Page 117 of Nailing Heat

I nod. “Yeah, I would. No candy corn. That’s not real candy.”

He looks like he wants to say something else but doesn’t. “Yeah, that candy sucks.”

I hear murmurs behind me, but I refuse to turn my attention back to my friends. My eyes are locked strictly on Dex.

“Are you sure you don’t want to join us?” August asks him.

“No, I’m going to head out. I wanted to come say hi and check on our patient here,” he says, gesturing towards me.

The waitress picks that moment to bring our food over. She is also carrying a takeout bag. Dex doesn’t have any reason to stay the minute she hands him his food.

“Sir, I have your takeout order, but I can get you a seat here at the table if you would like,” she says, smiling up at him.

I hate the way she is looking at him. But to his credit he’s only given her half smiles.

“Ummm,” he says as he looks back at me for confirmation.

“That’s up to you,” I tell him.

His eyes scan the table, and he sighs. “I think I’m going to stick to my plan of heading on out. But thank you for offering.”

“You got it. Here’s your food.” She hands him his to him and begins distributing our food. Once she’s has finished and has walked away, he speaks again.

“I should get going and leave you all to eat your food.” he says, shifting on his feet. “I’ll see everyone at the field tomorrow. August, thanks for dinner. I’ll see you at home.”

A lump rises up in my throat when he says, ‘he’ll see August at home.’ Home doesn’t mean our place, anymore. That stings.

“You bet, man, anytime,” August replies. “I won’t be out late tonight.”

“Sounds good.” Dex turns to leave but stops and looks at me. “I’d like to check out your knee tomorrow if you will allow it,”

I nod. “Sure, why not.”

“Great, thank you. I’ll see you in the training room and again fieldside with those Reese’s pumpkins.” He brushes my shoulder with his fingertips and then turns to everyone else. “See you all tomorrow. Have a good night, everyone.”

There is a string of “goodbyes” and “good nights” before Dex turns and walks away from us. I itch to follow him and tell him that he should either come back here or take me with him. But I don’t. I stay in my seat.

I turn my attention back to the table. “I don’t want to hear a word from anyone. Got it?” I say, smiling wide.

“What would we have to say?” Mac asks, grinning at me.

“Yeah, that was totally normal,” Hendrix adds.

“Looked like some foreplay to me,” Cassie says, grabbing one of Jase’s French fries.

I shake my head and get to dressing my salad. “Shut up and eat your food.”

While everyone digs in, I think to myself, one point for heart, two for head because I remain in my seat and he’s leaving alone.

Chapter Forty

~DEX~

After the way she talked to me and looked at me last night, I’m feeling very encouraged as I walk into the Blaze stadium that houses my office. My steps are a bit lighter knowing that I get to spend time with her in the training room and I didn’t even need to make up a reason to do it. She said that I could check out her knee. She even seemed worried that I wasn’t going to be working at the Blaze anymore.Shemight have been worried about me. I liked that.

I stayed awake for longer than I’m proud of reliving the way she spoke to me, the way her eyes watched me and how she looked. Which was pretty fucking hot, but I couldn’t say that to her, considering she is probably still angry at me. Not to mention we had a very lose and attentive audience.

“Good morning,” Lucas says as he enters the training room.