Just for Kicks by Tracy Solheim

Seventeen

* * *

ANDI CAREFULLY TRANSFERRED the Growlers’logo onto the last few bars of soap. Squeezed into the salon’s back room beside her, Mrs. Hilbert wrapped each bar in cellophane before tying them with a piece of green ribbon.

“These are gorgeous, Andi. And they smell lovely, too.” She waved a bar beneath her nose. “I’m going to insist that Kurt buy me a ticket to the gala just so I can have one for myself.”

Andi smiled at the woman’s finagling. “I’m sure we’ll have a few extras, Mrs. H. I’ll put one aside for you as a thank you for all your help.”

“A football bath bomb, too?”

“I think I can probably get you one of those, yes.”

Mrs. Hilbert smiled. “Once these are out in the real world, you won’t need any investors. People are going to gobble them up. Although I still believe Kurt should get you on Shark Tank even if it’s just for the free advertising.” She winked at Andi. “They all do that, you know.”

Andi’s laugh was a bit shaky. “Honestly, it’s all happening so fast. I haven’t even worked out how I’m going to produce more orders. My intention was just to have a little storefront with a shop in the back where we did specialty orders for spas, boutique hotels, and maybe a bride here and there. Nothing too big. But this . . .” She sighed heavily.

“You’ll figure things out,” the older woman reassured her. “And if you encounter any roadblocks, I’m sure that hunky husband of yours will help you out.”

Mrs. Hilbert was right. Her “hunky husband” had turned out to be quite the partner. Not only was he willing to help her out of her clothes every opportunity he got, he’d been true to his word about helping her with the swag for the gala. Last night, she’d returned from class to find him carefully sorting the cured bars of soap into stacks so she could more quickly transport them to the salon. He’d also gone to bat with the team licensing department to allow her to use the Growler logo, something she never would have thought to do.

He was thoughtful in other ways, as well. The car and driver he’d promised turned out to be a godsend. Not only that, but on the nights when she had class, he made sure Marlene prepared dinner for her, often sitting with her while she ate, the whole time peppering her with questions about her day and her coursework. The other evenings, she spent curled up on one of the sofas in his study, doing homework while he read or worked out drills for his mathletes. He’d even started to teach her to play chess. She was pretty sure he even let her win a time or two.

She knew that once they became involved physically, walking away from him after their contract expired would be difficult. But she hadn’t counted on the other countless ways he’d become a part of her life. While she’d certainly miss their physical connection, she was beginning to suspect it was his companionship outside of the bedroom she’d miss a whole lot more when they parted.

“I knew you two would make a great couple. You may have started out as a business arrangement, but that look on your face says it all.”

Mrs. Hilbert’s words refocused Andi’s thoughts back to the here and now, thankfully. She couldn’t afford to dwell on the what-if scenario. She glanced around making sure the room was still empty. “It’s still a business arrangement,” she said, lowering her voice. “Nothing has changed.”

“Oh, poppycock. My neighbor Peggy has that same look on her face whenever she’s got herself some.” Mrs. Hilbert tied the ribbon with a little more force. “Now she’s going after Fred Baker, the little hussy. She won’t be happy until she has every man in the entire retirement community in her bed. Well, she’s got another thing coming. I saw Fred first. And I don’t like losing.”

Andi stared at the other woman, unsure how to even respond.

“Oh, don’t look at me that way, missy,” Mrs. Hilbert added. “Just because I carry an AARP card doesn’t mean I don’t have needs.”

Clive stuck his head in the door just in time to save Andi from answering. “You’ve got mail.” He handed her an envelope addressed with her name, care of the salon. “I didn’t know you were here today, Mrs. H.”

“I came to help Andi put the finishing touches on everything. But I also wanted to ask you something. How do you think I’d look as a redhead?”

Clive risked a glance at Andi who just shrugged.

“You’re a beautiful mature woman,” he replied, diplomatically. “I think you’d look good in whatever color hair you choose.”

The other woman pondered his response. “Hmm. I’ll have to think a bit more about it. The other day at dinner, Fred happened to mention he was partial to redheads. I might just give it a go if it will get his attention.”

“Oh, now, Mrs. H, never go changing up who you are for the sake of another person. Love yourself first,” Clive advised. “And if this Fred guy doesn’t see what a wonderful catch you are, then he’s not the one you want.”

She rose up on her toes and kissed him on the cheek. “You’re right. I think I’ll just go see if I can get a bikini wax instead.”

The color drained from Clive’s face. He sank down into the chair Mrs. Hilbert had just vacated. “Damn. That’s an image I’ll never be able to scrub from my mind.”

Andi chuckled. “I so want to be her when I grow up.”

She studied the envelope he’d handed her. There was no return address, but it was postmarked from Las Vegas. The handwriting was also very familiar.

“Kenny?” he asked.

“Yep.” She tore open the envelope. As soon as the news broke about her marriage to Dex, the idiot began blowing up her phone until she’d blocked him. “Unless there’s a check inside for seventy thousand dollars, I’m not interested in what he has to say.”

Of course Kenny would want to make nice now that she had connections to the Growlers. He was a huge fan of the team. Next, he’d be angling for a seat in the owner’s suite.

“I still think you should prosecute him.”

“Mr. Hilbert thinks it would draw too much attention back to our marriage. Besides, I don’t need the money for the loans any longer. And, I changed all the passwords to my accounts. He can’t hurt me anymore.” She peeked inside. “No check. Just a note. And I don’t really want to read another one of his fake apologies. Not today.”

She shoved the letter inside her backpack.

“Is it okay if I clean this up first thing in the morning? I need to get this stuff over to the training center before I meet Dex. The team is leaving early tomorrow for their game in L.A. They’re staying on the west coast all week to ensure they’re not jetlagged for their Thursday night game in Seattle. Dex said he had something special planned for tonight.”

Clive nodded. “I’ll bet he’s just glad he doesn’t have to spend another Friday night making soap. I know I am.”

She ducked her head so her friend wouldn’t see the fiery blush on her face. “Making soap” had become one of Dex’s favorite Friday night activities.

“I’m done for the day if you’d like an extra pair of hands carting those boxes across town,” he offered.

“That would be awesome.”

Forty minutes later, Clive, Andi, and her driver lugged the boxes into one of the conference rooms the Growlers staff had designated for filling the swag bags the following day. Joan Zell, the team’s community relations director, greeted them at the door.

“Oh, I’m so excited for these.” She directed them to place the boxes on the center table. “It will be nice to have something unique and different in the bags this year. Are those football shaped bath bombs?”

“They are.” Andi handed her one. “I infused some with sandalwood and others with peppermint. I’m really pleased with how they turned out.”

Clive draped an arm over her shoulders. “The Growlers are lucky to have this girl on their team.”

Joan beamed back at them. “I agree. We can’t thank you enough, Mrs. Fletcher. People will be talking about these for weeks.”

“I guess that’s better than them remembering you for your pink hair, isn’t it, Mrs. Fletcher?” Jade announced as she strutted into the room, her presence immediately killing Andi’s buzz of pride.

Clive’s hand tightened on her shoulder. He was always poised for a fight when someone disparaged his work. Little did he know, Jade wasn’t worth it. Andi’s best course of action was to get him out of the building quickly. In her haste, however, she spilled her backpack. Her calculator, books, and paper scraps she used to scribble notes on went flying across the floor and beneath the table like a blanket of snow. Joan dropped to her knees beside Andi, scooping up the scattered papers.

“Let me help you with that, Mrs. Fletcher,” she said.

She smiled at Joan. “Please, call me Andi. And I’m so glad I could contribute in this small way. We have a few extras soaps and bath bombs at the salon, so let me know if you need anything else.”

Jade let out an annoyed huff as she kicked a pen across the floor with the toe of her Tory Burch flat. Andi hastily shoved her stuff back in her bag before springing to her feet so she could get out of there before doing anything else to look dumb in front of Jade. Securing her backpack over her shoulder, she motioned Clive toward the door, unaware that one of her notes remained beneath a chair.

Unfortunately, Jade wasn’t done with her yet. “Before you go, we are giving the media a list of the designers each of the WAGs will be wearing at the gala next weekend. Did you give your info to Joan already?”

Holy hell.She was supposed to wear a designer gown to this thing? How much would that run her? And how exactly did one go about finding a designer gown? Andi’s plan was to troll the aisles of Nordstrom Rack on Sunday and see what they had that would fit her—and her credit limit.

“Tori Holmes,” Clive answered for her. “With jewelry provided by Suttons. Her footwear will be Christian Louboutin.” He smiled generously at Joan. “Have a nice weekend, ladies,” he said before dragging a stunned Andi from the room.

“What have you done?” she hissed at him once they’d reached the entrance to the facility. “I’ve never heard of the first two, but I do know those shoes cost more than a month’s rent.”

“Actually, they cost nearly double the rent in your old place,” he said blithely.

“If that’s the case, maybe I’ll just get two pair!”

“Sure.” He continued toward the parking lot.

She stopped in her tracks, fear and something else that felt a lot like misery gnawing at her. “You know, it’s going to be really embarrassing next Friday when I show up on the red-carpet wearing pumps from Payless!”

He halted and turned to face her, a steely look on his face. “You will be wearing everything I told them. And you’ll look like the damn princess that you are, Andi Larsen Fletcher. Do you hear me?”

She’d never seen her friend like this before. “H-how? Why?”

“Because bitches like that one—” he pointed toward the building. “They’ve been pushing people like you and me around for too long. You aren’t the only one who’s been rubbing noses with the rich and famous, sister. I’m going to call in a few favors. Next week, you will shine ten times brighter than her or any other WAG associated with this team, you got that?”

She bobbed her chin up and down, but she still wasn’t sure what had just happened.

“Good.” He turned to the door. “Let’s go. You have a date with your husband tonight, remember?”

* * *

“YO, PROFESSOR MCMATH,”Eugene called out around a mouthful of pizza. “If we win again next week, how about a tour of the stadium.”

The twelve teens who comprised Dex’s Math Bowl team all nodded in unison. They were crowded into a neighborhood pizza parlor where he was treating them to dinner after their first victory of the school year.

“Ooo, and can we meet Trey Van Horn?” Angela asked with a sigh.

“I’m not bringing any of you lasses within ten feet of that man,” Dex replied. “He breaks young women’s hearts as a hobby. I can’t have him ruining the top team of mathletes in the city of Milwaukee.”

He risked a look at Andi beside him. She winked at him before turning to the teens. “You girls are definitely too smart for him.”

Dex couldn’t tame his broad smile. Obviously, he didn’t have to worry about Andi mooning over the quarterback. Good thing she didn’t know Van Horn had become her staunchest defender. He considered the quarterback to be one of his closest friends—at least as close as Dex let anyone get to him. It irked him that Van Horn continued to question his motives with regard to Andi. Contrary to what his friend thought, there would be no broken hearts when their marriage reached its forgone conclusion. Because neither one of their hearts was engaged.

A painful stabbing sensation emanated from the vicinity of his chest. He told himself it was indigestion from the pepperoni.

Andi laughed at something one of the kids said, refocusing his attention back to the present. He doubted any other woman he’d been with would be comfortable hanging out with a group of nerdy teens, eating cheap pizza on a Friday night. But there she was, looking as if she belonged. Making each one of the kids feel like they belonged.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw two of the boys gawking at her with moon-eyed expressions. Dex couldn’t blame them. She wasn’t like any other woman they were likely to meet.

“Rehema has a date for homecoming,” one of the boys teased.

Across the table, the girl blushed.

“He asked her in orchestra, playing a song he’d written just for her,” Angela supplied.

The boys around the room made gagging noises.

“How sweet,” Andi said. “Ignore them. Is the dance formal?”

“No tuxes, but some of the girls go all out,” Angela replied with air quotes around the word some of the girls.

She meant the girls who could afford it. The team of mathletes was comprised of kids from the center. They all went to different schools, some of them more prosperous than others. But the kids on his team could barely afford the blazers they competed in, much less fancy formal clothes for a dance.

Andi pulled something out of her backpack and handed it across the table. “Call me at this number on Monday. We’ll set up an appointment to get your hair done the day of the dance.”

Rehema blanched. There was no way she could afford that. Dex opened his mouth to intervene, but Andi beat him to it.

“It’s okay,” she told them. “Clive and I used to hang out at the Vey Center when we were in high school, too. This will be on us.”

There was that tightness in his chest again. Rehema’s eyes were shining and the other kids at the table looked at Andi with nothing but worship in their eyes. At that moment, he knew exactly how they felt.

Andi rummaged through her backpack again, her brow creased with confusion.

“Something amiss, lass?”

“I thought I’d stuck something in here earlier.” A flicker of worry shadowed her eyes. “It must have fallen out somewhere.”

Rehema leaned forward in her chair. “Was it important?”

The hint of concern in Rehema’s question further softened his heart. These kids already had accepted Andi as a friend. If she answered “yes”, they’d be searching the streets for whatever it was she’d lost.

Andi gave her head a little shake, almost as if she was trying to erase away her worries. She smiled brightly at the kids. “Nope. It wasn’t important at all.”

Her gaze collided with his. He arched an eyebrow in question. She shook her head with more enthusiasm this time. Her shoulders relaxed. Whatever had troubled her was seemingly forgotten.

The waitress appeared at Dex’s shoulder. “Are we having dessert tonight?”

The table erupted into a chorus of requests for ice cream sundaes. The rest of the meal passed in a flurry of laughter.

“Thank you for coming tonight,” he said when they arrived back at his flat later that evening. “I know it wasn’t what you might have expected when I said we were doing something special, but they wanted to meet you.”

And I wanted you to meet them.

She smiled serenely before closing the distance between them and wrapping her arms around his neck.

“What makes you think I didn’t find the evening special?” she asked. “They’re awesome kids. I enjoyed spending time with them.” She brushed her lips along his. “Especially since it meant I got to spend time with you.”

Need, nearly blinding in its urgency, surged through him with the touch of her lips on his. He dug his fingers into her hips and jerked her against him. She let out a shaky breath at the contact. Scooping her up in his arms, he turned toward his bedroom only to encounter Morag sitting directly in the middle of the hallway. The cat had the nerve to hiss at them.

If it wasn’t so bloody annoying, he might have laughed at the feline’s unnecessary jealousy. But Marlene had told him how the cat had been torturing Andi these past few weeks. And enough was enough.

“Listen up, ya wee beasty,” he snarled at the cat. “This stops tonight. Or it’s back to the farm with ya. Ya ken?”

Morag didn’t move. Not even her tail. He could swear the bloody animal narrowed her eyes at him. He took a menacing step toward her. With a low purr that sounded like a rumble, the cat disappeared in a streak to parts unknown.

“You let me know if she bothers you again,” he said.

She pressed her lips against his neck. “You’re not going to hurt that cat.”

He stared down into her eyes. “If she’s a nuisance to you, then I will send her back to where she came from.”

“No. She was here first.”

Dex paused just inside his bedroom door, the unspoken words weighing heavy in the air all of a sudden.

And she’ll be here when I’m gone.

Despite it being the truth, the fact was unsettling for some reason.

“You have a plane to catch in less than twelve hours,” Andi whispered before tracing the shell of his ear with her tongue. “Maybe we can forget about the cat for now and move on to other things.”

And just like that, he forgot all about his bloody cat and everything else.

Later, Andi lay draped over his chest, her naked body warm and sated. Dex wasn’t having as easy a time relaxing. Despite just having her—twice—his body craved more. This insatiable desire was supposed to have died down by now. The shine wore off most of his relationships after a couple weeks. But not this time.

The tension was back in his chest again.

It was their close proximity. That had to be it. He’d never spent this much time with a woman. He certainly never let another woman into his private life like he had Andi. She was in his bloody bed, for crying out loud. Every night. And she was becoming more firmly entrenched in his everyday life. As much as he wanted her to come with him and meet his mathletes tonight, it had been a mistake. She’d charmed them all just as easily as she was casting a spell on him. Hell, she’d even defended his bloody cat. He needed to take control of the situation before things completely spiraled out of hand.

This road trip couldn’t have come at a better time. The physical distance would help him to reestablish the emotional distance he needed to maintain with her. By removing the object of his desire, his body’s cravings would diminish. It was standard science. When he returned in a week, he’d establish some new ground rules.

She’d need to move back to her former room, for starters. He’d just have to sic Kurt on Agent Figueroa and put an end to this bed check nonsense once and for all. His body protested at the idea, but he knew this was the wisest course of action. Especially since they’d be going their separate ways in less than four months.

Andi let out a sultry sigh as she shifted against him. He traced his fingers through her hair, the pink now tinting just the very edges. She was the wildcard in his plan to reestablish boundaries in their relationship. Sure, she’d been practical about everything up to this point, but he’d had more than one woman fly off the handle when he’d pulled back. The thing was, he hadn’t minded walking away from those women. But Andi . . .

“Can’t you sleep?”

He glanced down. Barely able to keep her eyes open, she studied him beneath a fringe of lashes.

“Just keyed up about my trip.”

“Mmm.” She rolled on top of him, resting her chin on top of her hands on his chest.

So much for training his body not to want her. He was barely able to suppress his needy groan.

“A week away from the WAGs.” A sly smile played on her lips. “Whatever will you boys do?”

“Won’t you miss me?” He told himself he was asking to gauge her reaction for the changes he intended to implement when he returned.

“Oh, every minute.” Her response dripped with sarcasm. She leaned in and brushed a kiss along his collar bone. “Try not to take this personally my king, but my week is crazy busy with work, two tests, and helping get those darn swag bags set for the gala to miss you.”

Something hitched in his chest. Relief. At least that’s what he was identifying it as. She was still his practical Andi.

She slid lower on his body. “But I’m happy to give you something to remember me so you don’t miss me.”

A heavy sigh escaped him when she slipped beneath the sheets. Apparently she was made of sterner stuff than he because his body was quaking at the very idea of detoxing her from his system. But he wasn’t fool enough to reject what she was offering. He could right the ship when he returned.