CHAPTER9
TANNER
Jeremiah had told me that they kept menus for all the decent takeout places in a drawer in the kitchen. With Larisa having asked for Thai, I browsed through the available options and went back to her with a choice of two restaurants that offered the cuisine.
She took the menus from me and studied both before deciding on one and giving me her order. I called the place once I’d decided what I wanted, then went outside to join her where she was sitting in a lounge chair on the deck.
One of the throws from the sofa inside was draped over her legs and she was holding the glass of red wine I’d poured for her toward the end of our game. She smiled when I walked up to her. Her dark gaze tracked me as I sat down in the chair next to hers.
“They’ll be here in forty-five minutes,” I said. “It’s a bit of a longer wait time than I’m used to. Sorry about that. We’ll have to order earlier tomorrow night. I hope you’re not starving just yet.”
“I’m not,” she replied, the smile growing as she turned to face the water again. The surface was like a mirror. The clouds in the sky and the sun as it dipped lower reflected on it. “It really is beautiful here. Did you choose it, or did they tell you where we were going?”
“I chose it, but I had a little help,” I admitted. “Steph sent over some of Williams Inc’s places for me to decide between. I was a little clueless about what to do for the weekend until I spoke to her about it.”
Since things were going well between us and we’d both loosened up a bit, I shot her an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry again for running into you at the auction, by the way. I only realized after I was on the move that you’d started to say something. Truth be told, I’d just seen Jeremiah from across the room after I bumped into you, and I wanted to catch him before he disappeared again. The auction was the first time I was doing something like that and I was as nervous as a virgin on prom night.”
She chuckled. “You were nervous? Didn’t you used to be some big baseball star? I thought you seemed a little anxious, but when I found out what you used to do for a living, I figured I must’ve been wrong.”
“You weren’t wrong.” I laughed at myself as I shrugged. “Playing baseball in a stadium full of fans watching my every move? I could do that without blinking an eye. But that fancy auction made me feel like a teenager who was about to give a presentation in front of his class without having prepared for it. I was a mess that night.”
“That’s okay,” she said. “At the time, I was a little annoyed but I misjudged you. Besides, what I started saying before you ran off was that it wasn’t your fault. I hadn’t been paying attention to where I was going and I’m pretty sure I stepped into your path without even realizing it.”
“Water under the bridge?” I asked, and she nodded. Settling in on the lounge chair, I brought my beer to my lips and took a sip as I turned to face the lake as well. “There are a few interesting attractions in the area. Have you seen anything you’d like to do this weekend?”
“Nah, I’m happy to stay around here and relax. Work has been super busy lately, and I really needed time away to unwind, which is another reason why Brit decided to bid on the weekend on my behalf. She decided I needed a break.”
“It sounds like she’s a good friend. I’ve never taken lots of breaks myself, but I’ve recently realized that there’s got to be more to life than just work, work, and more work all the time. I’m trying to get that balance back, but I’m not even sure I ever had it, so it’s been a challenge to shift my focus away from working.”
“You’ve retired from baseball, right?” she asked.
“Yep, but I still wake up every morning thinking that I’ve overslept and that it’s time to get my butt to practice.”
Cradling her glass in her hands, she rocked her head from side to side before she nodded. “I can see that happening. I have no idea what I would do with myself if I retired right now. It’s one thing to fantasize about the possibilities of what I might do one day when I do retire, but for now, I think it’d take me years before I stopped thinking about work. What have you been doing since you stepped back?”
“A bit of this and a bit of that. Mostly, I’ve just been trying to figure out what to do next. That game was my whole life and has been since elementary school. Envisioning the rest of my life without it has been difficult.”
We talked until our food came. Then we ate together and talked some more. Once we’d finished dinner, we packed up the containers and cleaned up, putting the leftovers in the fridge for tomorrow before throwing out everything that was empty.
Having eaten at the expansive dining-room table inside, Larisa stared out longingly as she stood in front of the sliding doors we’d closed earlier. “I don’t know if I’m ready to call it a night yet. It’s so beautiful out here that it seems like a pity to go to bed too early.”
“You’re really taken with this place, aren’t you?”
Glancing at me over her shoulder, she shrugged and turned back to the view of the moon rising over the water. “When I said it was like this was a place right out of my dreams, I wasn’t exaggerating. This whole experience is sort of surreal for me. I can’t believe I’m actually getting to stay at a place that looks like this. It’s also been years since I’ve even been out of the city, so this is a big deal for me.”
I tilted my head, studying her while she studied the view. “It is a little surreal, and I agree. If it’s your first time out of the city in years, it is a big deal. Instead of turning in, why don’t we head out to the hot tub for a while? It seems like another experience you should have while we’re here.”
She hesitated, but then smiled as her head bobbed up and down once she was facing me again. “I love that idea. I literally fantasized about it just last night.”
Heat rushed to her cheeks again, and I chuckled while she seemed to realize what that might’ve sounded like. Again. The truth of it was that so far, I’d understood what she’d really meant every time, but she kept saying things that could be taken one way or another, and she didn’t seem to be doing it intentionally.
Frankly, it was starting to make me wonder about what was going on in that pretty head of hers. Sex, or at least sexual innuendo, never seemed to be far from her mind. Despite what she’d said earlier, I wondered if she’d come here wanting only that one thing Jeremiah had referred to.
The way she’d phrased it when we’d talked about it earlier had made it sound like she didn’t want me to think I had to do anything I didn’t want to, but she hadn’t really made it clear what she wanted. As we headed upstairs to change, I found myself wishing that I’d thought to grab a couple of those condoms Jeremiah had left in the master bedroom before I’d put her bags in there.
Things were going so well between us that I was starting to hope he might’ve been right about what she wanted—even if he hadn’t known it was Larisa and not her friend who would be joining me. I even brushed my teeth after putting on my swimming trunks.
Before I’d even spoken to her, I’d been attracted to her. Now that I’d gotten to know her a little, I was attracted to her for more than just what she looked like. She didn’t seem as shallow as a lot of the women I’d been with over the last few months.
This time that I’d spent with her today was the longest someone had gone without bringing up my money once, which was refreshing. Ever since I’d come into my windfall and it’d become public, my bank account seemed to be the only thing women were attracted to.
With Larisa, that didn’t seem to be the case. The only reason I knew that she even knew about it was because the emcee at the auction had mentioned it and she’d been there. If it hadn’t been for that, I really wouldn’t have thought that she knew.
She was also the first person outside of my friends who had seemed interested in what I was going to do now that I’d left baseball and who genuinely wanted to know how I’d been since retiring. All of it only added to how attractive I found her, and the fact that she seemed to have sex on the brain didn’t hurt at all.
Although she’d made a point of telling me time and again that she didn’t expect it, I’d caught her checking me out a few times. She might not expect it, but I had a feeling she wanted it and so did I. Sure, we didn’t have to do anything, but I sure as hell wanted to, and if my suspicions about her were correct, I might just need to go grab that bowl from the master bedroom once she went outside.