liked watching Foreman as he set the water pot to boil, readied the pasta shells, and took a couple of hunks of cheese from the fridge. She just liked …
She needed to stop thinking about what she liked. That attitude had never done her any favors.
“If I knew we were cheating on our diets, I’d have brought soda.”
“Fifteen minutes extra on the treadmill. I’ll allow it.” He jerked a chin at the fridge and returned to grating cheese.
She opened the door and her heart leaped at what she saw: a six pack of Coke. Knowing Foreman didn’t drink soda himself, she felt a warm glow in her chest. Silly, perhaps, but there was a thoughtfulness to this man that often took her breath away.
She raised her gaze to the top shelf. “You got a filter system.”
“Yeah, you were jabberin’ on about my carbon footprint when I dared to offer you a bottle of water so I figured I may as well do it to shut you up.”
“I can’t believe you actually listened to something I said and acted on it.”
The look he delivered burned a hole in her skull. “I listen to everything you say, Mia.”
Oh. There was that warmth again, flooding her chest and making her body flush. Eager to cover how much his words affected her, she busied herself pouring water into a glass for him.
She passed it off. “Here you go.”
“Cheers,” he said and clinked her glass of Coke. “To successful missions.”
“Speaking of that …”
His expression sharpened. “What? Has something happened with this guy?”
“What? No, I was thinking about you.”
“What about me?”
“About how you’re not dating right now.”
His smile was wry. He reached down into the cupboard and her eyes were drawn to his ass in jeans. His perfectly biteable, wanna-cup-those-cheeks ass in jeans.
He put a grater on the counter. “You’ve noticed.”
“Of course! You usually date. A lot.”
He raised an eyebrow. “And?”
“You haven’t been dating. At all. So I wondered if you needed help with that?”
“From you?” He burst out laughing.
“I can help! I know people. Women who might be interested in whatever it is you have to offer.”
“Which would be?”
She hadn’t expected to be put on the spot. How would she describe Foreman’s best qualities? Those kind eyes, the crooked grin, that dry sense of humor. He had plenty going for him beyond the usual. “Oh, the abs. The bank account. The pro athlete thing.”
She had meant it to sound playful, a cover for the hullaballoo of emotions she was suddenly feeling. He bought soda. He got a water filter. His ass was a work of art.
She thought about him day and night, and it was bordering on obsession.
He regarded her with a gravity that surprised her. Shit. Those were all the criticisms she’d leveled at him in that viral post. They made him sound shallow.
She made him sound shallow, when he wasn’t at all.
She opened her mouth to amend, but he got there first. “Where is this coming from?”
“Just trying to help. Am I holding you back?”
“Why would you be holding me back?”
“Maybe the early morning practices are playing havoc with your banging routine.”
“My banging routine.” He chuckled, and she was pleased to have made up for her unfortunate digs a moment ago. “Let’s just say I’m taking it easy for a while. A little self-care.”
“Celibacy?”
He added salt to the boiling water, then half a box of shells.
“I’m not putting a time limit on it but yeah, celibacy. After Tara, I realized I tend to jump into dalliances, for want of a better word, a little too quickly. Kind of like my parents.”
“How so?”
“Well, they divorced when I was ten and they’ve both remarried several times since. Mom’s on her third marriage and Dad’s on his fourth.”
Wow. “That’s a lot of love for the institution of marriage.”
He smiled ruefully. “Yeah. They’re drama hogs, love to fight, love getting me in the middle of it, and I hate that. Hated it then, hate it now. I don’t enjoy being around that kind of negativity where everything is framed as an opportunity to one-up each other. But the flip side of that is, in avoiding conflict—”
“You risk letting people walk all over you.” This was familiar ground to her.
He nodded, relief in his eyes that she understood. “Sometimes you don’t stand up when you should. I haven’t been as deliberate about my dating choices, instead letting circumstances pull me into the flow. I want to be a bit more purposeful about it, so I’m not screwing around