“The technicality being you didn’t pay enough attention across the line of scrimmage. Rookie mistake.” Zoe comes tostand next to me with a look of disgust on her face, as if she can’t figure out how Tyler even got his job.
“Can’t always rely on your blockers,” Riley says with all the certainty of a daughter of someone paid to be one of those blockers, as she drifts over to stand on my other side. “Lesson number one, quarterback. Never underestimate your opponent.”
I grin, putting an arm around each girl, enjoying the hell out of them. “Damn right you shouldn’t.”
“Maddy, did you see our fumble recovery?” Ethan asks, his eyes wide and earnest. “It was a pick-six!”
I wink at him. “Sure did. It was a thing of beauty. Are you sure hockey is your sport? I think you could have a football future if you wanted one.”
He shakes his head. “Nah, football is fun, but hockey is in my blood.”
I reach over and ruffle his sweaty hair. “Mine too.”
I don’t know what it is that makes me turn my head, but the second I do, my eyes meet Cam’s. He’s quiet as his gaze drops to where I have one arm around Riley, and then to where Ethan stands. And when it comes back to me, what I see in his eyes makes my stomach swoop. It’s need and lust andwant, but there’s something else too. Something deeper and far more important than anything I can even begin to parse on a fall afternoon, standing on a football field full of people who can’t know that the look in Cam Lowry’s eyes is making me think things I absolutely shouldn’t be thinking.
When Brian calls out that the pizza is here, I let out a quiet sigh of relief. But the whole time we sit sprawled on the field, pizza boxes everywhere and Ethan asking me about my hockey career and the girls asking me everything from what it’s like to be a woman working in professional sports to whether I switch moisturizers when the seasons change, I feel Cam’s eyes on me.
And even though I shouldn’t like it, I really, really do.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CAM
“Hey guys, come on in!” Olivia grins as she stands to the side to let me, Riley, and Ethan into her house. “Brian and Zoe and everyone are out back. We got lucky with the weather, so we’re getting one last grill day in.”
“Hey, Liv.” I bend and kiss her cheek as my kids go flying out the back door, familiar with the house after having been here for a few of these Saturday afternoon lunches. “Thanks for having us.”
She rolls her eyes. “So formal. We’re family, Cam.”
I raise an eyebrow at her. “But are we really? You’re kind of married to my boss.”
She waves that away. “We’ve been over this. Work is work. This isn’t work. Besides, I’m the boss of this house and I say we’re family, so we’re family. Also, if I get my way and you and Maddy get married one day, you’ll be actual for real family.”
I cough, her words catching me off guard as my brain struggles to contain the images they painted. Images of Maddy and me and my kids and a future I’ve been thinking about almost nonstop since the night I met her. Images it’s way too soon to befocusing on, but my brain is going rogue. “Jesus, Liv. No one is getting married. I can barely even get her to acknowledge that there’s something between us. Sorry,” I mumble. “That was probably too much information.”
Olivia gives me a dazzling grin. “There is no such thing as too much information. I’m a slut for gossip, and I love a secret love affair. I also love you and I love Maddy, and I think you would be amazing together.” She winks at me. “I’m on your side, big guy. Come on out back and let’s get you a drink.”
I follow her outside, and as soon as I step out onto the deck, I freeze, my heart slamming against my ribs because standing by the pool, laughing with Riley, Ethan, and Zoe, is Maddy. Her red ponytail is bright under the sun, her freckles standing out against her flushed cheeks. She’s wearing tight black leggings and a green tank top that hugs her perfect tits and makes her eyes glow. She’s so beautiful that all the air backs up in my lungs, and when she puts an arm around each of my kids and squeezes, I have to rub a hand over my chest to make it easier to breathe.
“Surprise,” Olivia says, amusement in her voice. “Thought you and your girl could use some family time away from the stadium.”
Family time.
I watch as Tyler and Sophie, who I didn’t see before thanks to my tunnel vision when it comes to Maddy, walk up to her and my kids. Tyler ruffles Ethan’s hair and takes a few running steps back, tossing him a football. Sophie wraps Maddy in a hug and does the same to Zoe and Riley. Brian runs over and mock-tackles Ethan, stealing the football and laughing when Ethan chases him around the yard.
My heart squeezes even tighter, because right here is the big, sprawling family I’ve dreamed of since I was an only child growing up with a single mom. The big family I thought I would make with Lainey. The dream that fell away when she died, lost in the complex grief of losing a partner and the loneliness ofsingle parenting. In the sheer effort it sometimes took to put one foot in front of the other and keep us all from drowning.
My gaze lands on Maddy again, and as if she senses my eyes on her, she turns and looks at me, a smile spreading over her face and her eyes full of fun. And as my gaze travels between her and my kids, I feel the roots of that dream take hold again, burrowing somewhere deep inside of me, just waiting for their time to grow.
“You still with us?” My head whips around at Olivia’s voice, and she’s giving me a wicked grin. “Damn, Cam, you’ve got it bad. I didn’t realize quite how bad until I saw your face just now.”
“Fuck off,” I mutter, and she just laughs.
“This is my favorite thing. I love it so much.”
“Does Brian know?” I ask. “That would be…not ideal.”
“Nah, this one is in the vault,” she says. “Eventually, if it’s something, you and Maddy can tell him yourself. But he’ll be happy for you, Cam. Both of you. Maddy and her parents, along with her brother and sister, are Bry’s most important people. They gave him a family years ago when he didn’t really have one of his own anymore, and he just wants what’s best for all of them.” She eyes me consideringly. “I think Maddy Wright is what’s best for you.”
