Page 2 of The Do-Over Girl

“Working together?” I say

Her brows wedge together in worry. “I know you haven’t seen Nash, er, Coach Lewis for a while, but—”

“A while?” I concentrate on Nikki because if I look in Nash’s direction again my churning tummy may forfeit those banana muffins I ate this morning. Nikki knows I haven’t seen Nash since high school, and she knows why. Teaching in the same school where he coaches is one thing, but working together? I step closer until I’m practically on top of her dented metal desk and lower my voice. “Can we talk privately?”

Archie grunts. “I’m outta here. See you at the arena, Nash.”

“I’ll come with you,” Nash says.

His voice sounds edible, but I refuse to turn my head and look at him again. I sense him moving to the door behind me, a waft of his unforgettable male scent almost blowing me over on his way by.

He stops and says, “See you around, Lollipop.”

I whirl around so fast my yoga instructor would shriek with warning if she saw me.

“Don’t call me that. You can’t call me that. Never ever again.”

He studies me while the pulse in my neck jumps around and tension all but stops me from breathing. He looks me up and down, hiding whatever he thinks behind his game face. Then he unleashes the weapon of his oversexed voice on me for another shot.

“Never’s a long, long time, Kali.”

That’s all he says. Not even a hint of apology. But then he was never good at apologies. The one dimple shows up in his memorable lopsided smile and it’s all I have in me not to slap him—or throw myself at his still overpoweringly gorgeous self.

Then he walks out the door with that same swagger all the girls in high school used to obsess over.

Stop it. That was seventeen years ago. I’m a successful grown woman now and I don’t need the kind of man who was the kind of boy who broke a young girl’s heart.

Lollipop?He has a helluva nerve calling me that now. It proves how heartless he still is. The name drags up a well of sensual memories I thought were long forgotten. The kind that make me want to unpack my magic O wand first thing when I get to my room.

Lollipop is what he called me back when we were so madly in love we wore each other’s souls, learned how to make each other die and come back to life with endless blinding orgasms. I drove him crazy sucking his dick like a lollipop and he gave me that name. We managed to keep the origin of my pet name our secret even though he used it all the time. I still remember the way it made me feel when he said it, the name rolling off his velvety tongue like a caress, as if he were between my legs and I—shit. Never mind. Suffice it to say, everyone assumed I loved lollipops.

And I did—if you count his hot, hard dick the size of the Empire State Building as a as a big thick satisfying lollipop.

“Sorry about that,” Nikki says, distracting me from my X-rated memories and saving me from dwelling too much on what was never meant to be. I shouldn’t be so easily dragged under by all these Nash-emotions after all this time.

Especially not after my most recent break-up. But if I’m honest, losing Brad wasn’t nearly as traumatic, probably because I’m a mature adult. Nikki helped save the day by convincing me to come back to Andrews Point to take the teaching job and help them raise money. She threw me a lifeline, proving once again that she’s my best friend in the world, like the sister I never had.

“Okay,” she says, “I know—I probably should have warned you about Nash—”

I widen my eyes. “Probably?”

“Look, it was seventeen years ago. I figured you were over him since his name hasn’t come up in conversation in over a decade. Besides, you can’t back out now. School is starting up tomorrow and you’re on the schedule for three senior English classes, cheerleading coach plus PR work.” She waves her hand around to indicate she has no idea what PR work entails.

I inhale a lung full of courage, hoping it’ll cleanse the bad feelings floating around inside me—call it residuals of the Nash effect.

“I’m not going to quit. My rental car is packed with all my belongings—or at least everything that I didn’t put in storage before I moved in with Brad.”

“Brad had a lot of nerve kicking you out like that. The shithead.”

I flinch at her insult. “It wasn’t all his fault.”

“What do you mean? Of course it was.”

“I may have…encouraged him.”

She gives me her squinty eye principal look and damn if it doesn’t work my guilt to the surface. Even though I swore to myself I wouldn’t, I confess. “I gave him an ultimatum.” Letting out a long slow breath, I await her judgment.

“Funny, you didn’t mention that part.” She clears her throat and I know what she’s thinking. That it was the same mistake I made with Nash seventeen years ago—the ultimatum that put an end to my first love affair and blew up my innocent heart. The one she told me might’ve been a mistake on my part.