Page 2 of Sliding Into Love
But the little girl was so adorable with her messy braids and big brown eyes, and Ethan found himself walking over to where she was leaning precariously over the rail.
“Uh, sure.” His voice came out too loud, making her jump. He tried to soften it. “Do you have a pen?”
Her face scrunched up like she was about to cry. Ethan panicked, looking around for some way to help.
“Oh, hang on, Janna, don’t cry!” A woman’s voice came from behind them. “I’ve got one somewhere!” A head poked up from between two teenagers, and the woman emerged, rummaging in an enormous bag that must have contained enough stuff to feed and entertain her kids plus the entire team for a week. She held on to one handle of the leather bag and reached in with her other arm nearly to her armpit.
Seeing the strap start to come untied and slide off her shoulder, Ethan started to tell her to wait, but it was too late. The bag fell off the woman’s arm and landed upside down on the grimy stadium floor, spilling its contents.
Before he was aware of what he was doing, Ethan vaulted over the rail and joined her, kneeling on the concrete to help her gather her things.
Both Ethan and the woman scrabbled around beneath the seats, retrieving everything that fell from the bag. The woman reached for the last item, a small, brightly colored box, at the same time Ethan did, and his hand closed over hers. Her hand was so much smaller than his. But he didn’t have time to fully appreciate the thought as she snatched her hand away, taking the box with her. Unfortunately, it landed upside down. Small plastic-wrapped cylinders tumbled out, bouncing over the concrete to scatter beneath seats and roll down the stairs.
Ethan scooped up a few tampons to drop back into the box, but when he took a step to retrieve another that rolled under a seat, he felt one slide beneath the spikes of his cleat. When he took a step to steady himself,anotherof the damn things caught under that cleat, and down he went, both feet slipping behind him like a fucking Three Stooges movie.
And naturally, on the way down, he barreled into the woman he was supposed to be helping, his shoulder catching her in the thigh and taking her to the ground with him. Ethan learned how to fall and not be injured so long ago, he didn’t remember learning. But Ethan played baseball, not football, and he’d never learned how to take someone down without injury. He tried, though, twisting his body to avoid landing on top of this woman.
And then he realized his arm wrapped around her waist to break her fall. Ethan jerked away and tried to stand without crushing her. Once he’d risen to his full height, he held out a hand to help her up.
The woman reached for his hand, but when she stood, she jerked her hand away and snatched the tampons out of the other. Looking her over, Ethan didn’t see any injuries, but he needed to make sure.
“Are you okay?” he grunted at the same time she spoke.
“Sorry about that!” Her voice was high and tense, and Ethan looked at her, taking her in for the first time.
She was all golden skin and bright hazel eyes, with soft curves enhanced by denim shorts and a t-shirt she’d tied tight around her waist. An unbidden image of her inhisshirt popped into his head.
“Sorry about what?” he blinked, trying to rid his mind of the scene. Why was she apologizing? He’d slid into her, not the other way around.
The woman gestured at the bag and went pink in the face when she noticed the tampon box still in her hand. She dropped it again, but Ethan caught it before it hit the ground. As he stood to hold the box out to her, he looked into her face, andholy shit.
Freckles.
He was a sucker for freckles.
The woman’s embarrassed smile was huge, and there was a smudge of chocolate ice cream in the corner of her mouth, right beside a perfect, round dimple with an identical one mirroring it on her other cheek.
Ethan wanted to press his thumb into those dimples, and–
Chill, dude,he thought.You’ve said three words to her.
She was still apologizing.
“It’s fine,” he said, shrugging. “It’s not a big deal,” he tried again, noticing how deep his voice was compared to her bright, almost musical one. “It’s…natural?” He finally said, and then he blushed too, feeling his ears burn.
Why was he allowed to speak at all?
Derek chose that moment to hop over the rails and join the tableau.
“Derek!” the little girl yelled, reappearing from under a seat, with her ball forgotten in the cupholder of the seat in front of her as she launched herself at him, planting kisses on his sweaty face.
“Janna!” Derek yelled back at her, laughing and raising her over his head until she squealed with delight.
The woman hauled her enormous bag onto her shoulder and followed them, grabbing souvenirs and gathering their stuff as she went.
Ethan and the ball appeared forgotten, and he slunk off, the sound of his cleats scraping over the concrete floor of the stadium worse than nails on a chalkboard.
The scraping blended into the sound of his teammates as Ethan walked back to the locker room. Ahead of him, he saw Jen’s bleach-blonde head as she ducked through the glass doors. All around him, his teammates gave him a wide berth.
