A wolf whistle came from one of the women in the bleachers. Jessica glared at the group of giggling women that had produced the cat-call. No wonder he was in such good shape. If she kept up with eighteen-year-old football players, she wouldn’t need to watch every bite that passed her lips.
After a few more conditioning exercises, the players split off into groups. Logan joined Robbie Dalton and his dog. Twenty boys took a knee in a semicircle in front of the two men while others jogged off to circle other coaches.
“Lilliana Hancock, what are you doing here?” A petite dark-haired woman in a floaty black and red skirt approached with a grin. Laughter lurked behind her soft blue eyes and lent her a warm charm.
“Hey girl,” Lilliana replied, scooting down to make room. “I thought my new friend would enjoy seeing the primitive rituals of the Falcon male. Darcy Dalton, this is Jessica Montgomery.”
Darcy leaned over, and Jessica sensed she was being examined and conclusions were being drawn. “You’re trying to hire my cousin away to the big city.”
“That is why I came to Falcon.” Jessica fell back onto a half-truth out of nervousness.
Darcy cocked her head, a host of emotions flickering across her expressive face, then shrugged and settled back on the hard bench. “Logan’s a big boy. If he wants to take the job, I’ll support him. That’s what family does.”
Was it? Jessica wouldn’t know.
“I heard about your hair emergency.” Darcy made a throaty, sympathetic noise. “I don’t know what it looked like before, but you look fabulous now.”
“How did you—”
Darcy barked a laugh. “Marlene stopped by the library to pick up her holds. Small town life.”
“I’m still getting used to it.” Jessica self-consciously ruffled a hand through her hair.
Darcy sent a side-eye glance full of warning toward Lilliana. “You’re going to have to sink some money into Hancock House, otherwise Alec is going to rip you apart.”
Lilliana groaned. “Let me know if you see my fairy godmother hanging around. Magic or a miracle is the only way I’ll pass inspection. Damn Alec Grayson. Why can’t he stick to coaching football?”
Jessica scanned the field. “Which one is he?”
Darcy pointed. “The quarterback coach. Tall, dark, and handsome. Stellar butt. Not that I’m remotely interested, I’m a married woman. But, you know, I have eyes.”
Theoretically speaking, Alec Grayson was a perfect masculine specimen. But, Jessica spared him only a brief, appreciative glance before her gaze settled on a coach who was so hot his pants might incinerate. With his back to the bleachers, Logan Wilde settled in a three-point stance, digging the toes of his shoes into the turf, his butt high in the air. Jessica shifted and fanned her shirt out.
Darcy leaned out again. “So, Jessica, what do you think about Logan and Adaline’s?”
“Adaline’s is stellar. The food and the atmosphere are top-notch.” She considered Logan, laughing and clapping one of the boys on the shoulder. “Logan is . . . complicated. Deep.”
Lilliana guffawed. “Deep? We’re talking about the man who slipped me fart jokes on the bulletin during Preacher Higgs’s Christmas sermon to get me to laugh. The man who pulled down my pants in front of Ronnie Pearson, ruining our burgeoning romance.”
Darcy rolled her eyes. “That was the summer we were ten, and Ronnie is currently doing time for domestic battery, so Logan did you a favor. Man, you can hold a grudge.”
“The fart jokes were this past Christmas,” Lilliana said dryly.
“Did they work?” Jessica could suppress a grin.
“I snorted so loud Preacher Higgs lost his place and looked like he wanted to curse me to at least the third circle of Hell.”
The three of them collapsed in giggles.
The boys huddled up. The thick air dampened Coach Dalton’s voice, but his whistle cut to everyone. Most of the boys scattered, picking up their gear and jogging toward the pavilion, but Robbie and Logan pulled aside a few of the boys for extra work. Darcy hopped up and folded her arms over the fence to await her husband. Alec Grayson, the quarterback coach, lasered his gaze straight into Lilliana.
She stiffened and grabbed Jessica’s knee. “Crap. I think Alec is coming over. He must have heard about your hair.”
Sure enough, Alec Grayson headed straight for the fence, spinning a football in his hand before palming it. The football seemed a natural extension of his arm. He wore a long-sleeve athletic shirt even in the heat, and a bulky brace on his right knee. He was clean-cut and preppy-looking, but stern furrows lined his mouth and left his face unreadable. “May I have a word, Miss Hancock?”
“My spinster aunt is Miss Hancock.” She stood and took two steps toward the fence, the only sign of her anxiety in the way her hands gripped each other behind her back.
“Lilliana.” He said her name slowly as if testing the way it rolled off his tongue.
Jessica’s intuition clanged. She studied her new friend. Lilliana’s cheeks had flushed and her eyes had grown bright. Was it anticipation for an argument or something more primal?
“I heard about the accident.” His voice was stern and intimidating. “Sounds like there was an electrical overload on the outlet. I don’t need to tell you to get that fixed, do I? And, I also don’t need to tell you that since you haven’t passed inspection, you cannot run Hancock House as a legitimate B&B, correct?”
Before Lilliana could explode, Jessica stepped to her side and slid an arm around her shoulders so they presented a united front. “Mr. Grayson, isn’t it? My name is Jessica Montgomery, and Lilliana and I are dear friends. She invited me to stay at Hancock House as a guest, not a paying customer.”
“Nice to meet you, Ms. Montgomery.” He lifted his chin in her direction, but kept his focus squarely on Lilliana. His voice softened. “I know some good electricians if you want a recommendation.”
“Not necessary. I’ve already hired someone.” Lilliana’s voice was clipped and terse and absent her usual warmth and good humor.
“Excellent.” His eyes narrowed, and he looked as if he might say something else, yet he only inclined his head slightly and jogged away with the football tucked under his arm.
Jessica watched Lilliana watch Alec. “What’s up with you two?”
“Nothing,” Lilliana said too quickly.
“O-kay,” Jessica drew out in perfect imitation of Lilliana.
“What?” Lilliana whipped her head around to face Jessica who only raised her eyebrows and waited. “Fine. If you must know, I had a crush on him back in college. Along with about eight thousand other girls. And, then, one night at a party . . .” She pressed her lips together and shook her head.
“Did you two hook up?” Jessica looked at Alec and back at Lilliana. Sexual tension went a long way to explain the weird vibes the two of them were laying out.
“You could say that.” Lilliana pressed both hands against her cheeks. “It was intensely humiliating all the way around, but that isn’t even the worst part.”
“Which is?” Jessica gasped and lowered her voice. “Did he give you an STD?”
“What? No!” Lilliana squeezed her eyes shut and whispered, “He doesn’t remember me. He has no idea we went to college together much less got naked one night.”
Jessica stared at Alec’s retreating figure. “He doesn’t seem the type. He’s super serious and dour.”
“Don’t let him fool you. He was a player in more ways than one.” The level of bitterness in Lilliana’s voice surprised Jessica.
The group of players broke up with a Falcon chant and clapping. Coach Dalton and Logan tossed a football back and forth while Avery barked and played Monkey in the Middle. Lilliana wandered over to chat to a cluster of well-dressed, middle-aged mothers.
Logan drew closer. Jessica pretended to brush wrinkles out of her shirt while watching him under her lashes. The memory of their kiss made her want to bolt, but she wasn’t sure in which direction—toward o
r away.
Logan grabbed the metal bar at the top of the fence. His sweat-stained shirt was old and thin, and gaped around the ripped-off arms enough for his hair-covered chest to peek out. She swallowed and took in a shuddery breath that didn’t satisfy her sudden need for oxygen. The intensity of her attraction for him knocked her off-kilter every time their paths crossed. No, every time their paths came within shouting distance.
“I didn’t expect to see you here, Jessie.”
A breeze stirred at her back, swirling around her knees and tossing her hair—the universe’s gentle nudge forward. She obeyed and curled her hands over the fence between his. She wasn’t petite. Yet between his hands, hers looked delicate, and a foreign awareness of all her curves and edges had her shifting even closer.
“You’re in really good shape.” Why did the most inane things pop out of her mouth around him? She forced her lips together before she could espouse further on the perfect symmetry of his butt. Yet even through her embarrassment, the urge to lean forward and lick across the taut, sweat-dampened skin of his biceps was strong. “I mean . . . I suppose you have to stay in shape to keep up with them.” The hand she swept toward the field happened to brush his upper arm. The muscle jumped.
“Jeb told me your car will good as new on Friday. You going to head home or what?” His fingers spread open. My God, his hands were huge. A cut scored the back of one, white and nearly healed.
He’s asked her a question. Her thoughts moved as slow as molasses during a cold snap. Home. Head home.
He continued. “I heard-tell Lilliana’s been supplying you with books.”
A laugh covered the confusion running rampant through her unsteadily beating heart. “Have to find something to do to pass time in this backwater town.”
His expression shuttered. “Yeah, Falcon’s not as exciting as Richmond or Atlanta, I guess. I expected to see you camped out in front of Adaline’s every night.”
Logan would be happy to see her gone. What had she done except complicate his life? “You don’t have to worry about me hounding you over the job offer.”
“Did you decide I was a lost cause?”
“Deep down, I knew that from day one. No, I quit my job. I’m no longer employed by Montgomery Industries.” Her laugh was completely unnatural sounding, and she squelched it with a long, slow breath. Telling Logan she’d quit made it feel more real than when she’d hit send on her resignation letter. A seed of panic sprouted in her chest, its tendrils wrapping her lungs tight.
Silence skipped between them. “Hold up. Are you telling me you’ve given up chasing your dream job? Why?”
Is that what she’d done? Given up? Her nervous fingers tried to tuck hair behind her ear in an old, now useless, gesture. “Not given up. Deferred.”
“Has this got something to do with me?”
How to answer? Certainly, if she’d never come to Falcon and met him, she would still be clocking in and out at the Montgomery Industries offices in Richmond. But admitting it gave him too much insight. Instead, she tried inject tease into her voice. “That’s an incredibly arrogant question, Mountain Man.”
He opened his mouth to say something else, but a sharp whistle cut from the pavilion.
“Dangit, I have to meet with the O-line. We’re not done, Jessie.” He gave her one last defense-battering glance before jogging toward the pavilion.
Most everyone had cleared out of the bleachers, but Robbie Dalton and Darcy were whispering to each other at the fence, his hand cupped around her neck and her hand gripping his arm. The intimacy and sweetness of the moment made her heart cramp and turned her back on their happiness.
10
Logan busted through the double doors of the practice pavilion, his heart stuttering as if he’d sprinted the short distance. Quit? What did it mean? Would she have already crossed the city limits if her car had been ready?
Her jab about Falcon had hit him where he was vulnerable. Someone used to big cities would consider Falcon a podunk backwater. As much as he loved Falcon, the closeness sometimes made him break out in hives. The claustrophobia was one reason he escaped to the endlessness of the woods. The squirrels didn’t get into his business.
He had dated several women around town, but never with any intention of settling down. He gave them a good time, in and out of bed, and that’s where it had ended. No bitter aftertaste marred those simple relationships.
One of the girls he’d dated married a podiatrist and another settled down with a college professor in Tuscaloosa. None of them had ever tried to tie him down with marriage. It had seemed a perfect arrangement, but one day the truth had hit him like a newsflash. Those women had been using him in the same way he’d used them, and the knowledge oddly hurt.
Between football and opening Adaline’s, he’d been too busy to think about being lonely. But, after setting up a routine and putting together a trustworthy staff, Adaline’s was coasting along with only the occasional hiccup. He had been coasting too, until Jessica Montgomery landed in Falcon and woke his sleeping dragons. She frayed the edges of his fierce independence and left an ache.
He would have never pegged Jessica Montgomery as his type, but maybe he’d outgrown good-time party girls. It could be a serious, intelligent woman with a sharp tongue and a depth of vulnerabilities was exactly his type. Would he have the chance to test the theory?
He rounded the corner, and at the end of the long corridor that led to Dalt’s office, he saw Scott and Hunter, the backup quarterback, fighting, throwing weak punches as they wrestled, emitting soft grunts. Scott had fifty pounds easy on the skinny backup and was clearly in control.
“Break it up.” Logan’s voice echoed off the concrete as he quickstepped toward the boys.
Hunter looked up with big eyes and stopped moving. Scott drew his fist back and punched him in the gut. Hunter crumpled and curled up on the floor with a low moan.
Logan pushed Scott against a wall before the boy’s foot could make contact with Hunter’s rounded spine. “What’s going on here?”
Scott’s face was flushed, his mouth twisted into a hate-tinged smile. He was close enough to nudge Hunter in the shoulder with the toe of his athletic shoe. “Nothing. Right, Hunter?”
Hunter coughed and sat up, his arms draped over his knees. “Right.”
Scott tried to break free, but Logan pressed his forearm against his collarbone, keeping him against the wall. Scott’s false smile fell, and Logan could tell the boy was contemplating escalating things.
“Hunter, why don’t you skedaddle so Scott and I can have a word in private?”
Once Hunter had turned the corner, Logan released Scott and stepped back to lean against the opposite wall, crossing his arms over his chest. “Your entire attitude has changed since last year, and not for the better. There’s a fine line between playing aggressively and drawing unsportsmanlike flags on the field. You’ve been walking that line since summer practice started, and now it’s spilling off the field. You want to tell me what’s going on?”
In juxtaposition to Logan’s stance of contained aggression, Scott paced, clenching and unclenching his hands. “I want to play college ball. I’ve been working hard to get stronger, play tougher. Coach Dalton told me I was going to start.”
Logan laid a hand on the boy’s upper arm, stopping his frenetic pacing. “I’m glad you earned a starting position, but I’m worried about you.”
“Don’t. You’re not my daddy.” Scott jerked out of Logan’s hold and stalked away.
Logan stood in the empty hallway a long time. He might not be Scott’s daddy, but he’d figure out what the hell was going on, whether the truth came from Scott or not. But right now, selfishly, his thoughts were consumed with Jessica Montgomery.
It slowly dawned on him that she hadn’t answered his “incredibly arrogant” question. Not really. Did her quitting have anything to do with him? If so, what did it mean? What did he want it to mean? Only Jessica could answer the questions.
He pulled out his phone and bribed Brian, Adaline’s manager, with a bottle of the most expensive whiskey behind the bar to cover the dinner shift without him.
Three hours later, Logan stood at Hancock House’s front door. A pulsing bass beat drifted outside. He rang the doorbell and waited, silently castigating himself. He should have called. He rocked on his feet and hit the doorbell again. Either it was broken, which considering the condition of the house was a possibility, or they couldn’t hear over the music.
He tried the door, not surprised to find it unlocked. Following the music into the kitchen, he stopped short in the doorway. Jessica faced away from him, barefoot and swinging her hips to the beat. Yoga pants molded the curves of her butt and thighs.
Blood rushed through his racing heart, leaving him slightly dazed. She turned with a margarita glass held high, her eyes closed, her body shimmying. Her red tank top scooped low, her nipples peaked slightly against the cotton. He took a deep breath to keep from throwing her over his shoulder and stealing her away like a caveman.
Her eyes opened, and she startled, her drink sloshing over her hand. A stiff, self-conscious stance replaced the sensual ease of her dance.
“Hi.” His voice cracked like a fourteen-year-old’s, and he cleared his throat. “I rang the doorbell.”
“Hey, Logan.” Lilliana emerged from the mudroom, side-eying them on her way past. “I left my book upstairs. I’ll catch you two later.” Logan ignored the teasing amusement in her voice.
“Do you want to have dinner with me?” The words poured out of him. Jesus, he was actually nervous. “Have you eaten? I didn’t even think . . .”
“No. I haven’t, but . . .” She ran a hand over her makeup-free face and through her sexy, tousled hair and gestured over her tank top and yoga pants. “I can’t go out like this.”
His gaze roamed down her body again. “You look pretty enough to me.” A vast understatement. “But if you want to change, I’ll wait for as long as it takes.”
She stared into his eyes. He tensed. More than dinner seemed to hang on her answer. If her interest had been purely business, she would throw him a lame excuse or, more likely, a cutting rejection. Finally, she nodded. “Okay. I’ll just be a sec.”
Caught Up in the Touch: Sweet Home Alabama Page 11