“Gala.” She couldn’t help the dig. He was being a stubborn jackass.
“Whatever. Same difference in my book. I don’t want to do it.”
So maybe he might be a little right. Maybe she was doing it for herself. The gala would showcase her talents, build her clientele. Zach didn’t have one good reason to help her, except— “The proceeds go to homeless families. Don’t you care about that?”
“I care about my privacy and keeping my house the way I like it.”
“You’re a stubborn, insufferable man.”
“Thanks. I resemble that remark.” For a minute, Zach wavered, uncertainty on his face. “I’ll go to someone else’s gala as my graduation test.”
Most likely the coach would agree to Zach’s suggestion, but the house and grounds would be an outstanding location for the type of intimate event she had in mind.
Fortifying her resolve, Kelsie lifted her head. Out of the ashes rose the fire. Instead of giving up, she’d beat this damn yard into submission, one way or another. Or die trying. Shooing Scranton off her lap, she rose to her feet, and he followed suit. “I’m going to do it, and you, Zach Murphy, are going to help me.” She jabbed a finger in his chest.
Grudging respect shone in his eyes, along with something much more dangerous to both of them. “Fine. Hire someone. I’ll split the costs with you.”
Split the costs? Hardly. She didn’t have the money for next week’s rent. “You said you never hire someone to do something you can do.”
“Yeah, but it’d take the entire football team to get this yard in shape.”
“That’s a perfect idea.”
“Don’t even think about it.”
“Please.” She grasped his arm. Big mistake. The hard, corded muscles flexed under her fingers. His expression changed, went blank for a second. He blinked and stared at her.
Suddenly self-conscious, Kelsie pushed her hair out of her eyes and wiped her dirty face with an equally dirty sleeve. “I must look awful.”
“I don’t think so.” He spoke so quietly she swore she’d misunderstood him.
“Pardon?” Her heart thumped in her chest, pounding on its cell walls and begging to be released.
“I like this Kelsie, all messy and sweaty, not so untouchable. A woman a man could get, uh, comfortable with.”
“If the man was prone to mud-wrestling.” She snorted, attempting to lighten the weight of sexual attraction smothering both of them.
“Don’t tempt me.” His mouth quirked up in a smile that crinkled the corners of his eyes and made him so irresistibly attractive to her.
“You don’t like me.” Her gaze flicked to a large mud puddle several feet away.
One dark brow crept up his forehead. “You’re right. But you’re still a hot female with a great body. It’s just a physical thing.”
“It’s always a physical thing with you.”
“Not always, but now it is. That’s all that’s left.”
The mood shattered, Kelsie looked away from those piercing eyes that saw too much. “Are you ever going to forgive me?”
“Doubt it.” He frowned and stared at his hands. “Not sure. I’m struggling with it.”
“You don’t forgive easily.”
“I haven’t met anyone who’s truly earned my forgiveness. The few times I’ve forgiven, they’ve proven they don’t deserve it.”
“You must live a tragic, lonely life, Zach Murphy.”
“Yeah, maybe.” The sadness in his eyes undid her.
The urge to take away his pain whipped through her, wrapping her in the eye of a tornado and pummeling her good sense. She touched his cheek, mesmerized by his dark eyes, drawn in by animal magnetism. She leaned forward. He leaned forward. The scent of pure male, clean and masculine, filled her nostrils. Her hand dropped to her side. She stared at his mouth and moved closer. Just an inch or two separated them. His hot breath tickled her nose. She closed the final distance, unable to resist.
His lips tasted just as she’d imagined, like spearmint gum and all-alpha male. He didn’t move as she sampled them, letting her take the initiative. Kelsie ran her tongue over his lower lip and circled to his upper lip. Once she completed the circuit, her mouth followed her tongue. His lips were strong, uncompromising, sensually powerful, everything she knew they’d be.
With a tortured groan, Zach buried his long fingers into her hair and pulled her closer, deepening the kiss, sucking her tongue into his warm mouth. Kelsie wrapped her arms around his neck and held on tight. Her wayward body pressed against his without her permission.
She didn’t give a damn. She wanted him with a feral need she’d never felt with another man. Maybe it was a payback thing, a way to give him a part of her and ease her guilt. Right now, the reasons didn’t matter. Their mouths mated wildly, like animals, freed of all the restrictions placed on them by society.
Society.
Oh, crap.
Her job.
Calling on a reserve of strength she kept for tough times, Kelsie pushed him away. She was here to teach him social graces, not to engage in a tongue tango.
Zach backed up a few steps, shaking his head, almost pawing the ground like a bull in the ring. “If you think that’s going to make me change my mind, you can forget it.”
“That was so not a good idea on many levels.” She panted and fanned her face.
“Tell me about it.” He leaned back against the steps with a sigh and glanced around. “I’ll pay someone to clean up this place.” As if what had happened was all about the yard and not about the attraction arcing between them.
Kelsie opened her mouth to thank him and get herself out of the garden reclamation business. Then she stopped dead in her beat-up shoes. All her life, people had bailed her out of her problems, then perched her on a pedestal and admired her but never expected anything of substance and sacrifice from her. Sure, she’d sacrificed herself for ten years with a controlling husband, but not that type of sacrifice.
“No.” She couldn’t believe that word came out of her mouth even as a plan formed in her mind. Zach considered her a selfish woman who’d never change. She had changed, and she’d act accordingly.
“No?” He stared at her, his mouth hanging open.
“No. I’ll get volunteers to do it, and we’ll do it for free. You can donate the money you’ll save to a charity.”
“What kind of charity?”
“One for battered women.”
“Battered women, huh? What do you know about battered women?”
Too much when it came to being emotionally battered, but she’d be damned if she’d solicit his sympathy. “One of the many charities I organized when I was married to Mark.” She tossed her ponytail as if the actual charity was of no consequence to her. He might as well continue to think the worst of her to keep him at arm’s length.
He nodded and held out his hand. “Deal.”
“Deal.”
Now for the hard part. How to swing the deal she’d just made with him and with herself. Not just the gardening part but the hands-off-the-student part.
Chapter 6—A New Game Plan
Finished with her weekly meeting, Kelsie limped out of the coach’s office, discouraged and beaten. HughJack had spent the entire meeting staring at his computer, while Veronica tapped out messages on her phone. Neither was impressed by Kelsie’s report, despite her attempts at sugar-coating and spin-doctoring.
She sat down in an empty reception area around the corner from the main doors to the practice facility, pulled off a shoe, and rubbed her throbbing foot. In the past week, she’d gained a new respect for people who did physical labor for a living. She’d never see a gardener or repairman in the same way. There wasn’t a muscle in her body that didn’t ache or a square inch of skin that wasn’t red and chapped.
For the better part of the past week, Kelsie had attempted to tackle Zach’s yard, but instead it had tackled her. She wouldn’t give up. Not now. Not when her goal hovered on the horizon.
A stubborn linebacker and a jungle yard wouldn’t deter her. Even if said yard harbored all sorts of nasty, greasy surprises, such as old car parts and garbage and disgusting creatures in the form of slugs big enough to cart off the house on their slimy backs.
Loneliness and longing were almost as bad as her physical pain, lonely for a friendly face and longing for a man who’d never forgive her. Men complicated everything, and she preferred things to stay as simple as possible until she rebounded from her current sorry state.
But she’d kissed him, and she’d liked it—a lot. Not just a nice, sweet kiss but an all-out assault in which she’d attempted to burrow under his skin or at least his clothes. She couldn’t get that kiss out of her mind. She wanted another and another—
This obsessing over him had to stop. She’d tasted that forbidden fruit for the last time. No more. She was a professional doing a professional job, and she would not do her client, especially when said client hated her guts. He could ruin her.
Mercy, but Kelsie needed someone to spill her woes to other than Scranton. Someone who’d be an ally in a harsh world. She craved true girlfriends, the type everyone else had, not the superficial ones she’d had all her life. Of course, you had to be a friend to have true friends. Kelsie was ready to be that type of friend if only someone would give her chance.
She heard a familiar voice and stilled, listening, certain her addled brain must have dredged up an answer to her prayers.
“I’m on my way, Vinnie. Where are we meeting?” Rachel Ramsey’s voice drifted to where Kelsie sat. She held her breath, hoping she’d hear the location before Rachel exited.
“Beachfront Pub? Got it. See you there in ten.”
Talk about right place, right time. Kelsie had better start going to church because someone up there just might be playing on her team.
Slipping on her shoe back, she ignored her protesting toes and stood. She walked up to the old security guy at the front desk and gave him her pageant-winning smile. “Where’s the Beachfront Pub?”
He grinned as if she’d just gifted him a winning lotto ticket. A few minutes later, she hurried out of the building as fast as her bruised and blistered feet would carry her.
Kelsie drove ten minutes to the Kirkland waterfront area and parked in the restaurant lot. She glanced in the rearview mirror, still feeling as if her face betrayed the effects of Zach’s kiss last week. She touched her lips. Perhaps the physical evidence had disappeared, but in her mind, those hungry lips of his still roamed across her mouth and face, wreaking havoc with her brain.
No more men. Not a one. Especially not an unsociable loner with a chip on his shoulder larger than most continents and an even bigger grudge against her.
No. No. No.
Just keep saying the words, Kel. Someday you might really believe them.
Taking a deep breath to clear her mind and shore up her courage, she walked into the Beachfront Pub and paused in the doorway, scanning the tables. With the regal bearing of the beauty queen she once was, she wove between the tables to one near the window. Several men gazed appreciatively at her as she strolled by. She ignored them. They weren’t part of her plan, now or ever. Two heads bent close together, one blonde, one brunette, gossiping away, totally unaware of her determined approach.
“Imagine meeting you here,” Kelsie gushed, using her best girlfriend-to-girlfriend voice.
Both women glanced up at the same time. She caught the quick look between them, almost as if they were on to her but too polite to call her out on her deception.
“I thought I’d drop by for a quick bite.”
Again that silent look between friends. A hesitation. Kelsie held her breath, praying they were as nice as she guessed they were.
Rachel smiled up at her, a friendly, open smile. “Please, join us.”
Lavender nodded her agreement as she sipped on a yummy-looking foo-foo drink.
“I’d love to.”
Rachel moved her purse out of the way, and Kelsie slid into the booth next to her. “I was in the area meeting with Coach Jackson and Ms. Simms to discuss my progress on a special project.”
“Zach’s charm class? Tyler told me all about it.” Lavender made a face, as if she didn’t quite agree with Tyler spreading dirt about Zach.
“Tyler talks too much, and he holds his grudges near and dear to his heart.” Rachel sighed.
“So does Zach.” Kelsie knew that better than anyone. No sense denying the obvious.
“They’re too much alike. That’s why they get on each other’s nerves.” Lavender winked at her, then sobered.
“Zach won’t let it go with Tyler either. Their childish war is dividing the team. I don’t understand why the coach allows it to happen,” Rachel noted.
Kelsie resisted the urge to defend Zach. No reason to get her panties in a bunch over the truth. Zach did hold on to things long past their usefulness. “Zach’s a bit of a stubborn, proud man.”
“You knew him from high school?” Rachel signaled the waiter, and a moment later, one of the incredible drinks showed up in front of Kelsie.
“What is it?” Kelsie pointed at the drink.
“Root beer float, only with alcohol instead of ice cream. It’s our lunch tradition.”
Kelsie sipped the drink and licked her lips. “Heavenly.” She held her hands to her heart and looked upward. Rachel and Lavender laughed.
“Hey, sister, you’re not distracting us that easily. Spill. You and Zach have a history,” Lavender prompted.
Kelsie hesitated, not willing to tell all and paint herself in such an unfavorable light. “He hasn’t changed much, except he has more money. In high school, he stayed to himself. Looks like he still does.” Thanks to her. She’d taught him a valuable lesson when it came to trusting people, and she felt like crap about it.
They ordered lunch, sipped their drinks, and made small talk. Kelsie had so missed female interaction. Her ex had all but cut off her friends over the past ten years. He’d embraced her family because both her parents worshipped him as if he walked on water. She could do nothing right in their eyes and his.
A lull in the conversation gave Kelsie the in she needed. “Have you ever done something so stupid you can’t figure out how to rectify it?”
“Of course.” Lavender paused in mid-chew and studied her.
Rachel laughed. “All the time. I can’t even walk on a flat surface without stumbling.”
“I could help you with that,” Kelsie offered.
They both stared at her, mouths open.
“You learn how to walk correctly in beauty-queen school.”
“Beauty-queen school?” they said in unison.
Kelsie waved them off. “It’s a long, boring story and not important to my problem.”
“And that is?”
“When I accepted the job working with Zach, I wanted to sweeten the pot, go above and beyond, give the Steelheads more than their money’s worth.”
“And you did what?”
“I agreed to help Zach host a black-tie fundraiser at his home on Queen Ann Hill with proceeds going to Veronica’s favorite charity.”
“You took on Veronica’s Hearts for Homeless campaign? You’re a brave woman. Isn’t she, Rae?”
“You’ll never do it well enough to please her.”
“It’s even worse than that. Have you seen Zach’s home?” Kelsie picked up a breadstick and gnawed on it.
“Zach is a loner. No one’s been invited to his place.”
“Good thing. If they wandered off the front porch, they’d never be heard from again.”
“That bad?”
“You two know Zach. He’s not into appearances. He’s also a procrastinator. If it’s not football, he puts it on a back burner.”
Both women met each other’s gazes and sighed in unison.
“Is he hiring someone to clean it up?” Rachel ordered another round of drinks.
“No, I’m cleaning it up. I got Zach into this mess, and I feel respon
sible for taking on some of the chores, but I don’t really have the cash to hire anyone.”
“Girl, you are in deep doggie doo.” Lavender grabbed her second drink and took a long suck on her straw.
“I know. Just shoot me. I was hoping we might put our heads together for the greater good. I’m desperate.”
“You came to the right place.” Lavender’s smirk danced across her face. “Tyler might help.”
“He hates Zach.”
“Exactly. Which is why he’ll help. When he finds out Zach isn’t cleaning up the place, Ty will grab the offensive guys and jump right in. The place will be ready in no time.”
Kelsie thought about it. “That might work, but what’s the incentive besides making Zach look like an ass?”
“For Ty, that’s enough. Besides, I know how his mind works. He’ll make it into a competition. Offense versus defense. Zach won’t be able to resist the chance to best him. You wait and see.”
“And poor Derek will be there to make sure they don’t kill each other.” Rachel sighed and checked her text messages.
“Do you think it’ll work?” Kelsie looked at each of them. Both women’s eyes gleamed with mischief.
“Oh, it’ll work.”
Right up to the point that Zach murdered her with his bare hands.
Kelsie drank up. She might as well enjoy life while she could.
~ ~ ~ ~
Zach must have fallen asleep and been slammed awake in the middle of a war zone. He pulled the pillow over his head to drown out the sounds outside. He was half-asleep, and a weird dream swirled in his head—lots of noise, Harris barking orders, guys jaw-jacking with each other. Metal clanking against metal. Loud bangs, noises suspiciously sounding like small engines, pressure washers, brush cutters, and the like roared in his head. A diesel truck idled near his window.
The bottom fell out of that space between asleep and awake and plunged him headfirst into reality. Zach shot up in bed, looking every which way in the large tower suite.
What the hell? More banging, more roaring, more guys shouting over the noise.
Not a dream. Not one fucking bit. After leaping out of bed, Zach yanked on a pair of sweats and a T-shirt and stomped through his house toward the location of the majority of the racket. He swung open his door with such force it slammed into the side of the wall and shuddered as if it’d drawn its last breath. Hands on hips, Zach surveyed the organized chaos.
Offsides: The Originals (Seattle Steelheads Book 3) Page 7
