Thin Love (Thin Love, #1)(137)

“He’s just excited to be around you, son. He’s making up for lost time.”

On the field a whistle blows, signaling a break and Ransom looks up at her, offers her a quick wave before he falls to the ground, exhausted, excited, with a huge grin on his face.

Kona notices the move, says something in Brian’s ear, then runs up the steps to sit next to her in the stands.

“He’s great.” Elbows on his knees, Kona focuses below them, to the players, to their son as he downs a bottle of water. “Seriously, two more years with him improving and he can write his own ticket.”

She notices the way he bobs his head, as though he’s planning, scheming, what their son could accomplish, what would be available to him with a little bit of hard work.

“Have you talked to him about that?”

He looks down at her, frowning. “What do you mean?”

“Have you talked to Ransom about what he wants to study? Where he wants to apply to?”

Kona turns his attention back to the field as the players are lined up for drills. “Business, he said.” Kona stretches back, slinks down into the seat. “CPU has a great Business department. I think Professor Walker is still the Dean, but I’m not sure. It’s what my degree is in.”

“Yes. Business. That’s what it is this month.”

“What?”

Keira smiles, sitting up straight in her seat, folding her hands in her lap. “Kona, he’s almost sixteen. Last year he wanted to go into the military.” His mouth drops open, eyes big and shocked. “Three months ago he was determined to go to LSU because of their Communications program and when he was eight, he wanted to be Thor.” Kona’s frown is deep and she almost feels bad for him, for the disappointment she sees paling his dark complexion. “He’s a kid, Kona. He has a lot of grand ideas, but Ransom has no clue who he is or who he wants to be.” When he continues to frown, rubs the back of his neck, Keira sighs. “One thing that hasn’t changed though is how much he loves to play. Don’t worry about that. Wherever he goes, he’ll be on someone’s defensive line.”

Kona’s eyebrows move up and his smirk is deep, exaggerates the cleft in his chin. “You know positions now?”

“Don’t look so surprised.” Keira watches Ransom’s move on the field, that focused, steady stare he narrows as he tackles a kid twice his side. “My son has been playing football since his was big enough to carry the weight of peewee shoulder pads. I’ve had to learn.”

When he wasn’t practicing with the Steamers, Kona had spent nearly all his time with Ransom. Keira didn’t mind, she was still dealing with lawyers, making sure Ransom was up on his correspondence work and trying to fit some writing in for the deadline waiting for her back home.

They hadn’t spoken much and when they did, it was always about Ransom, about his party or if it was okay with Keira that Kona take him for a weekend. She’d been reluctant about that one, but their time together was important. They needed that time before the end of the summer when she would take her son back to Nashville. But she had caught Kona staring at her, sometimes just in a glance, sometimes a long stare when he thought she wasn’t looking.

Kona was conflicting her, confusing her with the clash of his focus on Ransom and those heavy stares that she didn’t understand. Stares like the one he was giving her now.

Eyes shifting to the right, Keira cocks up a brow. “What?”

He moves his head, a brief shake before he returns his attention to the field. “I never got to tell you, with me training and spending time with Ransom, but I’m sorry about your mom.”

Her laugh is small, bitter. “Kona, that was a month ago. Besides, You hated my mom.”

Kona shrugs, can’t seem to help the smile of agreement. “So did you.”

Ransom moves faster, strides wider down the field and a flash of wind shoots in front of them as ten players whip past the bleachers, setting a chill over Keira’s skin. In her peripheral she notices Kona laughing to himself, shaking his head.

“What now?”

“Nothing changes, not really.”

“Oh things change alright.”

“That’s true enough. But you getting cold in seventy degree weather? Still the same.” He moves closer, pulls his arm around her shoulder like him touching her was natural, normal.

The scent of his cologne drifts from his skin, that delicious tang that never failed to make her heart pound like a machine.

She guesses he is right. “People don’t change. Things do.” She feels him watching her; the dip of his chin, the way his hot breath skates down her cheek, but she won’t look at him. That kindling needs to remain in its ember state. It scares her, the return of the blaze; that mad, desperate fire that they were together. She moves away from him, but gives him a smile so he doesn’t think her rude.

“You’re not a coward.”

“What?”

A small lean, a whisper against the shell of her ear and Kona’s voice is deep, drugging. “I was just trying to keep you warm. I wasn’t trying to move in on you.”

“I know.”

“Liar.” Then he sits back, sets his elbow on the armrest right next to Keira’s hand. She watches him. There isn’t a smile on her face and the scrutiny has him running his fingers over his forehead, down his high cheekbones. “You scared of me, Wildcat?”