Body Check by Deirdre Martin Read Free Book Online

seat before Lou, ever subtle, pointed in the direction of the locker room. Taking the hint, Janna rose once again, following the players.
    Approaching the locker room, she felt like a cowboy in an old western, swaggering toward a showdown. She wanted to stick Ty up, make him yowl for mercy. But that wasn’t the right approach. Today she was going to try being cordial. Sweetness and light. She would offer a compromise solution that might help both of them. She put a hand to her stomach briefly to quell the butterflies springing to life there, then plunged inside. You’re a piranha, you’re a piranha, you’re a piranha . . .
    Some of the guys actually smiled at her; others made a point of deliberately turning away. One or two murmured, “Hey Janna,” which pleased her; it seemed a friendly gesture, and it gave her hope. Before going for Gallagher, she made a point of walking around the room and reiterating to the players, as nicely as possible, that if they didn’t sign on for at least three charity events, she’d be forced to do it for them. No one budged, although she thought she detected some ambivalence in Michael Dante, one of the young, single players Lou had mentioned the day before. He seemed intrigued by the notion of taking part in a bachelor auction, but in the end stalled, telling Janna he’d get back to her. She knew what that meant; he had to go and see if God, aka Captain Gallagher, gave it his seal of approval. Lemmings. Janna wondered if they asked his permission to use the bathroom.
    She found Gallagher in the small lounge off the locker room, leaning against one of the cement walls, watching ESPN on the big-screen TV, and drinking a large glass of orange juice, which he’d grabbed from the small banquet table set in the far corner. The table, laden with coffee, muffins, juice and fruit, made Janna’s stomach rumble with hunger. Or was it nerves? The minute the other players in the lounge spotted her, they cleared out, obviously expecting something to happen that they didn’t want to be witness to. Ty, meanwhile, kept his eyes glued to the TV screen—quite deliberately, Janna thought. Not a good sign.
    â€œTy?”
    â€œMiss MacNeil. What a surprise.”
    As he turned slowly toward her, her heartbeat began doubling its tempo. She was anxious, yes. But she realized there was more to it than that: clad in sweatpants, he was shirtless, a twisted white towel casually slung around his neck, the perfect six-pack of his abs glistening with hard-earned sweat. He aroused in her a desire that could only be called primal. She’d never experienced anything so elemental and so strong . That the sight of this man should generate it only made it worse. It was like being a teenage wallflower and finding yourself attracted to that one dumb jock in your high school who always made fun of you at lunch. Her body was betraying her. She closed her eyes for a moment.
    Think piranha!
    â€œLook,” she began contritely, “I want to apologize for my behavior yesterday. I fear I may have gone a bit overboard in trying to convey Kidco’s expectations to you. I’m sorry.”
    She braced herself, waiting for him to curse her out. Instead, he responded with an uncomfortable clearing of his throat and a distinct unwillingness to hold eye contact.
    â€œYeah, well, apology accepted. I had it down on my agenda for today to apologize to you, too. I didn’t mean to bite your head off the way I did.” His gaze returned to the screen.
    â€œIt’s okay.” Janna glanced at the TV. Some newscaster was talking about the Mets game the night before. “I was thinking . . .” she began.
    â€œMmm?” Ty tore his eyes from the screen, and took another gulp of juice.
    â€œI have a compromise solution that I think could benefit both of us.”
    â€œAnd that would be?”
    â€œI know you don’t want to do any PR. But if you could use