Time Out

When he smiled, she slapped her hands over her eyes. “Oh my God.”

“What?”

“I’m adding smiling to the list. No smiling!”

“Why?” Pulling her back inside, he trapped her against the door. “Do my smiles make you lose your inhibitions too? All of them?”

“Maybe.”

“Okay, now you’re just teasing me.” He flicked his tongue over her earlobe and absorbed her soft moan.

“Argh!” Yanking free, she stormed back to the bedroom to grab his wet clothes, which she tossed into her dryer and turned it on. “You have to drive me to work. And you have to do it without making me want you. Got it?”

“I’ll try. But I’m pretty irresistible when I put my mind to it.”

9

MARK SPENT THE next three days wielding a hammer alongside his players at the construction sites during the day, practicing with the teen girls in the late afternoons, and handling Mammoth business at night. He also had dinner with his dad, who’d gotten wind of Mark’s interest in Rainey. Thanks, Rick. Ramon had told Mark that Rainey was a perfect fit for him, but they both knew what he really meant was she’d keep you with one foot in Santa Rey, where you belong.

Mark had his usual hundred balls in the air at all times, but in spite of doing the opposite of what his dad wanted, he couldn’t stop thinking about Rainey.

He’d tried calling and had gotten her voice mail-twice-and a new and entirely foreign feeling had come over him.

She was avoiding him.

Four days after the ballet, he walked into the rec center and ran smack into her. She looked up from her clipboard, an apology on her lips, which tightened at the sight of him. “You.”

Yeah. She’d been avoiding him. She was wearing cargo shorts that emphasized the toned, tanned legs he’d loved having wrapped around him, a UCSB T-shirt and her favorite accessory-her whistle. And suddenly he wanted to see her wearing that whistle in his bed.

Just the whistle.

“You’re early for practice,” she said.

“Yeah, a little bit. Thought I could help out somehow.” Or see you…

“Great.” She slapped her clipboard to his chest. “Can you figure out which supplies we need to order?”

“What?”

“Check the list against the stock in the storage closet,” she directed, and pointed to the same supply closet where only a week ago he’d kissed the both of them senseless. But before he could remind her of that, she was gone.

“Nice technique,” Rick said as he came down the hallway. “Is that how you landed that Victoria’s Secret model you dated last month?”

“Shut up.” Mark looked down at the clipboard. “She wants me to be the supply boy.”

“Huh. Probably she doesn’t realize how important you are.”

Mark sighed. “You’re an ass.”

“Are you sure that’s me?”

Mark ignored this and opened the door to the closet, eyeing the shelf he’d pinned Rainey against. Clearly, he was losing his mind. It was obvious she didn’t need him or even particularly like him. She didn’t take his calls. She didn’t seek him out.

And she wasn’t just playing with him either, or being coy. That’s not how she operated. What you saw was what you got with Rainey. She was the real deal.

And she didn’t want him.

He wasn’t sure how the shoe had gotten on the other foot, but it had and he needed to accept it and move on. Except…he couldn’t seem to do that, which made no sense. He’d never been more on top of his world. His career was solid, his bank account was solid.

Maybe this vague unease was just from being back in Santa Rey, back with his father and brother, the two people in his life who didn’t buy into his press. Yeah, that had to be it, being with family, with people who knew bullshit when they saw it and called him on it with no qualms. Here there was no snapping his fingers and getting his every need taken care of. Here no one looked at him to solve their every problem and deferred to him as if he were their god.

Here, he was the supply boy.

He supposed his dad was right about one thing-Santa Rey was home, since he hadn’t bothered to get attached to anyplace else he’d been.

He thought briefly of his past girlfriends, or more accurately, lovers. He’d been with some incredibly beautiful women and yet he’d never gotten too attached for the sole reason that he hadn’t wanted the additional responsibility.

It was possible he’d made a mistake there, that in trying to protect himself, he’d made it so he couldn’t engage.

No, that wasn’t it. He’d engaged with Rainey just fine. He’d engaged everything he had-body and heart and soul.

And maybe that was it. All this time he’d been just fine on his own with the occasional woman for fun and diversion and stress release. But Rainey was shockingly different.

Why her? What was it about her that had so lowered his defenses? Because she was a nightmare waiting to happen to his life. She wasn’t arm candy-not that she wasn’t beautiful, because she was. She simply wasn’t the type of woman to be content with the few crumbs he’d be able to give her, a mere side dish to the craziness of his life.

In fact, she had her own crazy life.

And what if she got attached? What then?

Except.

Except…she sure as hell didn’t appear to be too attached.

He blew out another sigh and spent the next ten minutes comparing the list of needed supplies to what was on the shelves. There was no comparison, really. The center was short of everything, and he grabbed his phone. If he was doing this, then he was doing it right. He snapped a picture of the list and emailed it to the one person who could help him, then followed with a phone call.

Tony Ramirez answered with, “Yo, what can I get you?”

Tony was the Mammoths’ supply manager. He stocked everything the players and staff needed, specifically the locker room, medical room and kitchen. It was a big job, and not an easy one. During the season, the team’s needs varied on a day-to-day basis, from Ace bandages to the latest Xbox game to a turkey club sandwich on sourdough from the deli down the street, to a new Mammoths jersey on a moment’s notice…which meant that Tony was pretty much a world-class concierge service.

“Need some supplies,” Mark said. “I’m in Santa Rey.”

“Good for you, I’m in Cabo.”

“Shit,” Mark said. “Never mind.”

“No, I’ve got my laptop. I can work my magic from anywhere, no worries. What do you need? Is it for Operation: Make The Mammoths Look Good Again, or for that chick that James and Casey tell me you’re trying to impress?”

Mark pictured himself happily strangling his players.

“They make ’em pretty there in Santa Rey, huh?”

They did. They also made them feisty and sharp as hell, not to mention loyal and caring, and warm. So goddamn warm that Mark could still feel Rainey wrapped around him, the gentle heat of her breath on his throat as