Weirdly, she did. Not that she was planning to tell him about her trip to Hilton Head. Biting down a smile, Mia followed Josh up the stairs.
“If you do get a boyfriend, I hope he likes waterparks,” Josh said, making his way to his bedroom.
Mia laughed. “I’ll make sure that’s on the top of my requirements.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
“You sent him flowers?” Joanna asked, her voice dipping as she gave a little laugh. “I love that. It’s so girl power. He does something nice, you send him a bouquet. Did he like them?”
“He loved them. He said nobody had ever sent him flowers before.”
Joanna giggled. “And I can’t believe you’re calling him Doctor Love. That’s hilarious.”
“He doesn’t find it quite so funny.” Mia grinned as she remembered the message she wrote on the card.
To Doctor Love. Thank you for the rehab weekend. Especially Naked Saturday. Love Mia (Your MIF) xx
“Ah, the guy’s falling for you. I bet he finds everything you do funny.” Joanna sighed. “This is like one of those romance novels. I’m feeling faint just talking about it. And I can’t tell you how jealous I am that he whisked you away for the weekend.”
Mia leaned back on her office chair and gave a little sigh. “It was romantic,” she admitted. And hot as hell, too. Her skin tingled at the memory of how good Cam Hartson looked in the buff, his strong defined muscles covered by taut, smooth skin.
“How do you think the boys will take it when you tell them?” Joanna asked.
“I don’t know. Josh will be okay, I think. He likes Cam and he’s young enough to accept him. Michael… I’m not so sure.”
“He’ll get used to it. He went away with his dad and Gemma, after all.”
“Yeah, he did.” Maybe Joanna was right.
“And he knows Cam. He’s his coach. He must respect him. I know they got off to a bad start with the car.” Joanna gave a little laugh. “But that’s all ancient history.”
“Yeah, he hasn’t mentioned it for weeks.”
“There you go. It’ll be fine.” Jo’s voice softened. “I’m so happy for you. You deserve this after all you’ve been through. And maybe I can get some free tickets to a football game.”
Mia laughed. “Maybe.”
“Seriously, I want to meet him some time.”
“I’d like that.” Mia rolled her lip between her teeth. “He’s important to me.”
“I kind of got that impression,” Joanna teased. “I know this is all going to work out. It has to.”
“I hope so.” Mia smiled softly. Everything felt so different since they’d agreed to make things official between them. She felt like she was walking around in a haze. “I should go. I have a ton of work to do before I pick Josh up.”
“Okay, sweets. I’ll speak to you soon. Oh and Mia?”
“Yeah?”
“I watched one of his old games last night and he has so much BDE it made me hot.”
“BDE?” Mia said, her brow dipping in confusion.
“Big Dick Energy. Google it. He’s pretty much the poster boy.”
“Bye, Jo.” Mia pulled the phone from her cheek and pressed her finger to end the call, not waiting for her cousin to reply. No doubt she’d call later, or send a dozen inappropriate texts.
With a glance at her closed office door, she opened up Safari and quickly typed into the search bar.
Big Dick Energy.
Her eyes widened as she read the definition.
It’s confidence without cockiness. It is never misplaced and it cannot be simulated. It is the sexual equivalent of writing a check for $10k knowing you got it in the bank account.
She burst out laughing, because it was so on the mark, the ten thousand dollars included.
Cam Hartson definitely had Big Dick Energy. Though she’d never admit that to Joanna.
“You heading home?” Cam asked, as Michael walked out of practice, his sports bag slung over his shoulder.
Michael shrugged. “Yeah. Gonna catch a ride with one of the guys.”
“I could give you a ride. There’s something I want to talk to you about. Maybe we can head to my place and grab a drink or something?”
Michael frowned. “What kind of thing?” He pulled his duffle from his shoulder and let it fall to the ground with a thud. “Is there something wrong?”
“Nothing at all. It’s nothing sinister. I just thought we should talk about the work you’re doing for me. Only if you have time.” Cam kept his voice even. No need to alarm Michael. It was pretty simple. Tell Michael he didn’t feel comfortable in letting him lie to his mom without getting him all riled up. Then after he came back from L.A., the boys would slowly get used to him. They didn’t need to rush anything, but he wanted this clean slate.
His relationship with Mia was too important to start it with a lie hanging over his head.
“Okay.” Michael shrugged, opening the door of Cam’s Audi and throwing his bag in the back. Then he turned to Leon and pointed at the car. “No need for a ride, I’m covered.”
Leon nodded. “Okay. See you tomorrow.”
Climbing into the passenger seat, Michael fastened his seatbelt and turned to Cam. “That was a good practice today.”
Cam turned on the engine and backed the car out. “You guys are really coming together as a team. You gotta work on a few plays, but I think you have a chance of winning this week.”
“Not if Ben keeps fumbling the damn ball.” Michael sighed. “The guy dropped more than he caught today.”
“We all have off days.” Cam glanced at Michael from the corner of his eye. He really wanted the kid to like him. Yeah, part of that was because it would make things with Mia so much easier, but it was more than wanting to be with Michael’s mom. He genuinely liked him. He might be a bit pissy occasionally, and cocky when he didn’t need to be, but what teenage football player wasn’t? Cam cringed when he thought about the young thug he had been when he’d
