The Backup Plan (Stadium Lights Romances - Standalones Book 1) by Rebekah Reese

Author:Rebekah Reese [Reese, Rebekah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: West Strand Indie Books
Published: 2024-06-02T00:00:00+00:00

He found Avery in the drawing studio in front of an easel, feet tucked under her high, swiveling stool as she worked back and forth between the paper and the pile of pastels and charcoals on the table at her side. Several students on the opposite side of the room peeked around sketchpads at objects piled on a central platform for still-life exercises. Avery ignored it, and smeared blues and greens over the bottom third of her sheet, blurring in circular motions like a whirlpool. Quick strokes of charcoal rendered the edges of the sea wall on the Charleston Battery before she picked up the pastels again and drew a half-dozen abstract, mismatched rectangles in candy colors along the street’s edge.

Cameron hung back and watched her work for a few minutes. She scribbled in a yellow rectangle and smudged it with the side of her hand, then tilted her head and added a few stripes of peach along one side and blended those too. The next rectangle was pale pink with an edge and a corner that bled into violet.

Her hand hovered over the table for her next color, then fell into her lap as her shoulders drooped.

Cam crossed the room and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her back to his chest without a word of greeting. On her tall stool, she relaxed against him as he lay his head on hers.

“I sure hope that’s you, Cam.”

“It’s me.”

“Good.”

He barely touched her before that moment, but holding her so close he could feel her pulse felt as natural as the breaths they drew in unison. With both arms around her shoulders and neck, he felt like he was choking her, so he slid one over her waist instead, grazing her breasts as he shifted down.

She rested her cheek on his forearm and let her hair fall into her face as she stroked his arms with pastel-smudged fingers. He would let her paint his entire body if it would soothe the nervous thrum of her heart. The slow release of the tension in her neck and shoulders melted her against him, and he moved his lips against her hair, unable to speak.

The whispers in the studio disappeared. He held her in silence, and she made no move to pull away or offer any update or explanation about Justin or Isaac. If she was content with that, so was he. He remembered that feeling of sitting quietly with someone who had nothing to do with the things that hurt or infuriated him, the small peace that brought him, and understood why she wanted him to leave the night before.

That morning in the gym, he kept to his usual workout with the tight ends and other quarterbacks, and watched the linebackers from a safe distance. Isaac stuck close to Justin, probably to load the weights a little easier and not tell him. Justin was washed-out and sweating before he lifted a thing, and took more water and bathroom breaks than he was supposed to.

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