Page 42 of Icing on Top

He pulled his laptop more toward him and opened up another document where he’d laid out step-by-step instructions. Boy, did I love a man with a plan. If only my brain worked like that.

“Some already have teams, but there’s a good amount that are free agents. There’s also varying skill levels, so we need to determine how we’re going to handle that. We don’t want one team just dominating the league.”

I pursed my lips and leaned my arms on the desk as I eyed the forms Miah had printed so we could better visualize what we were working with.

“How about we organize them by skill level and then distribute them as evenly as possible among the teams?” I suggested.

Miah waved his hand at the forms. “Have at it.”

Sorting things into piles was a form of organization that I could do. After moving everything to the floor so I had plenty of space, I started by separating out the forms for those who had a team already established. Then I got to work on the free agents, grouping them by skill level for now. It wasn’t surprising that the pile of athletes who hadn’t played in years ended up being larger than our highly skilled players. There hadn’t been many opportunities for them to play beyond college. Until now.

While I tried out different combinations for teams, Miah researched jerseys.

“What do you think? Plain colors or let them create a team name and logo?”

He looked so cute when he was focused, jaw cocked to the side and a slight wrinkle between his brows. God, he was distracting. Even more so now that I knew what it felt like to kiss him.

His amber eyes suddenly met mine. As if he knew what I’d just been thinking, Miah’s lips curled into a smirk.

“Can I help you, Cupcake?”

Why was that basic nickname so damn endearing?

“No,” I muttered, returning to the task at hand.

But this was Miah, and there was no way he was going to drop it. I could hear his chair roll back across the rug and his soft footsteps as he rounded the desk before kneeling down in front of me. His finger hooked under my chin and he lifted my face up to his. It was a good thing I was already on the ground, because my knees would have given out under that intense gaze of his.

When he leaned in, his lips just barely brushed against mine. That was not enough for me. I lifted slightly to deepen the kiss. I could feel Miah smiling into it. He pulled back far sooner than I would have liked, though.

“If you want a kiss, you can just ask. Or take it.” He shrugged. “I’m fine with either.”

I glared playfully in a vain effort to disguise just how flustered I was.

“Noted,” I mumbled.

He grinned before pushing up, but not without a soft groan. I giggled, and he shot me a look.

“You won’t be laughing when it’s time for you to get up.”

He wasn’t wrong.

“Let’s go with simple colors this go-around,” I said. “Then as teams get established, they can have logos.”

“Maybe we could find a local artist to team up with for the graphics.”

I grinned. “I love that.”

We worked in companionable silence until I decided the teams were good enough. Of course, I’d let Miah look them over before anything was set in stone.

“You’re going to captain a team, right?” Miah asked.

My stomach launched into my throat, and I was seconds away from upchucking my lunch all over the forms. Thankfully, Miah was behind me so he couldn’t see how the blood had leeched from my face.

I forced out a laugh. It sounded distant even to my own ears, as if I were underwater.

“No, no. I’m just helping you run this. That’s where my involvement ends.”

There were two painful beats of silence where I felt his eyes on the back of my head, my neck prickling under its intensity.