Page 33 of Lowering His Guard

The door flies open and my son trudges out. “Geez. For someone who had an ice cream date last night, you’re awful grumpy.”

I growl. “Not a date.”

He rolls his eyes. “Whatever.”

I urge him toward the door. I can’t be late for weigh-in. I’m supposed to be setting an example for the younger team members.

When we exit the elevator, I follow Jace toward the beach. “I can walk to the beach alone. Unless you want to see May this morning.” He waggles his eyebrows.

“Nothing’s happening between May and me.”

“I don’t know why not. She’s cool, sporty, and hot as hell.”

She’s all of those things. But it doesn’t matter. I shouldn’t want her. She shreds my control with her smiles and beams of sunshine.

“Don’t swear.”

He sighs. “Can we go to Wok the Plank tonight? Lin promised to make me some of those shrimp and chicken egg rolls again.”

“We’ll see.”

“Which means no.”

I lift my chin to May as we approach the surf shed. She smiles and it hits me straight in the chest. How would it feel to have her smile my way every morning for the rest of my life?

I force those thoughts away. Nothing is going to happen between me and May. No matter how much she fascinates me for reasons I can’t figure out.

“Good morning,” she greets. “Didn’t expect you this morning.”

“Be careful,” Jace mutters. “He’s super grumpy this morning.”

“As opposed to his normal grumpy?”

Jace chuckles. “Yep.”

“There are levels of his grumpiness? Have you charted it? Is it related to food intake? Is the alien in his stomach affecting his moods?”

She’s cute. Delusional but cute.

“Need to go.” I meet Jace’s gaze. “Behave.” I wait for him to nod before whirling around and marching toward the parking lot.

“Good luck at the weigh-in!” May hollers after me.

She needs to stop being so damn tempting. My willpower is hanging on by a thread. If May shows me yet another cute aspect of her personality, I won’t be responsible for my actions.

I arrive at the stadium at Coastal State University and park my SUV next to Nolan’s sports car. I shake my head at the small vehicle. I don’t understand the appeal of folding yourself in half to fit in a car.

“How’s May?” Nolan asks as we walk together through the tunnels to the locker room.

I glare at him. “How’s Terri?”

Terri is the event coordinator at the resort. She’s also the woman Nolan’s been chasing after. Everyone else thinks there’s nothing going on. I disagree. There’s something going on between them. But I don’t know what. And it isn’t my business.

The same way whatever’s happening between me and May isn’t his business. Except there’s nothing happening in our case.

He lifts his hands in the air. “Point taken.”

Good.