“Not ready for what?” he asked.
“For dinner. It’s not ready to be served yet.” She wiped her hands on a towel and turned, bracing herself against the counter. “Hey, what do you think about staying with Grace this weekend?”
“Why?”
She shifted. “Well, I need to make a trip down to Charlotte for work, and?—”
He lifted an arm, pointing at me. “Well, I can stay with Shaw.”
I quirked a smile, “Actually, I will be out of town as well.”
He opened his soda and took a sip. “Where are you going?”
She clasped and unclasped her fingers, and a nervous smile graced her face. “We both are going to Charlotte…actually.”
He took another sip. “So, you’re going together?”
“Yes,” I said as she simultaneously said, “No.”
The more he studied us, the more uneasy Kelcie became, so I took pity on her and said, “The team needs me back.” His face fell slightly, and he straightened.
“So, you’re leaving us?”
Man, I hadn’t even thought of it that way. “No, not really. I need to go down and see what the trainers have to say, as well as what their doctors and coaches have to say. So I thought I’d take your mom with me.”
“But what about me? Why can’t I go too?”
Kelcie softly reminded him, “You have school.”
“It’s going to be all work. Boring stuff.” I waved a hand then added, “But I will be traveling back and forth from now on. As soon as your winter break starts, I could bring both of you down to Charlotte—if we can arrange it with your father’s schedule, of course. We can even go to one of the games. Okay?”
The disappointment, the upturned bottom lip, gave me a glimpse of what he must have been like as a little boy. “I promise I will save all the good tours for your visit. This will be business stuff that won’t interest you.”
He grumbled, “You know I like the business stuff too.”
“Yeah, but I don’t think the team is ready for your genius just yet.” I winked. “Let me get back in the groove and whip them into shape before we pull you in.”
“Okay.”
“So, I’m going to ask Grace to stay with you, if that is okay?—”
“No, I want Pop-pop to stay with me.”
“Pop-pop is out of town.”
He shook his head, taking another sip of his soda, and as he stepped out of the room, he threw over his shoulder, “Nope. He called me. When I told him Shaw moved in with us, he said he was on his way over.”
I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose. Why did I feel like I’d been caught in her bedroom with my pants down? I stared down at myself—yep, I was fully clothed.
But entirely vulnerable.
Oh, crap. Kelcie stared at me and said, “Guess we are doing this, after all.”
“Yeah, well, let’s hope I come out of this conversation intact, or the trip to Charlotte may not be what we were both hoping.”
31
Shaw
