She nodded to the takeout bag I was carrying. Confusion flashed in her eyes, her brows knitted. “You brought dinner?”
“Yeah, is that a problem?”
“No, not a problem. Just a surprise.”
“Why?”
“I thought that what you’d come here to say would be over in a minute or so, not last long enough for an entire dinner. Unless the dinner is only for me and is comfort food?”
“It’s for both of us.”
“Oh.”
“Oh? Is that all I get now?” We still stood in her entrance hall. She was rooted in place, as if she’d been planted there.
“No, of course not. I’m sorry, you better come on in, then. Thanks for bringing dinner.” She reached up to scrunch her ponytail, gave me one more puzzled look, and then spun on her heel and marched into the house.
I followed her to the kitchen and set the takeout containers out on the island while she rummaged for condiments. “No problem; you wanted to talk. I thought we could eat while we do it.”
“Right.” Something was different in her voice. In the way she moved. Something was off. It took everything I had to keep from pulling her into my arms and kissing whatever troubled thoughts she was having clear out of her mind.
Just seeing her had me wanting to throw caution to the wind. Everything that had made me decide to break whatever we were doing off seemed a million miles away.
“I can’t believe that you actually came. With food, no less. I’m starving.” A smile played on her lips, bringing my Gabrielle back to me.
My Gabrielle? What the fuck. I pushed the errant thought from my mind. Hard.
We talked about nothing as we ate. By the end of the meal, she seemed genuinely happy that I was there. Strangely, I had to admit that I was happy that I was there, too. I had missed her that week, though I would never, ever admit that out loud.
“So, should we address the elephant in the room?” she asked.
“There’s an elephant? Where?” I joked, spinning in my seat and looking around wildly.
Her light laughter twisted something in my stomach. “Yeah, we probably should,” I said.
“Okay, I asked you a question last night. You told me we’d talk about it today. It’s today. It’s been fun catching up, but I think it’s about time to get to the gist of it. I’m listening.”
I whistled low and scratched at the back of my neck. “I should’ve known that you wouldn’t be taking any prisoners tonight. What do you want to know?”
“What happened on Monday?”
“Why do think something happened on Monday?”
“Generally, when people do a sudden 180, something happened to bring it on. Stop with the bullshit, James.”
People were telling me that a lot lately. I didn’t like that there were now two people in my life who could see straight through the layer of bullshit that I kept wrapped around myself. “You’re right. I was working out with Ryder, and I realized what I was risking by being with you if your dad ever found out.”
“Okay, that’s a good start. Carry on.” Her piercing gaze locked on mine. Christ, she was not making this easy.
“Do you remember that I told you that we were coming off a shitty season, and that’s why we were doing the extra stuff with some of the guys, even if it is the off-season?”
“Yes.”
One-word answers were a bad sign.
“That day that we met at your dad’s office, I was there to talk to him about restructuring my contract. I’ve been getting offers from a lot of other teams. Better offers with better teams.”