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But I was too scared.
“Guess so.”
Zach did a poor job hiding his disappointment, but he started his car and pulled away from Riverside Park.
We sat in a heavy silence for a moment before Zach began asking more questions, mostly about how we had never crossed paths before. We had been in different school systems, on opposite ends of Hartford, and our social circles never connected.
As my car came into view, I realized that our date was over. Our second date. Our second date that I was too naïve to realizewasa date until Zach said it.
What else would it have been, Jessa?
Zach unbuckled his seatbelt and opened his door, darting out into the warm summer rain. He grabbed my bag and leftovers, and I watched him round the hood of the car to open my door. I stared up at him for a moment before I unbuckled myself and got out, placing my hand in his waiting palm.
We stood in the downpour, staring at one another. He looked like he wanted to kiss me.Iwanted him to kiss me.
I wanted him to kiss me?
“Thank you.” He slowly leaned in.
Resting a hand on my hip, Zach pressed a kiss to my cheek. Mycheek.
“I’ll send you the practice schedule on Monday. I don’t expect you to come to weekend practices.”
I didn’t know what to say. The only words that rested on my tongue werekiss me for real, so I kept my lips tightly together and nodded.
Zach drummed his fingers against my hip, and then he let me go.
“Unlock your car for me?” he prompted gently.
I dug my keys out of my bag and pressed the button to unlock my car doors. Zach turned and opened the driver door for me, waiting until I was seated before he passed my bag back to me.
“Drive safe,” he said and tapped the roof of my car.
“You too,” I managed to muster as he gently pressed my door closed.
We sat in the parking lot next to one another, waiting for the other to make the first move to leave. I finally managed to back out of the parking space and mindlessly drove home.
CHAPTER15
JESSA
“Power Play, Jessa speaking.”
“Hello, Jessa. My name is Carl Strickland, I’m the general manager for the Hartford Hammerheads. How are you?”
My heart pounded in my chest. This was either a good call or a bad call, and I desperately needed it to be good.
“I’m doing well, thank you. How are you?”
“Not too bad. I’m reaching out about a possible partnership between the Hammerhead Foundation and Power Play. We’d like you to be the recipient for one of our upcoming pre-season games, and we’d like to set up a meeting to discuss this further in person.”
“Oh, that’s fantastic!” I couldn’t contain my excitement, shouting loud enough that my boss ran from his office into mine, a cookie in his mouth, his eyes wide. “We’d be happy to meet with you.”
“Great. We want to get a head start on planning the events, so would this week be alright for you?”
“Yes, of course,” I replied and flipped open my planner. Unsurprisingly, it was empty, aside from a few times that were blocked out with the wordsZach – Practice. “When would work for you?”
“How about Thursday at ten-thirty? Since there will be a few of us, we can meet here at the arena in the boardroom.”
