He just stared at her. What the hell was she talking about?
“Okay, dumb question,” she pointed out. “But never mind that. It’s not about turning Matt into a ballerina. It’s about helping him with balance and flexibility.” She forged on when he didn’t say anything. “I’ve helped a lot of kids on the team. They’ve—”
“Stop,” he said with a raised hand. “Explain.”
She nibbled on her thumbnail, which was way more endearing than it should have been. “Okay, this isn’t really going the way I planned it.”
“The way you planned what?”
“See, here’s the thing—”
“Stella,” he interrupted when he sensed another load of bullshit about Mikhail what’s-his-face or whatever else she planned to say to him. “Why are you talking to me about Matt? If he wanted to take a class with you, he would have told me.”
“But he thinks you won’t let him,” she admitted.
“Hold up a sec. Are you telling me Matt came to you and asked for ballet training? For football?”
Stella sat there, then slowly nodded.
“Why didn’t he come to me first?”
Stella huffed out a breath as though she’d already lost. “Okay, here’s the thing,” she started. “And this isn’t how this whole thing was supposed to go—”
“Yeah, got that,” he stated.
She blinked at his interruption. “Is the issue that you don’t want Matt taking ballet? Or that he didn’t ask you first?”
He paused, then bit into his burger. “Both.”
Stella blew out a breath. “That’s lame. Can we set aside for one minute the circumstance in which Matt came to see me?” Stella said with exasperation. “Let’s get back to the ballet thing. Matt wants to take lessons with me and since he’s a minor, you need to sign him up.”
That was it? In that case…
“I don’t think so,” he finally said.
The server delivered the food. Stella blew out a breath, then took an enormous bite, leaving a smudge of mayonnaise on her lower lip. “Mmmm,” she said. “Now that’s a damn good burger.” She kept talking, but Brandon could only stare and ball his hands into fists to keep from swiping the mayonnaise away with his thumb. “I’ll have you know that not one of them has had their masculinity questioned, or whatever it is you’re worried about.” She paused as though waiting for his response. “And now you’ve tuned me out.”
God, she was cute when she was annoyed. Brandon sighed as he picked up his napkin. “Hold still a minute.”
But she jerked away when he reached toward her. “What’re you doing?”
Jesus, what did she think he was going to do?
He resisted rolling his eyes at her. Barely. “Lean forward a little and sit still for a sec.”
Finally she complied, leaning forward just enough for him to reach her with his napkin.
Sweat built up between his shoulder blades when her blue eyes darkened and her breath hitched. Despite the heat arcing between them, Brandon managed not to touch her more than necessary, even though he wanted to ditch the dirty napkin and skim his fingers along her jaw.
He dropped the napkin to his plate and cleared his throat. “You had a spot of mayo on your mouth.”
Stella automatically reached up and touched her lower lip, even though Brandon had taken care it. “You could have just told me,” she muttered.
He offered her a crooked grin. “What fun would that have been?”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “You’re sick.”
She had no idea.
“You were saying something about masculinity?” he prompted, desperate to get the conversation away from Stella’s mouth. Even if it was to talk about ballet.
Stella gazed at him for a moment, then dug back in to her burger. “I just think your hang-up with ballet is possibly threatening Matt’s masculinity.”
He rested his elbows on the table and enjoyed the red coloring her cheeks. Yeah, she was good and worked up. “You think that’s what’s worrying me?”
“Well, then what’s your problem?”
His problem was her. Seeing more of her than he already was. Bad enough he saw her at all the football games and bumped into her around town. He was trying to keep a friendly distance because she bothered him. Like, fantasizing about what she looked like under her clothes bothered. How was he supposed to keep himself in check if she kept putting herself in his way?
“Just bring him to one class. If he hates it, you don’t have to bring him back.”
“I already told you, it’s not happening.”
Stella pushed her half-empty plate away. She stared at him for a moment, then leaned her elbows on the table. “Okay, how about this,” she said, completely undeterred. “I waive my enrollment fee and if after one month you don’t see a difference on the field, you can pull him.”
Brandon chomped on his burger some more.
She dropped her head back and heaved a sigh. “Why won’t you let me help him?”
“Because I don’t think it’ll help.”
“But you haven’t even tried. Talk to some of the other kids on the team. Ask them how it’s helped them.”
Brandon wiped his hands on a napkin, then tossed the napkin down. “Why are you so hell-bent on this? Why does Matt’s football performance matter to you?”
Stella lifted one elegant shoulder, which had been bared when the neckline of her loose top had slipped. “Because when a kid comes to me and asks for help, I like to try and find a way to make it work. And he really wants a scholarship.”
Brandon watched her for a moment, moving his gaze over her features, touching on her narrow chin, the smattering of freckles across her nose, and her clear eyes, which were as blue as the sky above them. Her hair was a hot mess today, thrown into a messy ponytail, darker on top then fading to blond at the ends. As much as she confused him, she also amazed him. She was all spitfire and sass in a lithe body. Her legs were long and lean, a testament to years of dancing that had shaped her body to resemble a man’s wet dream.
Bottom line, he liked Stella. She pushed his buttons and turned him on. And that was also why he needed to stay away from her. He’d been burned too badly in the past to let himself fall for a pair of big blue eyes and kick-ass legs. The last woman he’d been serious about strung him along and left him high and dry with a toddler after years of empty promises.
“What else?” he prodded.
She blinked at him. “What else?” she repeated.
“You’re not doing this just because you like Matt. You don’t know him that well, so there has to be something more.”
She opened her mouth, then shut it as though rethinking whatever she’d been about to say. He wasn’t sure she even knew why pursuing this was so important to her. Maybe she didn’t like to be told no. Maybe she didn’t back down from a challenge.
Or maybe she had an ulterior motive that he didn’t even want to think about. Stella didn’t strike him as deceptive. Using Matt to get close to Brandon. No, she was better than that.
Stella leaned her elbows on the table. “Okay, you want to know the truth?”