The Rookie: Book 2 The Last Play Series (11 page)

T
hey sat
in an Italian restaurant called Cisneros. They’d both ordered the traditional spaghetti with meatballs and garlic bread. As they waited for their food, Legend couldn’t deny that he was happy sitting across from Charity. She looked stunning. Which, he had to concede, she normally did. He’d taken her back to her grandfather’s place, and she’d quickly showered and changed into dark jean capris and a fitted turquoise top. Just like last night, she only wore a little mascara and lip-gloss. He felt like he was the luckiest guy in the world, but of course to her, they were just friends.

“Can you believe it?” Charity beamed at him. “I…I…” she trailed off emotionally.

He leaned over and reached for her hands, which were clasped on the table, giving them a squeeze. “It’s awesome!”

He didn’t know if she meant to, but with unusual speed, she tugged her hands back and smacked the table. “Rosie was right.” She grinned. “We’ll have to stop by the restaurant after.”

“Absolutely.” He nodded in agreement. Thinking of Rosie’s excited, kind face made him smile. “That reminds me. I have a question for you.”

Her eyes gleamed with happiness. “Sure.”

“Well,” he said, pulling out the airline ticket he’d asked the office worker at the hotel to print out for him. “I thought I’d take a chance and see if you wanted to go to draft day with me?” he hesitated and then continued, “If everything goes okay with your grandfather, of course.”

She grinned. “After you’ve been here for me all this time, of course! I have to be there when Legend James gets called up to the Destroyers as the number one draft pick.”

Her excitement made him happy. “Awesome.”

The energy coming off of Charity was palpable tonight. He found it intoxicating.

She smacked the table with both hands again. Her hair was still slightly damp, and he liked the way it had turned kind of frizzy. It made her look young and untainted by the hard events of the last few days. “That’s it, Leg. We’re going dancing tonight,” she declared.

Liking the sound of it, he mock frowned. “We are, are we?”

Like a flash of lighting, she shot out of her seat and leaned over. “Don’t tease me right now.”

This made him roar with laughter, reveling in her energy. It reminded him of the way he felt after winning a big game. He lifted his water glass and held it out to her. “Then dancing it is.”

Clinking their glasses so hard Legend thought they might break, she beamed. “There’s a place down the street that’s kind of alternative. It’s a little too loud and crazy for me most of the time, but not tonight.”

Just as she finished talking, their food was delivered.

“Sounds like we should carb load.”

Both of them shoved food into their mouths at a faster than polite rate.

Of course, Legend wasn’t repulsed by fast eaters. He did live with football players, but to watch her, inhaling like it would disappear if she took a breath or a sip of water, made him crack up. “Take a breath there, Rook.”

Stopping immediately, she looked up at him, and then it all went down hill. She laughed, which caused her to snort, which caused her to choke. Before he knew it, she was coughing and laughing and making the choking sign.

Thinking he was going to have to give her the Heimlich, he stood and began coming around the table.

But she did one more big cough and was able to dislodge a chunk of pasta.

All he could do was watch in horror.

When Charity looked up at him after pulling the chunk out of her mouth, his expression sent her into hiccupping giggles. “Oh my goodness, you should see your face right now.”

Sitting back down, he couldn’t help but laugh with her. And, though he would be utterly disgusted if this was any other woman or even one of his football cronies, all he could do was think about how her eyes sparkled, literally sparkled, when she was happy.

Then the strangest thought passed through his mind. How would she look if he looked up and saw her in the stands after he’d thrown a touchdown pass. His heart hammered like a birdcage being rattled at the image.

“You look
soo
funny.” She pointed and laughed at him some more, wiping her face with the napkin and then taking another huge bite.

Throwing his hand out to intercept her fork, he stopped her. “Why don’t you take a couple drinks and slow it down a bit?”

Sucking in a long breath, she nodded a couple of times. “You’re right. You’re right. Man, I feel good.”

Laughing, he realized all he could think about doing was touching her. Her hand, the side of her flushed cheek. He wanted to feel the texture of her hair. “Let’s go dance.” He blurted. He hadn’t finished half of his meal, but this need to be near her was overpowering.

Shooting up out of her seat, she did little jumps and giggled. “Yes, let’s go dance.”

B
eing with Legend
, jumping up and down, the volume of the music, and the feel of people all around her bumping into each other surged through Charity like a high she had only ever felt on a roller coaster ride.

Legend danced in front of her, around her, behind her. He was everywhere and matched every ounce of energy she put out. It was exhilarating to be with him. To celebrate life. Her grandpa’s life. Her life. His life. All of it wove through them. She felt the electric energy, like the end of a wire searching for an explosion.

She wasn’t sure how many heart-pumping songs they danced to before she felt his hands on her waist and found herself putting her hands on his shoulders as they swayed, jumped, and turned. It was totally intoxicating. The way he reached out and took her hair with his hands and flung it up and let it drop all over while they moved. It was stupid, but she found herself reaching out and fluffing his hair, too. Every time she did it, he roared with laughter.

Saying she was a little attracted to Legend James was like saying Donald Trump had a little money. There was a lot of it, and it didn’t seem like it would ever stop.

She realized the chemistry had always been between them, whether they were fighting or celebrating or lazily sitting in her grandpa’s swing. It was undeniable now. It was releasing and filling both of them, she was sure, with dangerous feelings. But she kept jumping and pounding and swinging her head around. And laughing. It felt ridiculously amazing. He was right. Living life with him felt messy and unstable and a heck of a lot of fun.

She’d never been a drinker. It had never been a thing to her. She imagined it would make her feel something like this. Completely out of control.

It hadn’t occurred to her how late it was or how long they’d danced. Their whole bodies were sweating and bumping around when her cell phone buzzed against her back pocket.

She stopped dancing and pulled it out. She was worried it might be the hospital, but it wasn’t. It was Paul.

L
egend had stayed
on the dance floor while Charity had gone out, excusing herself and telling him that it was Paul.

He sipped on a bottle of water and tried not to look at her through the glass while she was talking to
him
.

Paul. He said his name in his mind like he would say something that totally disgusted him. Who was this guy, anyway?

He mentally shook himself. He had to get a grip. The problem, at the moment, was that every thought, smell, experience from the past couple of days had completely sucked him into her life. Awareness spiked through him as he thought of dancing with her for the last two hours. He couldn’t explain how attracted he was to her.

He hadn’t felt this way about any woman since Katrina his sophomore year.

He slammed the water bottle down on the bar and swung toward the door. Really, he had to get a grip.

Reality check. He told himself as he walked out the door and sucked in some cool Park City air. He was moving to Dallas in t-minus three days. She was going to New York… He didn’t know exactly when she would be going. He knew her mom was in Australia and Shelia was filling in at the B and B, but he didn’t know when she would fly the coop and go start a new life in New York. Why was Paul calling her? He’d cheated on her. He thought about the way Charity always wore that hurt puppy face when talking about him.

Walking past Charity, he motioned up the street. “I’ll meet you back at the house.”

She nodded, telling him she’d be there in a sec.

He tried not to listen as she told Paul the play-by-play of events with her grandfather waking up today.

What did he care about hearing her excitement as she talked to Paul? He’d actually been there. So ha!

Ducking his head, he tugged at his hair, trying to figure out what the heck he was going to do. What was he going to do with the fact that in less than forty-eight hours he’d fallen in love with the woman that had shamed him in the media, and as if that weren’t ridiculous enough, that same girl sort of had a boyfriend?

“Ugh!” he grunted, whipping out his cell phone and checking to make sure Charity wasn’t catching up to him. He pressed Jason’s number.

“Dude.”

“Hey.”

“What’s up, man?” It sounded noisy in the background.

“Are you out?”

Jason laughed and Legend could hear the music fading. “Some of us prefer not to live like monks, my friend.”

“Whatever, dude, listen. I need some advice.”

“Okay.” Jason waited.

Legend always appreciated this about his friends, they didn’t need to make small talk. They could simply get down to business. “Okay, long story short, I confronted Charity Saint. We got in a big fight, turns out she was just trying to get noticed by
The New York Times
for a job. Anyway, her grandpa had a stroke. Their car was broken, so I brought her to Park City and ended up staying here. Her grandpa wasn’t waking up, so I fell asleep on her grandpa’s porch swing with her two nights ago, and then we jumped out of a plane together yesterday morning, and I offered to help her get her job back and give her an exclusive. I almost kissed her last night, but she said she couldn’t handle it, so I left. This morning we rode motorcycles down a mountain. Then I was there when her grandpa woke up just for a few seconds today, and after that we went out to celebrate tonight by going dancing, like out of control crazy dancing, the kind that makes you just…I don’t know, dude, it was awesome.” Legend ran out of breath.

“Whoa, whoa, wait a sec. Slow up. Could you please let me talk to Legend James because I think someone is playing some prank on me? Seriously, where is he? What ransom do you want?”

A broken laugh came out of Legend. “I know. It sounds crazy.”

“Uhh, yeah. So back up. Okay, you helped her out, and you’re in Park City, and her grandpa woke up, and I don’t know, you lost me at jumping out of an airplane.”

“Oh, it was totally awesome, you, me, and Brad will have to come up and do it sometime…”

“Okay, sure, but about this…”

Legend needed him to get this quickly before Charity got back. “Dude, I like her. A lot. Like, I know this is crazy, but I think I’ve seriously…” He didn’t want to say it. It was completely nonsensical.

“Shut up!” Jason yelled over the phone. “You
like
this girl?!?!”

He let out a breath. “I like her. I really, really…I don’t know, man. But, the last boyfriend messed her up. Right now she’s having a heart to heart with him. I’m going to freaking hit somebody. Seriously!”

“Dude, calm down.”

He let out a breath. Jason was a good guy. A guy that respected women and that Legend looked up to. He wanted him to approve of putting the moves on Charity.

“Legend, all I’m going to say is that I’ve never, ever, heard you talk like this about a girl. I say if you like her, you should tell her. I mean, if she has an ex-boyfriend, remember he’s an
ex
-boyfriend—and make a play.”

That’s what he wanted, needed, to hear. “You’re right.” He gathered his courage.

“Of course I’m right, that’s why you called me.”

“Thanks, man.”

“Okay, see ya soon.”

“Bye.”

He stood in front of the gigantic path of stairs.

“Hey.”

Turning back, he watched as Charity jogged toward him. Gleaming in the moonlight, her smile was radiant. She still had some sweat around the edges of her hair from dancing. How he longed to pull her in for a kiss.

“Sorry.” She stopped next to him, and he tried to hold his breath so he wouldn’t have to inhale coconut. He would not kiss her. He wouldn’t.

He nodded. “No biggie. How’s
Paul
?” he said it with minimal rudeness.

She hesitated, giving him a disapproving look, then smiled. “One of our friends mentioned something on Facebook about hoping my grandpa was doing better, so he wanted to call and check on me. Do you know how awesome it was to tell Paul Grandpa woke up?” She chucked him in the shoulder.

“Awesome,” he repeated with no feeling in it.

“Oh, and he wanted to tell me that he’s in New York already. The Peace Corps has him reassigned for a few months. Then they’ll send him somewhere else.”

“What?” This rocked Legend’s world.

For a second he thought she didn’t look happy about it, but she quickly covered it.

“So what does that mean?”

She shook her head. “We didn’t really talk about it.”

“Oh.”

A sad look washed over her face.

“Are you together with him or not?”

“No?”

He ran his hand through his hair and let out a long breath. “It’s a simple question, Charity.”

“We’re not together, but it’s complicated.”

Complete confusion washed over him. “Then uncomplicate it for me.”

She let out a huff and then started up the stairs. “Let’s not let this ruin things, c’mon. You can play some
Beatles’
songs on the guitar for us.”

Miserably, he let his breath out. “Hold up, I want to talk about this.”

She swung back, then slightly stumbled and fell back a couple of stairs.

He rushed to her, catching her before she fell.

“Oh.” She squeaked before bursting into giggles as she fell into him. Then she quit giggling. Her eyes were glistening with tears.

Her lips. Right there. In perfect kissing distance. He stiffened, trying to exercise self-control. He would not do this. He wouldn’t. “Are you okay?” he asked instead.

Without warning, she went very still. Then she looked right at his lips. “Legend.”

He looked at hers, forcing himself to breathe slowly. “Yes?”

“What would you say if I told you that I can’t stop thinking about kissing you?”

The blood pounded so loudly in his ears he could barely concentrate. “I’d say fate has taken its course, but it is up to you to take a chance.”

“I don’t know what that means, but I think I’m doing something I never thought I’d do.”

He could barely breathe. “What?”

“I’m asking you to kiss me.”

The world stopped spinning. It was just them. In each other’s arms. Everything pulling them together. Everything pulling them apart.

His heart rate spiked. Something much greater than satisfaction or happiness started in the center of his chest and shot through him. Something like…Nope, he wouldn’t think the L word.

She leaned forward and pressed her lips against his for a breath of a moment.

Legend’s control went out the window. He dragged her closer, twisting her out of her falling position and pulling her into his arms. Burying his face in her hair, he drenched himself in the coconut smell. Everything inside him felt like he was bracing himself for this moment, hoping it wouldn’t be the only one.

Her lips were back on his, and she had her arms around his neck, pulling him closer.

Kissing her, he found, was a lot like everything else he’d experienced with Charity Agnes Saint…it was completely breathtaking.