I tightened my jaw to bring me back to life.Stop ogling your kid’s friend’s dad at his job.
“Alright, Aspen,” Jack said. “Let’s do the tape job.”
FIFTEEN
JACK
NOVEMBER
“We should probably letyou get to it,” Mara said, shifting nervously, then smirking. “Thanks for the tour, Jackie baby.”
Mikey snickered in the background and I shot a glare over my shoulder at him. I fished in my locker for my suit pants and dug out my credit card. “Here. Get the kids whatever snacks will make them happy. Whatever anybody wants.”
“Hell yes,” Gabi said, “I’m totally getting day drunk.”
Mara just laughed, but I was not quite as amused. “Relax, she doesn’t drink.”
“California sober, bay-bee,” Gabi said, firing finger guns. Our other goalie, Nikita Koretsov stood by his locker watching us with a big smile. That explained all the giggleboxing and tittering Gabi and Mara’d been doing.
Mara bent to collect Hazel from where she was headbutting Romelski’s thigh. “‘Kay. We’ll go get some energy out before the game starts.”
“Alright.” I leaned toward her, instinctively thinking I was going to touch her somehow, but not having a sensical action plan once I initiated the movement. When had I ever been thisawkward around women? I settled for some weird side hug thing, which Mara turned into a warm squeeze.
“We’ll just come back down here after the game?” Mara peered up at me, her ice-blue eyes framed by the prettiest curled lashes.
“Um, yeah. There’s a whole room for wives—and friends and stuff. Just tell the security guy on the way out and they’ll tell you where to go.”
“Okay. See ya, Jackie baby,” she said with a wide grin.
Silence followed her exit minus a few quiet conversations. I busied myself at my locker. Once the outer door clicked, the interrogation began.
“I see someone brought a date today!” Romelski sing-songed.
Dick.
“She’s just Harper’s friend’s mom,” I said.
“Is that all she is?” Mikey chimed in, prancing on his tiptoes with his hands tucked next to his face.
I threw a wad of used tape at him and ground my teeth. “Yes.”
“Well, I really like her. And Jeannie said she was really nice at Harper’s party,” Sorrento added. “Not like you to pick someone whose personality isn’t being a viper.”
“Damn, even Sorrento coming in with an opinion,” Romelski laughed.
“Mara is pretty and nice, but I didn’t ‘pick’ her,” I clarified. “Harper just seems happier when she’s hanging out with Aspen. It’s good for her.”
“And is somebody else happier when they hang out with Aspen’s mom?” Obi asked in a tiny voice. “I think I saw Jackie baby’s teeth and he wasn’t growling.”
I laced up my sneakers and headed for the bikes. “Fuck. Off.”
I finally cavedto checking my phone during the second intermission, convinced my kids were being hellions for Gabi and Mara. There was always the possibility that Harper had mentioned Mara being around more to Sydney, and knowing Syd, she’d likely have something rude to say about it. What if Harper was spilling stuff like that?
And anyway, how much of this was ill-advised? Not to be elitist, but I was somewhat famous, and Mara was a normie. She could easily be just like Sydney, waiting to take advantage of me. Of my kids.
But her kids were there, almost as collateral. My gut told me Mara was just a mom in the same way I was just a dad.
Everything ok?
