She shook her head slightly but appeared to be thinking it over, so I added in my bargaining chips.
“And in exchange, I’ll turn you into a flirting machine.”
She gave me a look that made me laugh.
“And how exactly are you planning to help me”—she motioned toward the court she had just shared with Briggs—“with this?”
“Tuck, you have all the tools you need. We just need to work on your confidence.”
“And I get that by…?”
“Practice.” I eyed her carefully. “Just like you wanted.”
She had asked for this. Yet, she looked like a deer in headlights.
“What’s wrong? I thought you wanted to practice flirting with someone you’re comfortable with?”
“I do. I just…” She bit her lip, drawing my gaze to her mouth. “Now, I’m imagining doing that with you.”
Folding my arms, I smiled. “Getting hot flashes?”
“More like a cold sweat.”
I held up a hand. “If we do this, I have a couple rules that I will be adding to the contract later. The one youclaimyou still have.”
“I do still have it.”
“That’s sad,” I said.
“It’s sad that you were almost not going to fulfill your end of the bargain.”
I cleared my throat. “Number one, no kissing. All we’re doing is getting you to the point where you can snag a guy on your own and then go kiss him all you want.”
“Fine by me,” she said, folding her arms. “I still have nightmares from the last time.”
“You and me both. And whenever we have a lesson, it happens after dark. When Sophie’s asleep. I don’t want her toget confused. During the day on the ranch, we hang out, and hopefully, people will think we like each other and leave me alone. Do you have anything you want to add?”
“So how are you going to teach me to flirt?”
I rubbed at my chin and stared at her thoughtfully. “I’m going to help you get comfortable with touch. So…I don’t know…I’ll figure out a few scenarios and walk you through a few things.”
There. That sounded like a business deal. Walk her through a few things. Even my heart, which had begun to pound at this discussion, calmed at those words. Very businesslike.
“You can back out at any time,” I said when she seemed to have zoned out for a minute. “And when I say touch, I’m just talking about the stuff you might do in the first couple of weeks of dating someone. Hand holding, cuddling, not giving someone a black eye when you're playing one-on-one…easy stuff like that.”
“Can we add a doorstep scene?”
“Huh?”
“It’s not just flirting. It’s certain places on dates that I seem to overthink and get scared about. The places where expectations are high for some reason. Watching a movie on a couch, walking down the street and not knowing what I should do with my hands, and getting dropped off at the doorstep from a date…things like that.”
“Alright. We’ll add them to the list.”
She nodded, blowing out a breath, and finally gave me a real smile. “Okay. Then I’m in.”
“What’s your end goal?” I asked, grabbing the basketball once more and taking a shot.
“I’d love to just practice stuff with you so I can hopefully date people in Boise like a normal person.”