Running Back (New York Leopards 2)

Chapter Six

Back in my room, I video-called Cam, and to my shock and delight she answered. I could see her bed and posters behind her. She stared squealing immediately “You’re there! Oh my God! How is it?”

“Ireland’s gorgeous. Haven’t seen the village yet. As for the inn—well. I’m staying across the hall from Michael O’Connor. I met and then had dinner with his entire family just now.”

She started laughing and flailing her arms about. “Ahh! I’m so excited!”

I couldn’t help grinning. “It’s so awkward. I actually like him as a person, but I feel weird about the whole Kilkarten excavation disagreement thing. How are we supposed to act?”

“You could try to get him to reconsider.”

“If only.” I paused, and then rushed my next words. “I did kind of have a thought.”

She raised her brows and gestured regally. “Do go on.”

“He has two sisters. And I kind of wondered... What’s their take on the excavation? Maybe they just have great poker faces, but when I said I was an archaeologist interested in the area, they acted like they’d never heard of me. Shouldn’t Mike have talked to them about the dig before he rejected it?”

She shrugged. “Maybe he owns the land outright and didn

’t need their agreement.”

“Maybe,” I agreed, but that sounded dubious. I sighed. “It probably doesn’t even matter. Anyway. How are you?”

“I sat through a three hour meeting and listened to people argue about a color scheme. I was like, what does this have to do with anything? Why am I here?”

“How very existential.”

“Oh, but then I was thinking about the color red, and did you know it’s a biological turn on? Like, people are more likely to say they don’t like red lipstick or find red dresses too much, but they actually find it hot. So your football player is scientifically more sexy than others!”

“In Ancient Greece they thought redheads were vampires.”

“Well, that is a great tidbit that you should never mention again.”

I groaned. “His family’s also super nice. They invited me to have dinner with them. Who does that?” I sandwiched my nose and mouth between my palms and pulled them down. “I think I’m going to go knock on his door and try to de-awkwardize this situation.”

“Because going over to his room late at night isn’t awkward?”

I glanced at the clock. “It’s only eight-ten. And won’t admitting this is strange be better than saying nothing?”

She shook her head. “There’s no avoiding awkwardness. You just have to muddle through it until everyone’s made peace.”

Despite that, I still headed across the hall after disconnecting from Cam. I collected my half eaten bag of Reeses, and glanced quickly in the mirror. The reflection wasn’t impressive, but I wasn’t supposed to care about that. I made a face and then stepped out through my door, closing it firmly behind me.

Mike’s door loomed ahead. Well, the bird decal and light green paint kept the looming from being too impressive, but still. I stared at that bird for at least a minute, breathing shallowly, before I took two quick steps across the hall and banged loudly on his door.

It swung inward almost immediately. Mike stood there, ruffling his gleaming curls with a towel. He’d slung another around his waist. It dipped dangerously low. “Hey.”

Instead of answering, I watched water trickle down his neck, tracing down his bare, tan chest, and slipping over his well-defined abdomen.

“Like what you see?”

I dragged my gaze up to his grinning face. “Shouldn’t you not open your door half naked?”

His grin widened and he shrugged nonchalantly.

My gaze slipped down again, and I yanked them up as my cheeks burned. “Uh. Sorry. I can come back some other time.”

His eyes danced. “Just give me five.”