I grin and shake my head, watching his daughter Evy race across the grass, her hair flying wild. “No, I’m thinking these kids are a tougher crowd than the SEC ever was. Besides, I’m going to win the Super Bowl this year. How’s retirement?”
Reed jogs over. “Hey. Greer and the kids want to play against the old guys. Can we take them?”
Reed was Logan's and his wife Harper’s roommate in college and played professional hockey for ten years. Now, he’s retired too. “We can. I don’t know about you,” I chuckle. “How are all the kids? How many do you have?”
He starts naming them, “Caleb, Cannon, Carly?—”
“A whole basketball team. Even has a sixth man,” Logan teases. He looks at Reed. “Has Caleb decided to take the hockey or football scholarship?”
“Hockey.”
Greer yells, “Dad, come on.”
The guy’s eyes light up like children at Christmas time. I wonder if it’s having kids that makes them happy or if they would be this happy anyway. Logan punches Hagan, his brother-in-law. “Let’s go.”
“Why don’t they want to play baseball?” Hagan asks.
Growing up in a small town, I played baseball, basketball, and football, so I say, “Easy question. You can’t hit anyone in baseball. Not as fun.”
“Yeah, I’m beginning to think I’m the only smart one in this group,” Hagan says, shaking his head as we run over the big field.
I’ll say this: these kids are as competitive as they come. Logan passes me the ball, and suddenly I have one kid, Cannon, leaping onto my back. The kid must have a forty-inch vertical jump. Two more are tugging at my legs, leaving me to face-plant into the bluegrass.
Greer is the quarterback for the kids’ team, and it’s evident that Logan has worked on his mechanics. He’s smooth at ten years old. We’re tied at eighteen, not having extra points in backyard play, when Logan’s wife, Harper, yells, “Time to eat.”
All the boys complain loudly, “No, the game’s not over.”
Logan whistles, getting their attention. As soon as he does, they take off toward the food table.
Admiring the rolling green hills and tree-topped land, I ask, “Do you like living out of town?”
“Yeah. It’s still close to the hospital for Harper and the private school the kids attend. And the interstate is only five miles away, so it’s a great jumping-off point.”
“Do you feel like you’re missing something by retiring?”
“No. Been there. Done it all. Now it’s time to be with my kids and Harper.”
Adalee, Hagan’s wife, strides over, hugging me. “Didn’t know you had come in.”
“This guy keeps inviting me.” I’ve been to nearly every one of Logan and Harper’s kids’ birthday parties. After coaching him two years in college and nine years in the pros, Adalee gets distracted by a cupcake-grabbing kid and rushes over to intervene.
“If you ever retire, I’ll pay you to train Greer when he gets a year or two older.” Logan swipes his hand over his face. “You’ll probably have kids by then.”
“Me? Nope. Not in the cards for this guy.”
He laughs, but his eyes narrow—he always did spot trouble before most. “Are you regretting moving to Austin? Is something wrong?”
Might as well get it all out. I nudge him toward the grill, away from the shrieking chaos. “So…you know Greyson O’Ryan?”
Logan’s eyebrows shoot up. “Of course. Problems with your new golden boy?”
I exhale and run a hand over the back of my neck. “Yeah. No. Maybe,” I stammer. “It turns out his little sister, Noelle—she’s all grown up. And I may have gotten myself tangled up in a fake dating situation with her.”
Logan chokes on his beer. “You’re kidding. Greyson’s little sister? What are you, a glutton for punishment?”
The answer is yes.
“She needed help shaking off an ex. I ended up playing the part. The whole thing blew up at her graduation party. Her family… let’s just say, none of them are thrilled that the guy she’s fake-dating was the starting quarterback at his high school when she was in diapers.”
