,” she said slowly.

I hopped to my feet. “Excellent. I’ll tell you the story over dinner then.”

“Isaac.”

“Just dinner, Kate. I’m hungry, you’re hungry, and we have some work-related conversations to have.” I held my breath while she stared at the wall behind my desk.

“Just dinner,” she muttered, then nodded once and stood. “Where to?”

“How do you feel about sushi?”

Her eyes narrowed. “I love sushi, but that’s somewhere I usually go on a date, not a business dinner.”

With us, did it really matter? “When I’m stressed I like to eat delicious meals. I have a tendency to skip them because I work straight through.”

“Fine,” she said with a sigh. “I could use some comfort sushi, too.”

I held open the door. “Stirling’s giving you a hell of a time?” I loved her jeans. They cupped her ass in just the right way.

She glanced over her shoulder just as I pulled up alongside her, almost as if she could feel my eyes looking where they shouldn’t. “Harder than most. It comes with the job.”