Full Coverage: Boys of Fall (5 page)

Randi took a breath. “Yes.”

“Good.”

He didn’t say anything else.

“I like big muscles, but not
just
big muscles.” She needed to stop talking. She was aware of that. Still she went ahead and said, “I like brains too.”

Nolan’s mouth curved. “Good.”

“I like your muscles too,” she finished weakly. He wasn’t linebacker huge but he was in great shape and when he wore T-shirts and jeans, it really showed.

“Thanks.”

She waited, but he didn’t say anything else. And she knew she needed to stop saying things. She crossed her arms and watched him back.

Nolan Winters could give any guy in Quinn a run for his money. The slacks and polo he wore today didn’t get her heart pounding the way worn denim did, but it didn’t matter. She couldn’t look at him without remembering the surprisingly hot and awesome things he could do with his mouth on hers. And wonder what it would be like to have that mouth on other places.

“I’m sorry,” she finally said.

“For liking me and my brains and my muscles?” he asked, with clear amusement.

“For not being better at having conversations with you and for insinuating that you’re not my type.”

“Were you insinuating that?” he asked.

“Not intentionally. I just didn’t want you to take that from what I said.”

Nolan got up from the bucket and crossed to where she stood.

Randi instinctively straightened and dropped her arms.

He looked down at her. “You like me.”

Definitely. He might intimidate her a little, and she might wish she was a little more worldly when he was around, but the answer was a definite, “Yes.”

“That’s all I need to know,” he said.

“Really?”

“Yes.” He paused. “Come to New York with me.”

“What?”

“I have a big party in New York to attend in a couple of weeks. I need a date. I’d love to take you.”

“Me?” Randi knew her eyes were wide. But a party in New York City? Randi had never been farther from home than San Antonio. And that had been to watch a football game. The traffic had boggled her mind.

And he was talking about New York City.

“Yes, you,” Nolan said with a smile.

“I…don’t know anything about New York. Or big, fancy parties.”

“I’d love to show you.”

There was something in his voice that made her look up into his eyes. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but Nolan seemed very serious suddenly. But there was also a touch of something else…eagerness? Affection?

“I don’t even know what to wear.”

He nodded. “That’s okay. We’ll go a day early and I’ll take you shopping.”

Shopping in New York City? Randi had to admit that sounded fun. She’d just been thinking that Quinn didn’t have much for excitement. This would be an adventure.

“How much should I bring?” she asked, her thoughts spinning.

“Clothes? Very little.”

Her eyes flew up to his. “What?” She felt a grin stretching.

“You won’t need much. We’ll get what you need there.”

But a smile teased his lips, and she knew the double meaning she’d assumed behind his answer was accurate.

“I thought maybe you meant that, other than the party, we’d spend a lot of time in the hotel room so I wouldn’t need a lot of outfits.”

“Well, I thought I wanted to show you the city.”

“But now?”

“Now I’m thinking about how fun hotel rooms can be.”

So it might be that kind of trip. She had to admit that the Statue of Liberty didn’t sound like the biggest draw to New York City suddenly.

“I’ll have to take your word for it,” she said. “I haven’t ever been to New York and I haven’t spent that many nights in hotel rooms.”

Her family hadn’t had the money to travel more than a road trip here and there in Texas. And, honestly, Randi had never been bitten by the travel bug. She knew there were some amazing places that she’d probably love seeing, but she also knew that there was very little in the world that could compare to the beauty of looking out at the view from her front porch. For her. She understood that wasn’t true for everyone. But she was content. Mostly. Her life was pretty much what she’d always expected it to be. And she counted her blessings. She had a good life. Quiet, simple, surrounded by people she loved, doing things she loved.

If she wondered once in a while if there was more or if she was missing something, she figured that was normal.

“New York is amazing. And hotel rooms can be amazing,” Nolan told her.

“Can be?” she asked.

“Depends on why you’re there.”

“You mean like they’re fun when you’re there for a big, fancy party?” she teased.

“With a gorgeous woman whose kisses have been keeping me up at night.”

He didn’t smile when he said that. He was completely serious. Randi felt herself swallowing hard. “Oh.”

He seemed to realize he was being a little intense, because he leaned back. “But I really just want to treat you to a fun weekend in the city. You’ll have your own room.”

She felt a twinge of disappointment. But instead of commenting on it, she said, “Why do you want to treat
me
?”

“I love New York and you’ve never been. I thought it would be fun to show someone the city for the first time. Everyone I’ve been there with has been before.”

Randi bit her tongue on asking if “everyone” meant women. It did. It had to. She focused on how sweet it was that he wanted to show
her
the city. “That’s really nice. If you want me to go with you, I’d love to.”

“I want you to go with me.”

“Okay.”

The smile he gave her made her heart thump in a way she hadn’t felt in a really long time. He looked like she’d just announced he’d been elected president. Wow, she hadn’t made someone else feel like that in a really, really long time.

“I’m going to head home and work on this chapter,” he said. “Maybe later you could come over and read through it for me? I want to be sure I got the game right.”

The chapter was about the district championship game that had put the Titans into the state playoffs. The playoffs that they’d ended up dominating. The crown jewel to their biggest and best season ever.

“That would be great,” she agreed, realizing that she’d been expecting him to kiss her. And that she was disappointed that he hadn’t. “Or you could come to my place. I’ll make you dinner.”

“Great plan,” he agreed easily.

She wasn’t a fantastic cook, but she wouldn’t embarrass herself. At least, not with the food. Why did she keep agreeing to spend time with Nolan when she tripped over her words and ended up feeling like a jerk?

Because
he
seemed to want to keep spending time with
her
. In spite of all of that.

“How’s seven?” she asked.

“I’ll be there.”

“Great.”

“Should I bring the tequila?”

She tipped her head. She was still surprised by Nolan’s teasing side. “I have plenty of tequila.”

He gave her a grin. “Right. It was the shot glasses you didn’t have.”

Randi felt her stomach flip and she crossed her arms, trying to not show how easily he affected her. “Right.”

“Have you gotten any since Coach’s party?” Nolan asked.

“Nope. I just drink straight from the bottle.”

He gave a nod. “That works. And I can use your belly button. So we should be good.”

She was pretty sure he realized how that affected her because she blew out a quick breath and said, “Okay then, I’ll be sure to wear something we can pull up.”

He gave her a hot look. “Yeah. You do that.”

Then he turned and walked away. Without kissing her. And she was still disappointed by it.

* * *

“
A
re you dating Miranda Doyle
?”

Nolan looked up from his computer screen as his mother came in the back door of the house into the kitchen.

“Um.”

“Are you dating Miranda Doyle?” Teresa Winters set her reusable grocery bag on the countertop, the canned goods making a loud thunk.

Nolan saved his work and leaned back in his chair. “Do not tell your Bunko ladies or the beauty shop girls that Randi and I are dating,” he said. “That’s very premature.”

Teresa crossed her arms and leaned back against the counter. “So you want to.”

“Where did you hear this?”

“Nicole told Janice that Kristine took her car into the shop this morning and you were there. With Miranda.”

Nolan nodded. “That’s true. She’s helping me with this chapter.”

Teresa gave him a look that said “don’t bullshit me”. “And then, as we were talking, Sandra said that Chad told her that you were dancing with her at Pitchers.”

Nolan sighed. One more thing he didn’t miss about Quinn. The freaking grapevine here was impressive—and scary.

“I danced with her. And I talked to her about football today. How does that add up to dating?” he asked. Of course, he did want to date Randi, but he knew how this conversation was going to go. His mother was nothing if not predictable. She’d always been very consistent on three things—Nolan was amazing, Nolan was nothing like his father, and Nolan was too good for Quinn.

No one was more Quinn than Miranda Doyle.

“Nolan Phillip Winters, you stay away from that girl.”

Yep, this was exactly how this was going to go. “You said yourself that you would never trust anyone else with your car.”

“She’s a wonderful mechanic. She’s a sweet girl. But she’s not the right girl for you.”

“Because she’s from here?”

“Because she’s from here and she’s got no ambitions
beyond
here.”

Exactly like Teresa. It was no deep dark secret to Nolan that his mother resented everything about Quinn because she was stuck here. Or thought she was. And she blamed his father for it. She’d wanted to leave, to see the world. But she’d fallen for Nolan’s father and gotten pregnant. She’d been happy. For a long time. She’d chosen love and she’d truly felt that was the right, ultimately rewarding thing to do.

Then his father had left her. And not just for another woman. He’d gone and traveled and done all of the things Teresa had wanted to do. The things that getting married and tied down with two kids and two jobs had kept her from doing.

Nolan had offered to bring her to San Antonio with him. But she couldn’t easily leave now. Nolan’s sister lived in Quinn and had two kids Teresa adored. Teresa had a job that she actually liked, but no degree, no real option for doing anything else. And she owned her house. Nolan’s father had sent her enough guilt money to pay off the mortgage. She couldn’t live anywhere else as cheaply, and she’d never leave her grandkids. No matter how much Teresa had tried to encourage both of her kids to leave, to do more, to want more, her daughter Carly had followed right in her footsteps.

Carly getting pregnant with her first son at age sixteen had only increased Teresa’s pressure on Nolan to get the hell out of Quinn.

“I like Randi, Mom,” Nolan said firmly. “If I want to see her while I’m here, I will.”

“While you’re here,” Teresa said quickly, pointing her finger at him. “Fine. While you’re here, do whatever you want. Just be sure you
leave
again. And
don’t
knock her up.”

Nolan blew out a breath. “Mom.”

“Nolan.”

“
Mom
.”

“Nolan, you got out. You did something with yourself. I’m
so
proud of you.” Teresa crossed to his chair. She took his face in her hands. “You deserve everything you’ve got. Don’t backtrack now for a girl.”

“Mom, I am not backtracking by dating Randi. She’s wonderful.”

“And there are
thousands
of wonderful girls in San Antonio. Even more in New York.”

Nolan decided that he needed to nip this in the bud.

He hadn’t dated anyone seriously in high school, in part because his mother always started in on this shit after date three. And he hadn’t ever cared about anyone enough to really fight with her about it. He’d always planned to leave Quinn. Sure, it might have been in part because his mother had started the mantra about him being destined for greater things when he was about five. But he’d wanted to be a journalist since he was twelve, and he’d known he wanted to do more exciting stories than the winner of Tuesday night Bingo and the fender-benders on Main and the monthly anniversaries.

The tiny paper in Quinn, the
Quibbler
, and the news it covered, was all very nice. Lost dogs and lawnmowers for sales, the menu for the senior center and the school, church service schedules, heartfelt obituaries and happy birth announcements. And, of course, the sports page. It was sweet. It was something he loved about Quinn. But it wasn’t what he wanted to do.

So leaving Quinn hadn’t been a difficult decision at all. After his mother had pounded the use of abstinence and condoms and double condoms into his brain, not getting seriously involved with a woman in Quinn hadn’t been a difficult decision either. He’d been ready to see the world, have some fun, hang out with a sophisticated crowd.

But now he was twenty-nine years old, very successful, living in San Antonio and traveling the country, and if he wanted to date the town’s mechanic, he would.