Cami’s Georgia Patriots Romance Collection

by Cami Checketts

  They both still looked dubious.

  “Come on. I’m sick of living like this.” Not being able to date sucked, but he also hated being commanded to miss practice. Football had been his life for so long that he felt off not being with his team and working hard for the next goal. “‘We can check into her’ might take months to come up with another dead-end.”

  They’d been checking into his college girlfriend, Meredith, who had been royally ticked when Mike dumped her days after signing on with the Patriots his senior year. She’d claimed he’d dumped her because he wanted to go date famous women, didn’t want to share his money and thought she’d hurt his obsession with football. He’d actually dumped her because she was too possessive and freaked out if he gave too much time to football, or if another woman so much as smiled at him. Sutton’s men hadn’t found anything on her though, besides the fact she’d moved to his hometown of Birmingham after she got her master’s degree, went to his dad’s church, and was close friends with his sister. None of those things made her a stalker, just made it awkward trying to avoid her when he went home.

  Lily’s blue eyes were wary, but Gunner nodded. “If you want to try it. Maybe talk her into a walk on the beach. Stay in open areas at all times. We’ll be close.”

  Mike clapped him on the shoulder. “Thanks, man.” He headed for the back of the restaurant. It was a darkened alleyway, not quite what Gunner had just described as an open area, but Shar Heathrow was half his size. His stalker might be deranged, but she’d never made threats directly against him. He wasn’t too worried. At the moment he was mostly excited. He might be able to end this stalker nonsense once and for all.

  Chapter Two

  Shar Heathrow paced behind her restaurant, trying to decide how to play this. Mike Kohler was sitting at one of her tables, and Kelly, that sweet little airhead, had told him that Shar had a crush on him. She’d probably also revealed Shar had posters of him tacked all over the restaurant walls. The posters had been a joke. When her younger sister Kim caught her staring at Mike at Ally’s wedding, and then Shar had refused to go introduce herself, Kim had realized Shar had a wicked crush. She’d started teasing her about him. The teasing escalated, and Kim and her husband, Colt, had come by the restaurant one time and secretly tacked up posters of Mike all over the kitchen. Shar should’ve taken them down, but none of the restaurant help complained about looking at Mike Kohler’s handsome face, and heaven knew she enjoyed it.

  Yet she couldn’t just march up to him, stick out her hand, and say, “Shar Heathrow. I idolize you.” It was all sports idolizing anyway, right? She’d fallen in love with football as a teenager. Her parents thought sports were idiotic. They were completely focused on their girls’ talents and brains. But they couldn’t say anything when Shar was elected student body vice president and had to attend every sporting event. Football was her favorite.

  She’d gotten her business degree at Auburn before going on to culinary school because she always knew she wanted to start her own restaurant. Mike Kohler was the wide receiver sensation at Auburn, a football icon, winning all kinds of awards and everyone’s heart with his gentle, humble manner and gorgeous face and smile. She’d never missed a home game, even streaming the away games on her computer. Of course, she hadn’t met the superstar of a huge university. He was busy dating the cheerleaders. When he showed up at her sister’s wedding, her confident and fun-loving personality vacated the scene, and she was too scared to even be introduced to him.

  Now, he was here! At her very own restaurant. Heaven on her doorstep. She paced the alleyway, thinking up ways she could greet him and make him laugh. Should she say: “Hey handsome, sorry about Kelly. We worry she’ll drown standing up in the shower.” No, that was horrid of her to think, let alone verbalize. Shar loved Kelly. She was just a little perturbed with the sixteen-year-old fairy-tale believer at the moment. How about: “So glad you made it. I’d like to start with an interview before I agree to you being the father of my children.” No, that was tacky too. Dang, she really wanted him … in every which way.

  “Dang, girl, why are you so pathetic?” she asked thin air.

  Shar was asked on dates all the time. When she wasn’t too busy with her restaurant, she even accepted some of those dates with handsome, kind, and smart men. She had fun dating. She had a great life. She didn’t need to be such a pathetic fangirl. But come on, this was the Mike Kohler.

  Shar faced the dumpster and jumped, bouncing from foot to foot, psyching herself up. She pretended to punch the dumpster a few times, and then yelled, “You got this, girlie!” Then her shoulders sagged, she shook her head, and muttered, “No, I absolutely have not got this.” She clenched her fists and rolled her neck. “Come on, come on. Get some confidence, you pathetic loser.”

  “Excuse me,” a deep voice said from behind her.

  Shar whirled and screamed as she glimpsed a massive shadow behind her. Throwing up her fists, she yelled, “Back off if you don’t want a lungful of mace!”

  The man lifted his hands, palms toward her, and backed up, revealing his face as he passed under the dim overhead light.

  Shar screamed again, “Oh, my, crap! Mike Kohler! Stop!”

  He stopped like a deer in the headlights. He was staring at her. Mike Kohler was staring at her. She’d dreamt of this moment for a long, long time, but he wasn’t staring at her like she was an amazing, accomplished, and gorgeous chef, like she usually heard from other men. He was staring like she was hoolie-hoot-oo, or translated for the layman, bat-crap crazy.

  “I’m sorry,” she gushed out. “I’m acting a bit nuts, and I’m not nuts …” She paused as she thought through the past few minutes of facing the dumpster and giving herself a pep talk to meet this dream man. She was barely able to squeak out, “Okay, I probably seem a little nuts. How much did you see?”

  His hands were still up as if he could ward her off. His handsome face was much too serious and those delectable lips she’d dreamt about kissing many a time were in a tight, concerned line. “Um, hey, it’s good. Sometimes I … talk to myself too.”

  Her heart melted. Though he didn’t put off any vibes of warmth toward her, he was such a nice guy. She knew this, as she’d observed him from afar at college and through the media. He’d come from a great family. His dad was a pastor, and his mama and three younger sisters were as beautiful, kind, and supportive as anyone could hope for. Since achieving success, Mike often took his entire family on humanitarian trips and did so many great things to help the people in his hometown of Birmingham, and now in Atlanta where he lived.

  “I’m sorry,” she said again. “I must seem like a whack job, but I promise I’m not. Kelly humiliated me a few minutes ago by trying to set me up with you. I’ve idolized you for years, so you know how that goes. Okay, scratch that, you don’t know how that goes. I mean, who would Mike Kohler possibly idolize? Anyway, things just got all awkward and squirmy inside.” She showed him how she squirmed by pointing to her abdomen. His eyes flitted over her and made her hot and cold all over, but he didn’t say anything.

  “So, I came back here to give myself a pep talk, and all that jumping around stuff was just to pump me up to meet you. Then you obviously saw me, being all weird.” She blew out a breath and wished he wasn’t looking so wary of her. “I’m sorry, but I’m sure you get insane chick fans all the time. Old hat for you, right?”

  “It happens,” he admitted.

  Shar stepped toward him, and he backed up. It hurt that he backed away, probably because he did think she was nuts, but then it struck her as so funny. He was over a foot taller than her and twice her size with all kinds of lovely muscles his t-shirt couldn’t possibly hide. What did he think she was going to do to him? She started laughing. He cocked his head to the side and studied her with his eyebrows slightly lifted. Dang, he was so perfectly handsome. Seeing him up close and personal like this made her blood pressure spike, even though she was messing it all up.

  “What?” she asked.
“Did you think I was going to come after you?”

  “Um …”

  “You did!” She started laughing harder, though she wanted to cry. This entire first meeting with her superstar crush was a disaster. Shar wasn’t one to wallow in misery, so she chose to laugh. He already thought she was nuts—she might as well laugh about it. “You’re like monstrous, and I’m a pipsqueak, and you think I’m going to come and take you out or something? Sorry, big guy. I left all my carving knives in the kitchen.”

  The look on his face made her laugh harder. He thought she was seriously disturbed. Shar had to shake this off and realize that she’d completely flubbed it up. Mike Kohler. The dream, somehow she had to let it go. Sadly, his over-the-top appeal was still there, for her, but there was no way he’d want to get to know her after this.

  “Wow.” She blew out a breath. “I meet the superstar of every one of my dreams, and I screw it all up.” She walked to go around him. She had to get back to the restaurant and get to work, because what else could she do at this point? When she got home tonight she’d wallow in the disappointment of messing up what could’ve been an unreal first meeting, but right now she had to just forget about it, or she’d dissolve in a puddle of tears.

  As she walked toward him, Mike backed up a couple more steps until his back hit the restaurant wall. That ticked her off. She wasn’t armed and dangerous.

  She planted her hands on her hips and demanded, “If you think I’m such a crack job, why’d you follow me out here anyway?”

  “Well, the young redhead …”

  “Kelly,” she supplied.

  “She told me you … wanted to meet me and told me you’d be out here.”

  She arched an eyebrow. “Do you regularly follow fans into dark alleys to ‘meet them’?” So at one point, he had wanted to meet her? He sure hadn’t acted like he’d wanted to meet her; he’d acted like she was insane. Which, she guessed she could give him. She had acted a little nuts.

  “No,” he admitted.

  “Why did I get so lucky?”

  “You’re Ally’s sister, so I figured … you’d be safe.” The look on his face didn’t say he thought she was safe at all. Was the tough Mike Kohler, in reality, a wimp who was afraid of super fans? “I didn’t get the chance to meet you at her and Preston’s wedding, so I thought I’d come say hi. Sorry I interrupted … whatever you were doing.”

  She nodded. This was going … marginally better. At least they were having a somewhat normal conversation. Though she wished he’d followed her out here because he thought her food was fabulous or her face beautiful, but having him want to meet Ally’s sister wasn’t awful. Both her sisters were famous in their own rights. Ally, as the marketing genius for the Patriots and wife to wide receiver Preston Steele, and Kim, who’d been a Disney star as a teenager and was getting back into acting after taking a long break because of a stalker. Shar was prouder of her sisters than any mother; prouder than her own mother that was for sure. “I’m sorry you saw that. I was giving myself the pump-up-the-team-at-halftime-when-we’re-losing-by-twenty speech.”

  “Oh, that’s what that was.” His smile slipped out, and she was the one faltering back a step. He was so incredibly irresistible, and she just wanted to freeze this moment. Those lips and sparkling dark eyes, his sculpted face and that beautiful chocolate brown skin. She wanted to squeal. Mike Kohler was smiling at her. “Well, it was nice to have met you,” he said. “I’ll let you get back to work.”

  And just like that, the dream was over. He’d obviously thought he wanted to meet her because she was Ally’s sister, and who in their right mind didn’t love Ally? Then he’d realized Shar needed a psychiatrist, not a date, because of the way she’d acted. So he was moving right along. Sadly, she couldn’t say that she blamed him.

  “Nice to meet you too,” Shar murmured.

  He nodded to her and strode back out of the alley. She watched him go. It was a beautiful picture, and she thought there might at least be a chance. He’d eat one of her specialties and fall in love with her cooking. After the meal was over, she could walk out and chat with him, flirt like a normal fangirl, and somewhat remedy this nightmare. There was still hope.

  Her jaw dropped, and her stomach churned, when he kept right on walking. He went toward the parking lot without even glancing back at her or inhaling the tantalizing scents coming from her kitchen. She sagged against the restaurant wall for a few seconds. A few disappointed tears squeaked out. She gave herself a ten-count, and then brushed the stupid tears brusquely away and headed back to the kitchen. Facing Kelly and Anna was going to bite the big one, but sometimes you won, and sometimes you lost. Tonight, Shar had failed big time.

  * * *

  “What did you make of that?” Mike asked as he sat in the backseat of the bulletproof Escalade. Gunner was driving, and Lily sat in shotgun. They were headed to another restaurant across the island for dinner.

  “I thought she was chill when I met her at Preston and Ally’s wedding, but tonight? Definitely nuts,” Gunner said.

  “She’s funny, and I’ve always liked her,” Lily said.

  Mike hated to agree with Lily, but as he thought back over the conversation, she was funny, and he kind of liked her too. That was insane as she showed so many possibilities of being his stalker.

  Gunner rolled his eyes at his wife, which earned him an elbow in the gut. “If you look past the crazy, she does have a good sense of humor. I’ll give you that,” Gunner said. “But I’m definitely contacting Sutton while you two get tables for dinner. There are so many red flags with that chick. We have no choice but to check her out as a suspect and put up surveillance at her restaurant and home.”

  “Agreed.” Mike leaned back against the cushions and looked out at the illuminated beautiful homes sliding by, massive trees in their yards looking a bit eerie against the night sky.

  Red flags. Lots of red flags. And he definitely wanted to stay far away from his stalker. Yet why was he so attracted to Shar Heathrow when she showed signs of being his stalker? He’d been as confused by his reaction to her beauty and the funny way she phrased things as he was by how off she came across. But there was something in her dark eyes that was appealing and very sane. If she was his stalker, would she really have made a comment about knives and said he was “the superstar of her dreams”? He didn’t think so, but how did he know how a stalker would act?

  It was good that Gunner was checking into her and getting Sutton on it. Yet Mike still hoped sometime this weekend he’d get to see her again. He’d never admit that to Gunner, but as Lily gave him a wink over her shoulder, he thought maybe she’d understand.

  Chapter Three

  Shar awoke at five-thirty the next morning and headed out to the biking and running paths that crisscrossed her beautiful Hilton Head Island. You’d think, with getting home after eleven p.m., she’d be able to sleep in, but no. Her body was just wired to go, and she woke and pushed herself physically every morning. Then, she got to the restaurant by ten to start lunch, and usually worked until closing at ten, even if she wasn’t scheduled to.

  She ran along the beautiful path under the live oaks with Spanish moss dripping from them, past the famous PGA golf course and so many beautiful homes. She noticed quite a few alligators in the lagoons next to the trail, but her mind was focused on her conversation with Mike last night. She was humiliated that he’d seen her so unhinged. She tried to tell herself it didn’t matter, but the pit in her stomach wouldn’t disappear. Mike Kohler. Her dream man had come to talk to her in reality. And she’d completely messed it up.

  She saw a runner coming the other direction. There were often runners and bikers along these trails, but it was usually pretty quiet this early in the morning. The person coming was tall and built. She felt a little twinge of worry and fingered the pepper spray in her pocket. The man got closer, and in the pre-dawn light, she could see smooth, brown skin in a tank top and shorts, and the most handsome face on the planet. Mike Kohler. Her he
art leaped with excitement, even as she told herself she should just stay away and not push him toward nominating her for the asylum. Did they even have asylums any more, or was that politically incorrect? Hmm. She’d have to Google that.

  Mike’s gaze met hers, and he blinked in surprise. Slowing, he stopped in front of her. “Hey,” he said softly.

  “Oh, hey.” She wanted to say something funny but didn’t want to scare him away again.

  He tilted his chin at her and gave a very forced smile. “These trails are great.”

  “Yeah. I’m a lucky duck getting to live here and run the trails or the beach every morning. Show off my superhuman speed.” She pumped her eyebrows. “I’m faster than Dash. You know, from the Incredibles?”

  “For sure.” His smile seemed a little softer. Apparently, he at least appreciated her goofy sense of humor.

  “Do you want to race?” she asked.

  He actually laughed. It was a great laugh. “You do realize I run the forty in under four-forty.”

  “Ooh.” She pursed her lips and pretended a shudder. Yes, she knew that. She knew most of his stats. “That is fast. Come on then, let’s see it.” She took off running as hard as she could. She knew he could easily catch her, and maybe he’d think she was crazy again for trying to race him, but it was super fun to banter with him, and him chasing after her would fulfill so many fantasies.

  Glancing over her shoulder, she saw he was watching her with a bemused smile. She beckoned to him. “Come on! Don’t make me beat you, superstar.”

  He pushed off then and sprinted toward her. His eyes changed quickly from laughing to concerned. “Shar!” he yelled, pointing.

  Shar turned back around and realized that the path had curved, and she was flirting with the edge. The edge that went down to one of the many lagoons next to these paths, lagoons that were full of alligators.