Page 131 of On His Team

She stares at me for another second before slipping out of my arms.

Gianna puts on her coat and sits on the bench by the front door to lace her boots. I lean against the wall nearby because apparently I’m following her to the door now.

She shakes her head, but she’s smiling while she finishes the other boot.

When she stands, she checks her phone. “Lucy texted me.”

“What’d she say?”

“She wants to know if I’m coming home tonight.”

I look at her.

Gianna looks at me. “Is she at my place with Benson? Dear Lord.” She slides her phone back into her pocket.

I think about what she said yesterday. “You still haven’t told her yet?”

Gianna looks up. “No.”

“Why?”

She watches me for a second like she’s deciding whether I genuinely forgot. Then she leans one shoulder against the door. “I told you.”

“I know. I mean…” I look toward the living room, trying to find the right version of what I’m asking. “You tell Lucy everything.”

That makes her smile a little. “I do.”

“So this is weird for you.”

“Very.”

I laugh.

Gianna looks down at her shoes.

Then she shrugs. “I don’t want to turn this into something public before it’s something to us.”

I don’t say anything.

She looks up. “And I don’t mean that dramatically. I’m not sitting at home waiting for you to decide whether I’m worthy of a title or whatever.” She rolls her eyes at the thought. “I’m having fun. I really like what we’re doing. I just know the second Lucy knows, it becomes information that exists outside of us, and then I start wondering whether Benson knows and whether Stanley knows and whether everybody is watching us.”

I nod and reach for her hand. She lets me take it. There’s nothing sexual about it this time. I just hold it. Gianna looks down at our hands, then back up.

“I don’t want you to feel like I’m hiding you either,” she says.

“I don’t.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

She narrows her eyes.

I laugh.

Then headlights pass across the front window. Gianna drops me instantly. I look toward the glass. She does too. The car keeps going.

We both start laughing.