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His smile widens. Right before he closes the door, he points at Raeann. “See you later.”
Okay, he’s gone too far now. My fingernails dig into my palms. We’ll see what happens next practice when I get my hands on him.
As soon as the door closes, Raeann lets out an exhale. “Sorry,” she says, blushing again. “That was a lot of Wildcats in one place. I hope I didn’t embarrass you.”
I give her a quick shake of my head. I had no idea they were going to do that, or I would’ve warned her ahead of time. It was probably Levi’s idea, and the rest followed so I wouldn’t kick his ass. “They were curious about you.”
“You…talked about me?”
“I think it was more or less me peering into the box about a thousand times tonight.”
“You played so well, though. You wouldn’t even know you were distracted.”
“I had someone to show off for.” I grab her hand again, rubbing my thumb across her knuckles. “Come back to my place.”
“Micah…”
She starts to pull her hand back, but I clamp down on it. “We don’t have to do anything but talk. I want you to see my place,and I need a bunch of time to wind down after a game. I prefer to do that at home, but the last thing I want to do is leave you right now.”
“Are you saying that it’s for the good of the team that I go back to your place right now?”
My lips curl up into a grin. “One hundred percent.”
“And Athena?”
“She better come. I hate to think I bought that dog bed off your store site for no reason.”
Her mouth drops. “You didn’t.”
“Of course I did. Treats too. And some pajamas.”
“Micah Freeman.”
I wink at her. “All parts of my master plan.”
She appraises me, her green eyes gleaming with mischief. “So you know, you are about to be judged by what you bought.”
“And here I thought I couldn’t go wrong as long as it was from your store.”
“Athena has her favorites.” Raeann shrugs, as if throwing down the gauntlet, and then puts Athena on a sparkly turquoise leash.
I sure hope I chose correctly.
I place my arm around her and lead her and Athena out of the box and then through the tunnels of the stadium to the player garage. Quite a few cars are still parked, but we quickly leave them behind as I drive to the outskirts of the city to a neighborhood on the banks of a fifty-acre lake.
“You live here?” Raeann gasps when we drive up to a locked gate, the sun just starting to set.
Nodding, I input the code, and the black metal swings open so I can pull easily inside. The great thing about this development is that the houses aren’t all on top of each other. The only houses I can see from my property are the others with docks marching out into the water.
Raeann sits up in her seat to take everything in. “I don’t know why, but I figured you lived in some penthouse downtown.”
“I did for a while, and it was fun, but I wanted something more permanent. Somewhere to set down roots.”
When the drive curves around, there’s the perfect view of the lake backdropped by the orange and pink hues permeating the dimming sky. Twilight makes it all seem more magical, the exquisite rainbow colors reflecting in the ripples. Geese plodding along in the bright green grass. “You’reonthe water?”
“It’s beautiful, huh?”
“Do you own a boat?”