She narrowed her eyes in thought before nodding slowly, bringing her deep brown eyes back to mine. “Okay. What else is there? My favorite flowers are roses and daisies. I’m not a fan of any movie made from a book I’ve read because they always disappoint me. I’m firmly in the ‘don’t fuck with perfection’ camp on that one. The most important person in my life is my mother, even if she is also the person in my life I argue with the most. Summer is my favorite time of year, but if I can’t have that, give me the heart of winter. The other seasons need to make up their minds.”
“Really? You don’t like spring? Who doesn’t like spring?”
Lifting one shoulder, she smiled and pointed at her chest. “Me. Maybe I’m the only person in the world who feels that way, but I just don’t like the in-between. Give me something concrete and I can work with it, but the whole ice-cold and hell-hot thing on the same day gets to me.”
I winced, hand going to my chest as I pretended to massage my heart. “Why do I feel like that applies to me? I haven’t given you a whole hell of a lot of concrete to work with.”
She laughed, shaking her head. “Nah, people get some leeway in my opinion. To be fair, you would’ve made my life easier if you’d given me something more concrete to work with, but it’s your risk to take. All I want when you walk into that house is for you to feel like you’ve been living there for years.”
“Is that the ultimate goal for any designer?” I asked curiously. “Or is it just the way you operate because you put so much pressure on yourself to do everything right?”
Rolling her lips into her mouth, she rocked her head from side to side as she considered my question. “I don’t think it’s always the ultimate goal. It depends on the project. Some people want to walk in and feel like they don’t even recognize the place. Others want to feel at home, but like it’s a new and improved version of home, and then, of course, there are the projects where people want to be able to rent the place out or something like that, which then puts an entirely different spin on it.”
“So it’s like a whole new job every time you take on a different project?”
She nodded. “Yeah, I suppose you could see it that way. Every project is a challenge, which is one of the reasons why I love my job so much. I can never get bored because I never do the same thing twice. The basics are the same, but that’s where it ends. Everything else is completely different every time. Getting it exactly right for every client? That’s the ultimate goal, I think. If the client isn’t ecstatically happy when they walk in, I haven’t done my job.”
“I can relate to that,” I said. “When I was still playing, every game was a new challenge. Like you said, the basics remained the same, but everything else was different. I think that’s one of the things I miss the most, the challenge of trying to get it right with every game.”
“Do you regret resigning?” she asked after a brief pause. “You don’t have to tell me if it’s too personal. I’ve just wondered about it a few times.”
“It’s not too personal,” I said. “Considering how much you already know about me, I’m not about to start trying to be mysterious now. I don’t regret it, but I miss the game the way it used to be before all the fun and passion got sucked out of it for me. My only regret is never having fostered a passion for something else that I could get more into now that I’ve gotten out of baseball.”
She looked directly into my eyes, and there was nothing but confidence and sincerity in hers. “You’ll find it. I know you will. In the greater scheme of things, a few months isn’t such a long time to feel a little… untethered. What happened to you was huge, life-changing in every sense, and at the same time, you followed your heart and gave up something that you’d given your all to until now. I think it’s only natural to feel a bit adrift after something like that.”
Yep. Mothers really are smart. “I’m glad I talked to you about this. I might still not know what I’m going to do, but you’ve just made me realize it’s okay to not know. You’re right. I’ve spent my entire life so far putting everything I had into baseball, and it’s probably going to take me some time to get my head wrapped around what other options might be out there for me.”
“Exactly.” She smiled. “Now, let’s talk about something less serious for a minute. You never told me what your favorite color was.”
Our main courses were served, and while I was vaguely aware that the food was mind-blowing, being there with her was even better. The night went by way too fast, and when it was time to leave, I wasn’t anywhere near ready to let her go.
“This isn’t about what you’re going to think it’s about, but do you want to come back to my place?” I asked. “We don’t need to do anything. I just don’t want our date to end yet.”
“So it was a date,” she mused softly, but before I could ask if she’d really believed it wasn’t, she nodded. “I’d love to go home with you. I’m not ready for it to end just yet either.”
A strange but deep kind of joy sparked inside me. I’d thought inviting her back to my place was a long shot, but it’d paid off, and as we climbed back into the limo waiting for us outside, I was fucking thrilled that it looked like I was getting another chance with her.
The door had barely closed behind me when she turned, much closer to me than I’d realized, and reached for my face. Her hands burrowed into my hair, fingernails scraping lightly over my scalp as she pulled me to her, her gaze intent on mine.
“I know you said we didn’t have to do anything, but what if I want to?”
I leaned in, snaked my arms around her waist, and pulled her to me. “I was hoping you might say that.”
Without any further warning or hesitation, I closed the short distance between us and kissed her, groaning when she tightened her grip on me and kissed me back even harder. Things always seemed to escalate fast with us, and it wasn’t any different this time around.
Before I even knew what was happening, I was on my knees in front of her, her panties shoved to the side and her dress pushed up to her waist as I gorged myself on her like I hadn’t just eaten a four-course meal. She tasted like heaven and it gave me hell trying to keep myself under control while she came on my tongue, moaning my name and looking like a fucking goddess.
I sat back on my heels and looked up at her after she’d come down. “When we get back to my place, let’s walk fast,” I said urgently. “I’m not nearly done with you yet and we’re too close now to do anything else before we get there.”
She smiled lazily, but there was a hint of mischief in it too when she sank down on her knees in front of me. “Well, there might not be time for much, but there sure is time for something.”
While she spoke, she reached for my belt and undid it. She pushed her hand into the front of my pants and kept her eyes on mine as she stroked me. “I might not be that great at this, but I’m pretty sure I can make you come before we get there. What do you say, Tanner? Are you up for the challenge?”
“How is that even a question?” I growled just before crashing my mouth back against hers, kissing her deeply while she took me to the fucking stars.