you can’t get anyone else,” he said, shrugging. She smiled, and her whole face lit up. She wasn’t beautiful, even now, but she was dazzling. He gulped and played his next card. “I, um, can see that the five hundred isn’t going to take care of all the team needs.”
“The fees took most of it,” she admitted with a grimace, “but we’ll make do.”
“I don’t see the point in that,” he said lightly. “Tell you what, why don’t we do a little shopping, figure out how much more is needed?”
She considered briefly, then nodded. “Okay, I’ll check around and let you know.”
He smiled and suggested mildly, “It’ll go faster if we just take care of it together. When can you go?”
She looked off into the distance, and he knew that she was considering the wisdom of spending time with him. He let her consider, and finally she said, “I’ll have to let you know.”
“How about tomorrow?” he pressed gently. “You busy tomorrow afternoon? I’ll meet you at Sports World. I hear they have the best prices.” He fished a piece of paper from his polo shirt pocket and added, “I got the kids’ shoe sizes as they came off the field, all but Ponce’s.”
She was staring at him now. “Shoe sizes?”
“They can’t play in what they’ve got,” he pointed out. “One little girl was out there in sandals.”
Charly pushed a hand through her hair, leaving it in wild disarray, and his heart literally thumped. What was it? “I know,” she said, “but sponsors usually just provide jerseys and a few balls.”
“You want them to be able to compete, don’t you? The other teams will have cleats and real uniforms. As they are representatives of RuCom, we want them to look as good as everyone else.”
She stared at him a little longer, and then those unusual golden eyes warmed. “That’s wonderful!”
Pure satisfaction flashed over him, but he shrugged it aside, saying, “It’s just good business, really.”
“I don’t care what it is,” she told him bluntly. “All I care about is what it’ll do for those kids.”
“So are you free tomorrow afternoon or not?”
She bit her lip and then nodded. “I’ll arrange for my grandmother to pick up Ponce from day school. How’s four?”
It was early, actually, but he nodded, already planning how he could stretch shopping into dinner. “I’ll be waiting out in front of the store. You do know where it is, don’t you?”
“Behind the mall,” she said, naming a popular shopping spot in Plano.
“That’s the one. You can give me Ponce’s shoe size then.”
“Oh, that’s not necessary,” she said. “I’ll take care of Ponce. You just worry about the rest of the team.”
He just smiled and tucked the list back into his pocket. They’d see about that. He wanted her obligated to him, but his every instinct warned him to go easy. Unlike most of the women he knew, Charly Bellamy was not looking for a man. Well, she’d found one, anyway. All that remained to be seen was what she was going to do with him. He had some very definite ideas about that, but Charly would have to think they were her ideas first. He could wait. Then, when the moment came, he’d make his move. Something told him it would be worth it. What he didn’t truly understand then was that Charly was going to define a whole new category in his catalog of conquests.
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