Because her dad started taking pictures as she exited the house, and so did the neighbors.
“Oh my God, will you knock it off?” Duffy said, rolling her eyes.
Whoa.She looked really good. Like,reallygood, dear Lord. She was wearing a black skirt with a black sweater, one of the slouchy things that tended to slip off a shoulder every few minutes in the very best way.
And the black boots she was wearing really accentuated her long, toned legs.
If she was cute the first time we met, she was a knockout this second time around.
“Stand next to Connor and smile; then I’ll let you go,” Tony said. “I just want to get a picture.”
“This is two adults grabbing dinner, not the prom,” she said, and her cheeks were pink like she was embarrassed. “I need everyone to disperse so we can go get some food.”
She glanced at me and said, “I’m so sorry.”
“No, it’s fine,” I said, forcing myself not to visibly inhale when it was all I wanted to do because she smelled so fucking good. “I don’t mind.”
“Yeah, I bet you get this a lot,” she said, her eyes narrowing. “I’m sure everywhere you go, people treat you like a celebrity.”
Oh. She does not mean that as a compliment.
“I mean—”
“Just smile fast so we can get out of here,” she said, stepping closer and facing her father.
We smiled while everyone in the neighborhood took pictures of us, and then I led her to my car and opened the door for her. She apologized again when I was backing out because everyone in the yard was taking videos of our departure.
“I am so sorry about all of this. My brothers and my dad—well, hell, all of our neighbors, to be honest—don’t know how tobehave around a Coyotes player. They’re just such huge football fans that they kind of lose their minds.”
“It’s fine,” I said as we turned onto a main road and slowed at a red light. “And you lookreallynice, by the way.”
“Oh, thanks,” she said with a small laugh. “I had to borrow some clothes from a friend because I don’t usually wear anything that hasn’t come from Target or Amazon so trust me, it’s all her.”
“I’m looking at you and it’s definitely notallher,” I said, a big fan of her freckled shoulder. I suddenly appreciated that the nice night didn’t allow for jackets.
Her skin looked ridiculously soft and I almost had to restrain myself from reaching out and brushing my fingers across it.
“Oh-kay,” she said, raising her eyebrows even through her blush, almost like she was calling me out for the cheesy line.
“God, that’s right,” I said, remembering the show. “You’re gonna bust my ass all night, aren’t you?”
“What?” she asked with a laugh. “What does that mean?”
“It means that I’m pretty sure you insulted me more than you were actually nice to me on the show, so I’ve kind of convinced myself that tonight will just be more of the same.”
“I didn’t insult you, I gave you shit—there’s a difference,” she said, and I liked the level of sarcasm in her tone.
“You mentioned my dropped pass,” I pointed out.
“Was I not supposed to mention it? Your ego is not seriously so fragile that you can’t recognize you dropped the ball, right?”
“It’s not, but people don’t usually mention it to me on account of polite conversation.”
“They’re probably intimidated by you because you’re so big,” she said.
“You’re not?”
“Nah,” she said. “You might be bigger and stronger than my brothers, but I feel like the three of them together is probably equal to one Connor Cunningham and I can take them…sometimes. So, no, not intimidated by you.”