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She wasn t asking him to stay.
 Goodbye, Hunter, she said and reached for the doorknob.
The fact that she was wearing almost nothing and asking for nothing sealed the
deal. With the hand not holding his helmet he cupped her head and held her still for the
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Liberating Lacey
long, hot, sweet kiss he d wanted since she walked through the kitchen door. Without
hesitation she opened her mouth to him, the fingers of one hand slowly curling into his
shirt, the other hand gripping his biceps, the nails digging into his skin when he flicked
his tongue lightly against the curve of her lower lip.
The kiss ended things on his terms, but knowing he was her first, not her last
hookup, burned in his gut. Given the daytime realities of cop and classy divorcee, there
wasn t a damn thing he could do about it, so he opened the door and jogged down her
flagstone sidewalk to his bike. She watched from the doorway, red hair mussed, body
soft and warm, as he straddled the bike and zipped out of her driveway.
Out of her life.
23
Anne Calhoun
Chapter Three
The motion on the field surged and halted, flowed and ebbed so abruptly Lacey
found it hard to follow the Frisbee s bullet-like movements, but she had no problem
picking Hunter out of the fourteen players on the field. The firefighters wore bright red
shirts, while Hunter s team was shirtless. The visual spectacle of so many bare, toned
torsos should have made it hard to pick him out in the swirling, sweating melee, but
she found him immediately.
 There he is, she said, pointing.
Claire shrugged her shoulder to adjust baby Melanie s sling and gave an absent-
minded jostle to Connor s stroller.  In the blue shorts?
 No, he s wearing black shorts, white running shoes. See, he s got the Frisbee 
Hunter came to an abrupt halt, twisting and turning from his hips as he looked
through his wrap-around sunglasses for a teammate to pass to. The red-shirted man
guarding him began the count to ten that timed Hunter s hold on the Frisbee. Five
minutes of research on the Internet taught her that the player with the Frisbee must
remain immobile while other players jockeyed for position upfield. The goal was to
advance the Frisbee to the opposing team s goal, ultimately passing the disc to a player
standing in the end zone.
 I see him, Claire said. She put her hand to her straight blonde hair in a gesture
Lacey recognized as the same unconscious grooming attempt she d foolishly made this
morning when she found Hunter in her kitchen.  Damn, girl.
 He has to the count of ten to pass now. Lacey shielded her eyes from the brutal
late afternoon sunlight and attempted to disguise her excited voice and visceral reaction
with a UF lesson.  If the other team knocks the Frisbee down, or a player drops it, it s a
turnover.
At the firefighter s call of  eight! Hunter pivoted on one foot, bent forward and
slung the disc to a bare-chested teammate sprinting down the sideline. The player
caught it and braked abruptly, a different firefighter dancing in front of him, arms
flailing in a blocking defense while he began the count. Hunter took off at a dead run
and lost his defender while weaving between red shirts and his own teammates. He
broke free of the pack of players, sprinted into the end zone without a pursuer, then
turned and shouted, waving his arms. His teammate sent the Frisbee arrowing toward
him, seemingly just beyond Hunter s reach. With a diving catch he plucked the disc
from the air an inch from the ground.
An exultant shout went up from the assembled throng as Hunter bounded to his
feet. He flashed a quick smile while exchanging fist bumps with his teammates before
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Liberating Lacey
passing the disc to another player, quickly brushing grass and dirt from his chest and
abdomen as the two teams gathered in the end zones to begin the next series.
Cops and firefighters holding buckets moved through the good-sized crowd,
collecting donations for the Boys and Girls Club. Lacey pulled several twenties from her
pocket and put them in the bucket, getting a  thank you, ma am from the big, broad
man before he extended the bucket to Claire.
The need to walk Connor to sleep got Lacey to the park. Claire came by at four-
thirty with two fussy kids, spit-up on both shoulders and a desperate look on her face,
so Lacey succumbed to fate. While she had no intention of making herself known to
Hunter, she wouldn t mind unobtrusively watching the game while updating her friend
on the results of her night at Buff. His attention firmly focused on the action, Hunter
had given no indication he d seen her or was scanning the crowd for her, saving Lacey
the embarrassment of seeming like a high school girl hanging out near the quarterback,
hoping to catch his eye.
Connor let out a sleepy squall from the stroller.  I ve got to keep moving until he s
sound asleep, Claire said.  Do you plan to wait around for your cop boy toy after the
game?
 He s not my boy toy, Lacey said.
Claire looked surprised by her sharp response, so Lacey added in a more
reasonable voice,  He s twenty-eight, not a boy, and we re not dating. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]