Chapter 11

CHAPTER 11

Three days after our date, Georgia finally texted me the list of things she wanted to do this summer. Most of it was stuff she’d talked about:

Unplug more

Be more spontaneous

Red hair

Volunteer

Watch the sunrise from the Highline

Go to an after-hours club

Stay out all night

Take a staycation and see the landmarks I’ve never seen

Leave work by five every day

Take two full weeks of vacation

Then there were a few we hadn’t discussed:

Get over my fear of public speaking

Join 23andMe and learn about my ancestors

The fear of public speaking one surprised me. But everything else was pretty much what I’d expected. Rather than text back, I hit Call.

Georgia answered on the first ring.

“So when do we get to start?”

“Boy, you sound anxious,” she chided. “You must be dying to see the Statue of Liberty.”

I chuckled. “Yeah, that’s what it is.”

“I don’t know. I guess we can start whenever.”

“Okay. A week from today then. This week is crazy, but my last game is Saturday afternoon, and then I’m a free man. Can you take off?”

“Monday?”

“Nope. For the next two weeks. You have take two weeks off on your list. Why not start there?”

“Hmmm… I’m not sure that’s a good idea, Max.”

“Why not?”

“Well, my new operations director has only been here a few months, and we have a lot going on, and—”

I interrupted her. “Has there been any time since you started the company that you didn’t have a lot going on?”

“No, but—”

“We’ll stay here in the city while you’re off. If anything goes wrong, you’ll be able to shoot back to the office in no time.”

“I don’t know, Max…”

“I’ll make all the plans. I promise you’ll have a good time.”

She sighed. “Alright. Though you can’t get mad if I need to come back to the office.”

“You got it.”

“I can’t believe I’m agreeing to this. But I suppose I better get going since I’ll have to be at the office until midnight the next few days to be ready to take off for two whole weeks.”

“I’ll leave you alone to do what you gotta do. But my last game is Saturday afternoon. It’s home. Will you come?”

“Yeah, I’d love to.”

“I’ll messenger the tickets over to your office.”

“Thanks, Max.”

After we hung up, I sat thinking about what I could plan for the next two weeks. I wasn’t sure of the specifics, but I knew one thing: a staycation needed a hotel.

• • •

Monday seemed to take forever to get here. On Saturday, Georgia had come to my game as promised. But she didn’t stick around after since she had to go to her office and wrap up some things before she started her time off today. I had a feeling she was probably stressing right about now, but I’d made some plans to help alleviate that as much as possible.

I arrived at her building at noon and went up to help her with her bag.

“Hey.” Her forehead was creased with worry lines. “I’m not done packing. I have no idea what to bring, since you won’t tell me any of our plans or where we’re staying.”

“Just bring comfortable clothes. Maybe something nice to go out at night once in a while.”

“You can’t just say ‘something nice to go out at night’ to a woman. We need more than that. Are we going to a fancy place? Casual? Will there be walking involved? We have heels that are for being dropped off at the door, and heels for walking a few blocks. But if it’s going to be more than that, I might need flats.” She shook her head. “Shoot. I didn’t pack flats. Only sneakers. Which reminds me—will there be exercising? Because I brought leggings and casual things, but they’re not the leggings I’d wear to the gym. I like moisture wicking for that. Oh, should I bring towels? What about rain gear? Did you bring an umbrella? Shoot. I didn’t bring ponytail holders—”

She was on the verge of losing it. So I spoke over her. “Georgia…”

Her eyes flashed to mine.

I set my hands on her shoulders. “Whatever you’re missing, we’ll buy it. We’re staying in the city, not going to the wilderness where we’re fucked if you forget the bear spray. Or if you don’t want to go shopping, we can come back here and pick up something if you need it. Take a deep breath.”

She did, but then stalked away two seconds later.

I followed her into her bedroom. When I saw the piles of shit on her bed, I got a little concerned. There had to be a few hundred hangers of crap. “You’re not planning on bringing all that, are you?”

She shook her head. “I couldn’t find a green sweater I wanted to bring. So I took half the stuff out of my closet.”

Jesus, that’s only half? “Did you find the sweater?”

“I think I might’ve loaned it to Maggie.”

“Do you want to stop over there and get it?”

“Maybe this isn’t a good idea.”

My brows shot up. “Because you don’t have your sweater?”

Georgia avoided making eye contact and rummaged through the piles on her bed. After moving things around for a while, she let out a big sigh and looked up at me. “I’m nervous.”

I couldn’t have stopped my smile if I’d tried. “Really? I never would’ve been able to tell.”

She picked up a sweatshirt from the top of a pile and threw it at me.

I caught it and set it back down. Then I moved another pile to the floor and sat on the bed, holding my hand out to her. “Come here.”

She hesitated, but eventually she took my hand, and I used it to pull her onto my lap. “Talk to me.” Georgia looked down, and I pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. “What are you nervous about?”

“Everything.”

I nodded. “Okay. Let’s take them one at a time. Tell me all the things that are freaking you out.”

“Not being in the office.”

“You’re bringing your laptop and cell, right?”

“Yes.”

I shrugged. “So if there’s a problem, they know how to reach you. And we’ll be right here in the city, so you can get back if something important comes up. You go out of the office for meetings sometimes, right?”

“Yes, but that’s different.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. It just is. This is two weeks, not an afternoon.”

“Okay. So the amount of time is what’s bothering you. Why don’t we cut our trip from two weeks to two days? You can decide after two days if you need to go back or want to keep going with our staycation.”

“But…you said you made plans.”

“I’ll change them, if need be.”

“Really?”

I nodded. “Not a problem. But you should know, you’re not the only one who’s competitive. I’m going to do everything I can to make you have such a good time that you won’t want to go back.”

For the first time, a smile peeked through the stress on her face. “Okay.”

“Anything else?”

She looked down and twisted her fingers. “I’m nervous about…us.”

I lifted her chin so our eyes met. “I booked us two rooms. They’re adjoining. There’s no pressure there.”

“You did?”

I nodded. “I did.”

Her shoulders relaxed, and she let out a rush of air. “Okay.”

I smiled. “We’re doing great. What else you got?”

“Those are really the two biggest things.”

“That wasn’t so bad.”

“For you…” She laughed.

“You know what will make you feel even better?”

“What?”

I slid my hand up from her back to her neck and pulled her close. “Kissing me hello.”

Georgia sank into me. I could feel the sigh roll through her body, taking the tension with it as she opened and let my tongue in. By the time we separated, I’d almost forgotten my name. So if it was half as good for her, I’d done my job, and she’d be okay today.

I cupped her cheek. “Feel better?”

She nodded. “I should’ve called you last night to come do that. Maybe I would’ve had a better night’s sleep.”

“Well, I’ll be right next door tonight if you start to stress.” I looked around the room. “Think you feel up to finishing packing?”

“Yeah. Just give me a few minutes. I’m going to change, too. Why don’t you go have some coffee while I get done?”

Twenty minutes later, Georgia emerged from the bedroom wheeling a suitcase. She had on a pair of tight jeans and a Wolverines T-shirt.

“What do you think?” She pushed her hair behind her shoulders so I could see the full logo and held her hands out.

“Very nice tits,” I managed to say with a straight face.

She laughed and pointed. “I’m showing you the Wolverines T-shirt. I bought it on my way out of the game on Saturday.”

“I’m teasing. I love it.”

She turned and showed me her back, lifting her long hair. Now that I hadn’t been expecting. I didn’t even know they made T-shirts with a logo on the front and my name and number on the back. But I fucking loved it on her.

“Nice.” My brain quickly conjured an image of what she might look like wearing it with nothing else—just the T-shirt with my name across the back and her long, sexy, bare legs sticking out the bottom.

Georgia turned back around. She took one look at my face and squinted. “What’s going on in that head of yours?”

I smirked and walked over to her. “You don’t want to know. We just got you calm.” I took the suitcase from her hand. “Do you have more bags?”

“I jammed everything in the one. I might be back in a few days anyway, right?”

“Sure.” Though, not if I have anything to say about it.