Page 77 of Taking the Pitch
Before I can even respond, he takes my lips with his, giving me a slow, deep kiss. A kiss full of promises of what’s to come later. A kiss totally not appropriate for public. But I can’t bring myself to care because, for once, my brain is quiet, and my soul is at peace.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
judd
“So,what’s the plan of attack for the day, Shortcake?” I ask Amelia as we walk out of Hazel’s hand in hand and head down the sidewalk. It’s rare we get a nice day with no rain in November, so we took full advantage of it by walking this morning.
She sighs. “I really should work on my book. But I’m just not feeling it today.”
“Still stuck? Did talking to Lucy not help?”
“No, it did. It gave me some great ideas about where to go in the story. I’m just not ready to dive in yet.” She gives me a sheepish smile. “I have a tendency to hyper focus when I’m writing. Charlie had to come over for signs of life one time because I was so sucked into my writing, I accidentally let my phone die and they didn’t hear from me for like two days. Now I have to text them when I’m ‘going in’ so they know I’m not dead, just writing. I also keep a charger in my office now too, so they can check in and make sure I’ve eaten.”
“Add me to that list.”
“What list?” she asks, giving me a quizzical look.
“The list of people who check in on you. Add me to it,” I tell her, bringing her hand up to my lips and kissing the back of her knuckles.
Amelia shakes her head and laughs. “There’s really not a list. It’s just Charlie and Hazel. They’re really all I have.”
I stop in the middle of the sidewalk and pull her to me, her hands landing on my chest. She looks up at me with a grin as I cup her cheek. “And now you have me. I’m in this Amelia, however slow you need to take it. Whatever title you want to put on it. I’m telling you now and I’ll keep telling you for as long as you let me. You’re one of the most incredible women I have ever met in my life, and I know I don’t deserve you, but I’ll spend forever trying to be the man you deserve.” A tear slips down her cheek and I brush it away with my thumb. “So please add me to your list,” I tell her softly.
It scares me how gone I am for this girl. How, even though I haven’t known her long, I want to give her everything she’s ever wanted. I finally get it. What Kessler was feeling when he fell for Lucy. The connection. The need to protect her from everything bad in the world. But when I look into her sparkling blue eyes, the feeling I’m not ready to label yet pushes that fear away.
I’m not sure who moves first, but our lips find each other and there’s a desperation in her kiss that hasn’t been there before. We stand there in the middle of the sidewalk making silent promises with our lips that our voices aren’t ready to say when we feel Bruno’s head sneak in between our bodies, followed by a muffled ‘woof’.
Amelia pulls back with a laugh, reaching down to scratch Bruno’s head. “Sorry, bud. Are you feeling left out?”
Another woof.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” I say, reaching down and giving him a scratch too. Straightening, I clasp Amelia’s hand in mine, and we continue our walk back to our building. “Anyway, back to ourtopic of what to do today. What do you like to do when you have a free day and don’t want to write?”
Amelia gives me a sideways glance and bites the inside of her cheek. “Promise you won’t laugh?”
I make an ‘X’ over my heart. “Cross my heart,” I tell her, then give her hand a squeeze. “You can tell me anything, Mills.”
“I like to snuggle up in my reading clothes, sit in my reading chair with my fluffiest blanket, get a tray of snacks and drinks all set up beside me and read. All day.”
I clutch my chest. “A girl after my own heart.”
She looks up at me, shock all over her face. “You, you’re not going to make fun of me? Or tell me that’s a waste of a day? Or tell me I shouldn’t want to read after spending all my time writing?”
What?
“No? Why would I make fun of something you obviously enjoy doing? Anyone who has made fun of you for that is a twat and doesn’t deserve you.”
“You’re too good to be true, you know that?”
I’ve never let anyone besides my family see this side of me. Neverwantedanyone else to see this side of me. People see me as the hot shot playboy. Cocky and confident. But that’s my public persona. The real me loves nothing more than spending time with my family and close friends, staying in and reading, normal things that I lost sight of when I played for my old team. “No, Mills. I’m just a regular guy.”
We’re about a block from our building when I see two guys walking in the opposite direction of us. The one in a Silverbacks baseball hat looks up and makes eye contact with me. Eyes widening, he nudges his friend, who looks up from his phone, his face replicating his friend.
Shit.
They know I’ve seen them and they’ve clearly spotted us, so there’s no way to avoid them. It’s not that I want to avoid my fans. I’m grateful for them, but this doesn’t help prove my point to Amelia that I’m a regular person. We make it another couple of feet before they veer over to us.
“Hey, you’re Judd Davis,” the baseball hat guy says.
