God, all this thinking about it was giving me a headache.
I crawled out of bed and ran to the nearest fast food-restaurant. After buying enough to feed me and my roommates, I jogged back to my apartment. Zwinn was surprised by my generosity when they finally woke up, but they ate and hung out with me, distracting me from my swirling thoughts for a good hour. But then they went their own way, and I fidgeted around the house most of the day. I sent off a few more applications and tried to watch some television. Then I received a return call from one of the places I’d applied to electronically. But mostly I just watched the clock.
I spent a while texting my woman and flirting with her. She’d ended up taking my advice and calling in sick to work and she mentioned nothing of the l-word I’d dropped earlier, so I assumed she didn’t remember. Needing to see her anyway, I showed up at her place in the early evening just after I knew they’d had their supper.
Gamble’s woman answered the door.
“Ten,” she said in surprise. “Uh…Noel’s not here this evening. He’s working—”
“I know.” Rolling my eyes, I muttered, “I’m here for the kid. The littlest one.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “Colton?”
“Yep. That one. He wants to play…” I sighed heavily, “catch.”
“O…kay.” Opening the door, she stepped aside. “Come on in then...I guess. I’ll go get him.”
I stepped inside and she disappeared from the room to find the kid. Shoving my hands into my pockets, I glanced around the front room as I waited for—
“Took you long enough to get here,” a voice hissed. I spun to find Caroline in a baggy T-shirt and sweatpants hobbling toward me. She looked tired and had bags under her eyes, but she was still so beautiful; I can’t even describe how it felt knowing she was going to be close enough to touch again.
My fingers actually tingled when they made contact with her cheek. “What’re you doing out of bed? How do you feel?”
She leaned against me, and I gave her a warm hug. “My stomach’s still giving me twinges, but I feel a million times better than last night. Your black eye looks really dark. Do you feel okay?”
I actually had a bit of a headache, but I said, “I’m fine. You’ll never guess who called me today?”
She lifted her face. Shadows filled her eyes. “I don’t know. An ex-flame?”
“What? No.” I lowered my voice and leaned in closer. “Lake Tahoe.”
Her eyes widened. “Oh, wow. You got an interview with them?”
With a nod, I blew out a breath. “I wanted to tell you in person.”
Leaning up, she kissed me on the cheek. “This is so amazing. Congratulations.”
I was watching her face closely, so I swear I saw a bit of fear cross her eyes. Or maybe I was just imagining it.
“Are you excited?” she asked.
I snorted. “Scared shitless is more like it.” I stepped in closer to her until I could drive myself crazy with her smell. I almost told her I wouldn’t go if she didn’t want me to, but Colton raced into the room.
“Ten! You really came.”
Straightening away from Caroline, I snapped my heels together so I could send the little shit a salute. “Reporting for blackmailing duty as requested, sir.”
He giggled and then grabbed my hand to drag me from the living room, away from Caroline. I glanced back at her with a mopey goodbye wave.
She grinned and rolled her eyes, but blew me a kiss.
The football the kid found me was going flat, so we spent a good twenty minutes digging up a hand pump for it and filling it with air again. It was also covered in dust. “Well, shit. I guess you don’t toss a ball around much with your big brother, do you?”
Colton ducked his face at the mention of Gam. “He’s pretty busy,” he mumbled.
“Oh, yeah?” I wasn’t buying it. His family meant the world to Gam. I don’t care how busy he was, if he knew his kid brother wanted to play catch, he would’ve played catch with him. “You ever ask him to play?”
Colton shook his head, still staring at the ground.