ongratulations,” Adele said against Zach’s mouth. His shoulders were wet beneath her hands from the big chest of ice water his players had dumped over his head.

He kissed her hard, then pulled her against his chest. “We’ll celebrate later,” he spoke next to her ear. “When we’re alone.”

“It’s Christmas break. School’s out,” she reminded him. “That might be tough.”

He groaned. “I’ll figure some way to get you naked.” He leaned back and looked into her face. “Thank you for coming.”

She stared up at him. Into his shining brown eyes with the smile lines in the corners. Her heart swelled with pride and joy and something else. “I’m glad I came.”

“Coach Z!” someone called out, and he looked over her head. He smiled and dropped his hands to his sides. He looked back into her face. “I’ll see you soon.”

“S oon” turned out to be Monday morning. Tiffany and Kendra were at a dance camp in San Angelo for the day, and Zach showed up on her porch bright and early. He wore a pair of shorts and a sweatshirt, and they set off on their usual jog. Only this time, he stopped about every few blocks and kissed her. His big body warmed her up, and she wrapped her arms around his waist. On the corner of Fifth and Yellow Rose, his mouth opened over hers and he fit his pelvis against hers. She rocked against the hard length of his erection and the usual five-mile run got cut short, and they ended up in Sherilyn’s spa tub, surrounded by hot water and rose-scented bubbles.

“You looked kinda studly down there on the sidelines Saturday,” she said. Zach sat across the tub from her, and she ran her toe up the outside of his bare calf. “I can see why all the Junior League girls think you’re so hot.” She lowered her face and hid her smile amongst the bubbles.

He lifted a brow and reached for her foot. “Only the Junior League girls?”

“Maybe a few others.” She shrugged. “You’re much more fun to watch than the game.”

“When I looked up into the bleachers and saw you, I couldn’t believe you were there.” He pressed his thumbs into her arch and massaged little circles. “I’m glad I didn’t see you until the second half.”

“Why?”

“Seeing you added about ten times more pressure to the game.” He lifted her foot and kissed her instep. “I didn’t want to screw it up and lose in front of you.”

Soap bubbles slid down the side of her foot and ankle. She looked at him, sitting across from her and kissing her foot, and something warm and bubbly slid next to her heart. “You mean, you didn’t want to lose in front of the whole town.”

“That too, but mostly I didn’t want to embarrass myself in front of you.” His thumbs moved over her heel and he pressed his lips to her arch. He turned his head to one side, and said, “When I used to play football, I didn’t have to worry about impressing women. Hell, I think you’re the only woman I’ve ever tried to impress.” He softly bit her instep. “First at UT, and now here.”

Her eyelids suddenly felt heavy. “Are you trying to impress me right now?”

“Why else do you think I’m sitting here, smelling like a rose garden and surrounded by girly bubbles.”

“’Cause you like girly bubbles?”

He shook his head. “I like you. Ever since I saw you in the gymnasium over at the junior high, I’ve wanted to be with you again.”

Wanting to be with someone wasn’t love, but tell that to the warm feeling next to her heart. Her stomach lifted like she swallowed a mouth full of “girly bubbles.” She was in trouble. Big bad trouble with blond hair and hot brown eyes looking back at her over the tips of her toes.

“What are you thinking?” he asked just above a whisper.

She shook her head. “Nothing.” He didn’t want to know. Hell, she didn’t want to know. Somehow, she was falling in love with him all over again. She could feel it happening with every touch of his mouth and beat of her heart. Sometime between the night they’d kissed in the girls’ bathroom and today, her feelings had grown and gotten stronger.

“Then why are you frowning?”

She hadn’t realized she’d been frowning until he mentioned it. She forced a smile. “Because I’m going to miss you when I leave,” she said, which was true, but hadn’t been what she’d been thinking.

“That’s not for a while yet. Who knows. Maybe by then, you won’t want to go.”

She waited for him to say more. To say that he wanted her to stay in Cedar Creek. Stay and be with him, but he didn’t. Instead, he softly bit the ball of her foot. She should get out of the tub. Get as far away from him as possible before she fell in love with him completely.

That would have been the smart thing, but she reached for his hand, and he dropped her foot. He pulled her toward him as he reached for the condom on the side of the tub. He stood, and she took the black square package from his hands. She knelt before him as rose-scented bubbles swirled about her breasts and jets of hot water tickled her thighs. She wrapped her free hand around the long ridged length of his erection and looked up into his face. His lids were lowered over his hot brown eyes, and she parted her lips and took him into her mouth.

He groaned deep in his chest and pushed her hair back from her face. She slid her hand up and down his hard shaft and pressed her tongue into the corded vein just beneath the plump head. “That feels good,” he said just above a whisper, watching her from eyes glazed over with lust. She worked him over with her mouth and his fingers tangled in her hair. He didn’t push or shove the back of her head, as some men tended to do. Just held her hair and watched as she had her way with him. He told her how much he loved what she did to him, then he tilted his head back and came in her mouth.

When it was over, he wrapped his hands around the tops of her arms and pulled her to her feet. “Thank you,” he said, and pulled her tight against his chest. “I remember the first time you did that for me.” He ran his fingers up and down her spine, then grasped her bottom in both of his hands.

“I remember.” She reached between their bodies and wrapped her hand around his penis. It wasn’t as hard as it had been moments ago, and she stroked it until it was stiff. “And I remember how fast you could get it up again. You still can.” She rolled the condom down his shaft and pushed his shoulders until he sat submerged in bubbles halfway up the defined muscles of his chest. She straddled his hips, placed her palms on the sides of his face, and kissed him. The tips of her breasts brushed his warm skin, and she ran her fingers through his hair. She kissed his neck and his throat, and her hands ran all over him, touching as much of him as she could reach. It wasn’t just sex now. There was more involved than just body parts, and when she took him deep into her body, her hands returned to the sides of his face and she stared into his eyes. His labored breath brushed her cheek as she moved and rocked her hips.

“Zach,” she whispered, her voice heavy with desire and emotion. Within minutes an orgasm rushed across her skin and gripped her heart. Her vaginal walls tightened around him, and his fingers dug into her behind. As he came into her body, she kissed his mouth, filling the kiss with the new and conflicted feelings she felt in her heart.

When it was over, he pushed her hair from her cheek. His gaze searched her face as if he were looking for something. “I didn’t think sex could get better than it was last week. I was wrong.”

She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed the side of his head. What was she going to do now? Now that she was falling headfirst in love with him—again.

He softly bit her shoulder. “The next few weeks are going to be hectic,” he said against her skin. “With the girls out of school until after New Year’s, but I want to see you. I want to be with you all I can before your sister has her baby and you move back to Idaho.” He kissed the crook of her neck. “I’m going to miss being with you.”

There was a lot she could have said. Like she was going to miss being with him too, but she didn’t. Her feelings for him were too painfully new. Or perhaps they were old hidden feelings from the past just waiting to be reignited. She was scared and confused and didn’t know what to do. “Are you hungry?”

“Starvin’,” he said as he pulled back to look into her face. “Got any more of those waffles from the toaster?”

“Eggos?”

“Yeah. I love those.”

She smiled and shook her head. He didn’t love her, but he loved her Eggos.

A fter Zach left, Adele got busy writing her new series. She filled her head with characters from different galaxies and an outlandish plot. She didn’t want to think about falling in love with Zach. She didn’t want to dissect it and analyze it and pick it apart. It was much easier to calculate space travel and invent new life-forms.

At five thirty, she left to pick up Kendra from the middle school. The moment she pulled behind the buses that had taken the dance team to San Angelo, she knew there was something wrong. Her niece stood by herself, her eyes red and her backpack slung over one shoulder.

“What’s the matter?” she asked, as Kendra got into the car.

“Nothing.”

“Where’s Tiffany? Doesn’t she need a ride home?”

“She rode with Lauren Marshall.”

“Isn’t her stepmomma Genevieve Brooks?”

“Uh-huh.” Adele was fairly certain Tiffany didn’t like Genevieve.

“Why?” She pulled out into traffic and headed toward the hospital. “We could have taken her home.”

“She doesn’t want a ride from us anymore.”

Adele glanced at her niece. “Did you two have a fight?”

Kendra shook her head, and her dark ponytail brushed the shoulders of her coat. “She saw you kiss her daddy after the game.”

“Oh.” She returned her eyes to the road. Shit. “So now she hates me.”

“She says you are like all the rest. That you only acted like you liked her to get to her dad.”

“That’s bullshit.” They stopped at a red light, and Adele pushed her hair behind one ear. “Do you believe her?”

Kendra shrugged. “Not really…but…”

“But what?”

“She says I can’t come to her house and practice the dance routines anymore. And if I don’t practice between now and Friday, we could lose the competition against Pampas.” Tears welled up in Kendra’s eyes. “If she doesn’t like me, the other girls won’t like me either.”

“The other girls will still like you.”

“No, they won’t.” She sniffed and wiped her eyes. “Not if she doesn’t.”

Adele thought back to the hell of junior high and cringed.

“I wish I’d never moved here,” Kendra cried. “I miss my old school and my old friends.”

“Can you get one of the other girls to come to your house and practice the routines with you?”

“Maybe.”

“Why don’t you ask, and tomorrow night we’ll move all the furniture out of the living room. You can practice in there.”

“I’ll ask.”

But when Adele drove to the school to pick up Kendra from practice the next day, she was once again by herself. She’d suffered another day of Tiffany’s cold shoulder and felt more alone than ever. By that Friday, when things had not gotten any better, Adele mentioned it to Zach while they put together Harris’s Swing ’N Bounce. Both girls were at the local mall with the rest of the team, selling cookies to raise money for a big trip they had coming up.

“Has Tiffany mentioned anything to you about seeing you kiss me after the State Championship game?”

He looked up from the instructions in his hands. “No. I don’t think she saw it.”

“Yes. She did.”

“She didn’t mention it to me.” He set down the instructions and picked up a metal leg. “Has she said something to you?”

“Evidently, she’s not speaking to me. She mentioned it to Kendra. I think she’s really angry.”

“She might be a little upset right now, but she’ll get over it.”

“I don’t think so.” Adele opened a plastic bag of nuts and bolts.

“Why don’t you think so?”

Adele really didn’t want to tattle on Zach’s daughter. “You should talk to her about it.”

“I will, but why don’t you tell me what you know first.”

“She’s mad at me, so she doesn’t want to be friends with Kendra anymore.”

He took the bag from her and fished out a long screw. “I’ll talk to her about it tonight and see what I can do. Everything will work out.” He leaned over and squinted his eyes as he read the instructions. “Jesus, this thing is complicated.”

Adele took the little seat out of the packaging and ran her hand over the jungle-animal-print fabric. “This is just so cute,” she said. She pulled out the music box and wound it up. “Rock-a-Bye Baby” filled the room. “Doesn’t all this make you want a baby?”

He looked up from the instruction and scowled. “No.”

She laughed. “You already know how to put together the furniture. When I have a baby, I’m going to hire you.”

“‘When you have a baby?’” He reached for a curved bar. “Don’t tell me you’re one of those women whose clock is tickin’.”

She tilted her head to one side. “It’s less of a tick and more of a tap on the shoulder. I’ve always wanted kids, but being around Sherilyn has made me broody.”

“Broody?”

“Like I need to nest with a chick or two.”

“Two?”

“Didn’t you ever want more than one child?”

He shrugged. “Devon was an only child and wanted Tiffany to be an only child. That was fine with me.”

“Tiffany wants a little brother.”

“I know, but she wants a lot of things she doesn’t get.”

“She doesn’t want us to see each other.”

He fit the tubes together. “When Tiff and I get back from Austin after the first, I’m sure she’ll be over it.”

Adele wished she could share his optimism.

“We’ll take her and Kendra to a movie or something.”

It could work, or it could be disastrous. “Okay.”

“It’s a date.”

She shook her head. “No dates.” She liked Zach, and the last thing she needed was for the curse to rear its head.

“What is it with you and your aversion to dating?”

If she told him, he’d think she was crazy.

Z ach handed Tiffany a box of Christmas ornaments and reached in it for a gold-foil star. Even though they would be in Austin on Christmas Day, they trimmed the tree together every year. Devon had hired a professional, but he and Tiffany liked to pick out a tree and do it themselves. “Why didn’t you mention that you saw me kiss Adele the other day after the game?”

Tiffany shrugged a shoulder but didn’t look up from the colored bulbs in her hands. “It was embarrassing. I’m surprised it wasn’t on the news. The whole city saw you make out with her.”

That was a bit of an exaggeration. Only half the city had been there, and by no stretch of the imagination could the kiss he’d given her be confused with making out. Looking back on it now, he probably should have waited until he’d gotten Adele alone. But at the time, he hadn’t known Tiffany had been watching. “I like Adele.”

“I hate her.”

“You hate her ’cause I like her.” He climbed up onto a chair. “Which is a stupid reason.” Sometimes, Tiffany was so much like Devon that it worried him. “I haven’t noticed Kendra around here practicing this week. I hope you’re not taking out your anger on your friend.”

Tiffany hung a few bulbs on the tree and pressed her lips together. She didn’t speak, but she really didn’t need to say anything. Zach knew her well enough to know what she was thinking. He reached out for the top of the tree and shoved the star on top. “Is this straight?”

She looked up and nodded.

“I’m sure you would never cut off your nose to spite your face, sugar bug,” he said as he climbed down.

“What do you mean?”

“Just that you’re smart enough not to let how you feel about Adele get in the way of helping Kendra out. You girls have some big competitions coming up.” He knew what Tiffany wanted to hear, but that wasn’t going to happen. He wasn’t going to stop seeing Adele to make her happy. “I’d hate to see you lose because you’re mad.”

“I know what you’re doing.” She set down the box and picked up some tinsel. “I’ll be nice to Kendra ’cause I like her, and because we’re on the same dance team. But I don’t like her aunt, and I’m not going to be nice to her.”

Zach shook his head. That had gone better than he’d thought, worse than he’d hoped for. “You liked her until you found out I liked her, too. I never thought you’d be so ornery.”

“But Daddy”—two tears spilled over her lashes—“she took me shopping and talked about Momma, and I even gave her fashion advice about those stupid scrunchies she wears. And the whole time she only pretended to like me so she could see you.”

“Honey, I don’t think people have to pretend to like you.”

“Uh-huh.”

This wasn’t about Tiffany thinking people pretended to like her. That was the excuse she used. It was really about her not wanting any woman but Devon in their lives. He knew it, but he just didn’t know what to do about it.

He moved into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water out of the refrigerator. He and Tiffany were leaving in a few days to spend the Christmas holiday with his family in Austin. They’d be gone until after New Year’s. Maybe that’s what Tiffany needed. A break for a while. He’d told Adele that things would settle down when he and Tiffany returned. That she’d be over her anger, and he hoped he was right. He was more than ready for some postseason downtime and a little less drama.

No. A lot less drama.