HANDLE WITH CARE (The Ludzecky Sisters Book 5) (5 page)

Max Walker out of sweat clothes. Holy heavens! He looked fantastic in the dark suit, white shirt and a red tie. Her whole body went warm. And her whole mind began to spin out a fantasy.

“Sofia?”

She hadn’t noticed Gus was back. “Oh, I didn’t see you.” She nodded to
the floor where kids were dancing. “Some of them are pretty adept. A couple seem older than tenth grade.”

“Their dates are juniors or seniors. Those two are football players.”

Ah, hence Max’s presence. He stood by the door as if waiting for someone. He was. A woman who was vaguely familiar came inside. She was lovely, with sleek brown hair, tall, not too thin. Max’s approving expression
said he thought so, too. He bestowed a killer smile on her, and Sofia’s heart hiccupped in her chest.

She tore her gaze away from them. “I’m impressed that teachers show up.”

“Yeah, we get involved.”

“I hope I get to know them better.”

“I hope not too much better.” He moved in a little. “The guys, I mean.”

She laughed because she didn’t know what to say to that. He stood by
her in companionable silence and watched the kids dance. Then he said, “Uh-oh. I have to go over to the other side. Two little darlings just went behind the biggest palm, for a little hanky-panky, I’d bet.”

“I’m going to hit the ladies’ room.” She searched for another exit. None but where Max still stood with the pretty woman. Taking a deep breath, she crossed the gym and stopped in front
of them. “Hi, Max, good to see you.”

He frowned. And the red of his tie made his eyes liquid. “Sofia, what are you doing here?”

“I’m with Gus Carney.”

“He got you to chaperone even before you started working here?”

“Um, no.” She nodded to the woman. “I’m Sofia Ludzecky.”

“Lauren Talbot. You’re going to work here?”

“Yes. I’ll be teaching yoga a few days a week in the fall.”

“Oh, yes.” Her eyes twinkled with amusement. “Max told me about the class he attended. He could barely walk the next night.” The woman added pointedly, “When we went to dinner.”

Something shifted inside Sofia and she hoped it didn’t show. “He did pretty well on subsequent visits.”

The woman turned to Max. “You went back?”

“Yeah. I see some of my guys here. I think I’ll go over.”

“Your players?” Sofia said.

“Not those guys. Some in one of my classes.”

“I’ll come with you.” Lauren possessively linked her arm with his. “Nice to meet you, Sofia.”

“You, too.”

She watched Lauren Talbot stick close to Max as they waded through the crowd. She got a look at the group of kids on the other side. They were dancing but without a lot of coordination. And then she
realized who they were.

He teaches a special needs class. He volunteers every year.

Sofia sighed.

God, he felt like one of his kids, the quarterback stalking the cheerleader outside the girls’ bathroom.

Thank God she came out soon, though close up, the purple dress she wore swirling at her knees, softly draping the rest of her made him take in a breath. It was
a demure outfit, as demure as anything can be with a perfect body in it.

He said, “Hey, Sofia.”

She smiled, broadly, as if she was glad to see him. “Is Lauren in the bathroom?”

His gaze strayed to her lips. Lips he’d kissed. “I was waiting for you.”

“Why?”

“Damned if I know.” He grinned.

She grinned. “Maybe I know.”

Now he laughed. “I wanted to see you alone for a minute.”

“I like hearing that.”

“Do you?”

“Very much.”

“I’ll have to give that more thought.”

She fidgeted a bit. “Did you have a good rest of the week?”

“I had trouble getting to sleep Tuesday night.”

“Oh, no. We should have watched the time better.”

“Not necessarily.” Again, he stared at her lips.

“I dreamed about you,” she said.

He appreciated her honesty. “I—”

“Max?” Turning, he saw Lauren behind him. “I wondered where you went to.”

“Just the lav.” He nodded to the men’s room, which was right next to the ladies’ room. He hated hurting women and he’d come out here to see Sofia. Lauren wouldn’t have been happy about that.

Sofia said brightly, “I’m going back to find Gus.” She nodded and walked away.

He forced himself to stare at her retreating
back. “She’s sweet.”

“She seems so.”

“Let’s go back in.”

They mingled, he hung out with some of his players, then Gus came up to them with Sofia in tow. “Lauren, I have to bother you. There are some girls in the bathroom, screaming at each other. I’ll go with you, but you have to check first and clear it of anybody else.”

“Sure.” She leaned into Max. “Be right back.”

To her,
Gus said, “Sofia, this is turning out to be a bad date night.”

“Nah, you have a job to do.”

The two of them left, and Max gave her a once-over. “Don’t seem to me like a bad night.”

“Why is that, Coach?”

“Because I’m gonna get to dance with you.” He took her hand “You do dance, don’t you?”

“Some.”

They weren’t even that close, though they were dancing slow, and Max started…feeling
her. Her perfume or bath lotion or something rose up to him. His hand was at her back, his fingers clasped on to hers and the contact was potent. They began to move. He was so caught up in her, he didn’t realize she was following him so easily.

“You
can
dance,” he said.

“More surprising, so can you.”

“My mother taught all of us to dance in the big kitchen at our house. Ready for a
twirl?”

“Always.”

She moved with grace. With agility. Of course she was a trained athlete. Still…

“How about a dip?”

“I can do that.”

And she could do a lot more. Turn and face the same way as he did. Do a little kick step. Eventually, he just let the moves take over.

When he drew her back into his arms, she said, “Um, Max. We should stop.”

“Why?”

“See for yourself.”

He glanced over her shoulder. “Holy, hell.”

The kids had all stopped dancing and were standing off to the side, cheering them. And he hadn’t heard or seen that. Apparently, she hadn’t either. That made him smile again.

Sofia found it hard believe she was sitting in the bleachers of her old high school on Sunday afternoon. But fate seemed to be guiding her to this place. She remembered sitting through basketball games, when Damien played all those years ago, but that ended abruptly with her cancer diagnosis. Today, the place had transformed from the crepe-papered tropical site
to jock city.

Players from one team were on the court, and she watched as they took practice shots at the basket. Then, more guys jogged out from the men’s locker room. And there he was, that beautiful male specimen—Max Walker. He’d gotten her to come here…

“Hey,” he’d said, staring up at her from the floor in a yoga class this past week. “This isn’t fair. I get to see you in action and
you don’t get to see me.”

“In action?”

“Yeah, you strut your stuff for me.”

“I do
not
strut my stuff.” She’d had to pretend offense because he was so damn cute when he teased. “I have to demonstrate the poses.”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Fair enough. I’ll come to one of your football games in the fall. Though I have to tell you, when the guys have it on TV at
Matka’s
house, I feel like
I’m going to throw up. Do you know players actually break bones?”

“No kidding?”

“Stop teasing me.”

“You’re a pretty easy mark. Come to a league basketball game I play in with my brothers on Sundays…”

Today, Max controlled the ball as he dribbled to the basket and took easy, graceful layups. The eight members on his side tossed the ball to each other with speed and accuracy. Shots
were lofted up. And, of course, he looked great in the team’s red T-shirt, emblazoned with Hot Shots. She wondered which of the eight were his brothers.

And if he was planning to introduce her to them. If so, how would he explain their relationship? She certainly didn’t have words for it.

A whistle blew, and the teams crossed to the bench. The starting five bent into a huddle; three had
deep chestnut hair like Max. Guess they were the brothers.

Play began. One of the Walkers sauntered to the center, faced an opposing player, and they both crouched. The ref threw the ball over their heads, the two men sprang up and one tipped it to Max. He raced down the court and made a quick layup.

His cohorts high-fived him, their slaps resounding in the almost-empty gym.

As the
other team set up for the next play, Max’s guys headed down the court. Except a few feet away, he stopped, pivoted, and just as the man behind the line threw the ball to the player waiting for it, Max edged him out hard and intercepted it. A whistle shrilled. “Foul.”

“You gotta be kidding me, ref.”

“You practically body slammed into him, Walker.”

She could see his face tighten, but
he didn’t argue further. He seemed disgusted when the other team got two points.

As the quarter wore on, the game stayed tied. A couple more fouls were called on both sides, then with ten seconds left in the half, the other team got the ball. They dribbled fast down the court, with Max and his players on their heels. One of his brothers slipped between two opponents during a pass and knocked
the ball away. They all went for it, and Max was pushed to the floor. Still, he scrambled for the ball, got it and tossed it to his brother, who scored. And this was only the first half.

Wiping the sweat off his face with the hem of his T-shirt, Max headed to the locker room. Something made him glance to the stands. Holy shit! Sofia was here. He detoured to the bleaches. “Hey,”
he said over the empty seats in front of her.

“Hey.”

His grin was broad. “You came.”

“I did.”

“How do you like it?”

“It’s interesting.
You’re
interesting out there.”

“I am?”

“Hey, Maxwell, come on inside. We gotta plan the second-half strategy.”

He gave her a quick wave and caught up with his team. Once in the locker room, his youngest brother, Deeks, socked his
arm. “Who’s the looker?”

“My yoga teacher.”

All his brothers stopped short.

“You’re shittin’ me, right?” Deeks again.

Ronny elbowed Deeks. “Not for the exercise, dummy. She’s hot.”

“That why?” Jess wanted to know.

Their coach, who also taught with Max, said, “I hate to interrupt brothers dumping on each other, but we should huddle up and plan.”

“Yeah, sure.” Max was
glad to be out of the spotlight because the yoga thing had just slipped out after seeing Sofia.

Remarkably, he enjoyed the second half of the game and tried not to show off. He didn’t look at Sofia much—only ten or twelve times. She frowned a lot and her sunny disposition seemed to have disappeared.

With only thirty seconds left, Max and the guys were behind by two points. The other team
had the ball. A full-court press began at their end, and Ronny managed a steal midcourt. He bulleted the ball to Max, who got right under the hoop. As he let go of the ball, something hard and heavy came down into his face. Again, he was knocked to the floor. His head spun and his stomach turned queasy. He put his hand over his eye. Man, he was going to have a shiner from the ball somebody slammed
into him while trying to block his shot.

“Wait for me,” he’d said when he’d come over to her at the game’s end. His cheeks were red. And was that going to be a black eye? For the love of the cosmos, what was she doing here?

But she’d
said
, “Okay.”

Now she thought about bolting as she stood outside the locker room. Like some groupie. Or a girlfriend. She hadn’t done
this since she was fifteen and waiting for Damien. She didn’t like the comparison.

A million thoughts swam through her conscious mind.

You live your life in calmness and serenity, and they beat each other up on the court. Max seemed to enjoy it.

You aren’t physical, despite the yoga. Her practice was mental and physical, synthesized to a different plane.

So what would it be like
to be involved with him, given that he
was
so rough-and-tumble?

It was simple enough to recognize the problem. But then the devil’s advocate in her head, which she rarely listened to, asserted itself.
Remember that kiss? That dance when he held you? Get out of your comfort zone, kiddo. See where this takes you.

So she didn’t bolt.

He must have showered fast, because he exited the gym
before anyone else. His face was flushed and a dark crescent had formed under one eye.

“Hey, thanks for waiting.” He came up close, and his woodsy scent floated around him. It touched something primal in Sofia. His hand went to her neck. “What’d ya think?”

To lie or not to lie?

“There he is.” His brothers burst through the door, jostling each other. When they came close, Sofia stepped
back some. One of them socked Max in the arm. “You’re pretty beat-up,” he said.

“I won the freakin’ game for us, Ronny boy.”

Deeks and Jess were watching her. Jess said, “Hi. You aren’t waiting for this big guy, are you?”

“She is.” Now Max slid an arm around her. “And she’s mine.”

What?

“I’m nobody’s, but I did come to see Max play. I’m Sofia Ludzecky.”

“Ronny.”

“Deeks.”

“Jess.” He had a dimple. And said his name more softly. “Max told us you’re his yoga teacher?”

“I am.” She turned to Max. “Thanks for asking me to come. I should be going, though.” The mere presence of these four big men with a boisterous attitude made her want to leave.

A frown from Max. “Going? Where?”

“We always go get hamburgers afterward,” Jess said. “Wanna come?”

“I don’t
eat burgers.”

“They have other things,” Max put in.