She's the One: COunting on Love, Book 1 (16 page)

“You guys can’t say—” Ryan focused. “She was leaving?”

“Yep.”

Well, fuck. Somehow he’d known she’d leave. He wasn’t surprised. He was, however, inordinately disappointed. He’d hoped… Well, it didn’t matter now.

“I was… It was… We didn’t sleep together.”

“You must have done
something
right, judging by the blush I got from her.”

Ryan couldn’t help a small grin at that. “Yeah, thanks. I guess. But we didn’t sleep together,” he felt it necessary to repeat.

“Well, maybe that’s why she left,” Mac said with a shrug.

“Why not?” Dooley asked at the same time.

“It wasn’t…the right time.” Ryan knew that sounded stupid, but it was true.

“Did you tell her that?” Dooley asked, his expression showing that he thought it sounded stupid too.

“No. I…” Ryan trailed off and ran his hand through his hair again. “I told her that I had to get to practice.”

Dooley shook his head, almost with sympathy. “And it looks like the right time isn’t going to happen at all now.”

Ryan frowned. Had Amanda said something? Okay, so he’d told her that he’d leave it alone if she decided not to stay. They could still be friends, blah, blah, blah.

But he didn’t want to leave it alone.

The thought hit him and he had to think about it harder. That never happened. He always wanted to leave it alone. If the other person wasn’t into it—whatever “it” was—Ryan was good with that. He didn’t want people doing things they didn’t want to do—whether it was seeing a movie or having sex in the shower. And he wasn’t really into convincing people that they should feel or think something they didn’t.

“The right time’s gonna happen,” Ryan told Dooley. How, he wasn’t sure. He wasn’t exactly the on-his-knees-begging type of guy.

Dooley looked thoughtful. “Good luck, brother.”

Mac slapped him on the back. “Ah, you might be better off than you think. Like I said, the look on her face was… Well, you definitely have a chance.”

“The thing is,” Dooley said, “women are like fine steaks.”

Mac gave a little groan and Ryan smiled. Dooley had all kinds of analogies for women and relationships. They were surprisingly insightful. Sometimes.

“How so?” Ryan asked.

“Don’t encourage him,” Mac said.

“The outcome is about heat and time,” Dooley went ahead, ignoring Mac. “Without heat, you get nowhere. Things stay cold and raw. Not good. Too much heat and things end up burned and ruined. But with the right amount of heat, for the right amount of time, you get pink, moist and warm in the middle.”

Ryan looked from Dooley to Mac. Mac was staring at Dooley.

Mac wrinkled his nose. “Seriously?”

“What’s pink, moist and warm in the middle?” Conner asked from behind Ryan.

Ryan jumped and said, “Steak,” as Dooley calmly replied, “Women.”

Conner looked at Dooley with the same combination of wonder and confusion that Ryan felt.

“That’s…interesting,” Conner said. “Why are you talking about women and steak and holding up practice?”

Unconcerned about the Hawks’ practice schedule, Dooley said, “I was explaining about the proper application of heat and time to women.”

“And steaks,” Mac added.

Conner grinned at Mac. “Well, you do know something about the prime cuts.”

Ryan covered his laugh with a fake cough. Conner was getting more brazen in his comments about Sara Gordon. It came from the fact that Conner had firmly established himself as one of the best paramedics in Omaha and the fact that Mac had never acted on any of the threats he made when Conner spouted off.

Everyone, including Conner, knew that Mac had absolutely no reason to worry about his wife running off with another man.

Ryan knew Conner really did have a thing for Sara, but he also had a thing for giving Mac a hard time. Ryan wasn’t sure which was a stronger factor. It was entertaining either way.

“Don’t,” Mac said simply to Conner.

“And I think I get what you mean,” Conner said to Dooley. “Like, if you apply too little heat, even over a long period, it never gets quite
done
, you know?” Conner grinned at Mac. “Like if your heating element is too old to do the job or something.”

Mac pointed a finger at Conner’s nose, reacting exactly as Conner had hoped. “If I’m the old heating unit in this analogy, I’m gonna put you on your ass.”

Conner chuckled. “Now why would you assume I was talking about you when I mention something being old? You worried about something?”

The fact that Mac was twelve years older than his wife—and that Conner was only three years older than Sara—was a common jab.

Mac sighed, then shoved Conner. It wasn’t quite hard enough to put him on his ass, but it wasn’t a friendly nudge either.

Conner laughed and rubbed his shoulder. “Okay, let’s go, Kaye. We’ve got practice.”

“Yeah, right behind you.”

Conner jogged back to their waiting teammates.

Ryan wasn’t sure that he should exactly thank Mac and Dooley for their advice, but he felt the need to wrap up the conversation. Maybe with another warning not to say anything about Amanda to her big brother.

“Remember,” Dooley said before Ryan could speak, “don’t keep things simmering too long. Turn up the heat a little and get things done.”

Yeah—“pink, moist and warm” were not exactly the words Ryan needed in his head as he joined his team on the field. But the words wouldn’t leave him, and as his hunger grew, it definitely wasn’t steak he was craving.

“What the
fuck
, Dixon?” Shane Kelley demanded forty minutes later.

Ryan turned to see Shane getting up from the ground—and Conner walking back to the line of scrimmage. Shane was an offensive lineman, in place to protect the quarterback and the ball. In the drills they were running, the only defensive players were the ones downfield covering the receivers. There was no reason for Shane to be on the ground.

Shane got up and stormed after Conner. “We’re on the same goddamned team,” he said. “And you’re the fucking quarterback in case you forgot.”

QBs didn’t make tackles, or even do much blocking, unless maybe they threw an interception and were the last line of defense.

“What’s going on?” Nate asked, getting between the guys before the coach could hit the field.

“I hit him,” Conner said simply.

“From behind on an
offensive
drill,” Shane added.

“Why?” Nate asked Conner.

“He got Isabelle in trouble at work.”

Ryan sighed, along with everyone else.

Conner generally preferred to ignore the fact that a friend and teammate was dating—and sleeping with—one of his sisters. But there were times he couldn’t. Like when Isabelle got hurt.

“So is one hit enough?” Cody asked, looking between the men. “It’s over now?”

“I don’t know,” Conner said, frowning at Shane. “This shit is getting old.”

“I agree,” Shane said, stepping forward. “You getting involved in stuff that’s between me and Iz is definitely getting old.”

“You messed up a business deal for her,” Conner said.

“The guy hitting on her was being an ass.”

“The guy ‘hitting on her’,” Conner said, “was the head of pediatric cardiology at St. A’s.”

“He’s married,” Shane said.

“He was talking to her about a new medication her company just introduced, you jackass,” Conner said. “You embarrassed her and probably ruined her chances of ever getting another meeting with him.”

“What did you do?” Cody interrupted to ask Shane.

“I didn’t do anything. I
threatened
to do something.”

Nate frowned. “Shane, you’re a cop. You can’t threaten people and you definitely can’t actually hit anyone just because they’re talking to your girlfriend.”

“He was talking about her tits.”

Conner rolled her eyes. “They were talking about—”

“I was sitting right there,” Shane interrupted. “When she went to the bathroom he looked right at me and said, ‘Tits that nice can’t be real, can they?’”

All the guys held their breaths and looked at Conner.

Conner scowled as he processed that. Then he pulled in a long breath through his nose, then let it out.

“
You
pissed her off.”

“Yeah. Because by the time she got back I’d told the guy to get lost.”

“You deal with criminals all the time who don’t understand consequences. How do you not get that what you do can affect Isabelle?” Conner asked with clear frustration.

Shane frowned. “I do get that, Dixon. The consequence to my action was getting Isabelle away from that slimeball.”

“And messing up a work situation
and
upsetting her, which is what landed you on your ass a little bit ago,” Conner snapped. “Consequences.”

Shane stepped forward. “I’ll do it again if it ever comes up. Your sister deserves respect and part of my job as her
boyfriend
is to protect her.”

“Then I’ll put you on your ass again,” Conner said.

For God’s sake. “Let him hit him,” Ryan said. He stepped forward, too. “In fact, why don’t you take a couple swings at me too, Dixon?”

Conner scowled at him. “I’ll hit you for messing with Emma. What do I need the other swing for?”

“How about just in case? Then if I do something in the future, we’re even.”

“You have a plan you want to share?”

“Nope.” He had a plan, but he definitely didn’t want to share how he was going to do things to Amanda that would make even Shane blush.

“Then I’d prefer to beat your ass as you deserve it.” Conner looked around at all the guys. “That goes for all of you.”

Shane snorted.

Conner looked over. “What?”

“I might have hit the ground, but it didn’t even hurt my ego.”

Conner grabbed the football from Nate. “How ’bout we run another play?”

Shane shrugged and moved to the line. “If I know you’re coming, you’re never gettin’ me off my feet.”

“Uh-huh,” was Conner’s response.

“You do realize that he’s one of the guys who will be keeping the big, mean guys on the other team from getting through to you next week, right?” Cody asked Conner.

“This is about right now,” Conner said.

Which was true. On game night they were a team, no matter what else happened. None of the big, mean guys on the other team would be getting to Conner through Shane. No matter how much of a prick Conner was being.

Ryan took off downfield on Conner’s call, following the pattern of the play. He caught the ball and was brought up short on the ten-yard line. When he got up and looked back, he saw Conner climbing to his feet. And Shane walking away.

An offensive lineman tackling the QB? Sure, Coach would love that.

Coach Henry shouted some expletives and an order to pull their heads out of their asses from the sidelines, Conner raised a hand, signaling he was fine, and the team huddled up.

The next play Conner got Shane down again.

Then Conner called another play that sent Ryan down the field. It was a play designed to pull two defensive players to Ryan, leaving Cody open. But Conner threw to Ryan. Into double coverage. And Ryan caught the ball. But he got slammed into from both sides. Hard.

He got up slower than usual and headed straight for Conner.

“What the hell?”

“I was thinking about that ‘just in case’ thing,” Dixon said.

“And?” Ryan demanded.

“Thought maybe it was a good idea to be safe.”

“You can be a real asshole, you know that?”

“Keep that in mind,” Conner said, turning away. “Burgers or pizza?”

Ryan watched the best quarterback in the league walk away. Yes, he could be an asshole, but he was also a really good guy.

Ryan rubbed his ribs where he’d been hit by Parker on that last play. The play that had given him a “just in case” to spend. And after that intentional double hit, he was going to make it count.

“I’m gonna pass on dinner,” Ryan said as the guys all gathered their bags and gear.

“You never pass on dinner,” Cody said. “What’s up?”

It was true. He didn’t have better stuff to do generally. Women would typically be a higher priority than beer or pizza, but he never scheduled dates on Sunday nights.

Which made this whole thing with Amanda even more unusual.

“Not in the mood.”

“For pizza and beer? Isn’t that a perpetual mood?” Shane asked.

True again.

“Perpetual? What’s with the fancy words?” Cody asked, elbowing Shane.

Shane flipped him off.

They all laughed, and it occurred to Ryan that Amanda was pretty much the only thing that promised to be more fun than these guys.

“Yeah, it’s unusual for me to pass up beer and pizza with you charmers,” he said. “But I got something to do.”