I blow out a breath. “I’m pretty sure she is too. Now if only I could convince her of that.”
Olivia scoffs. “You’re a hot single dad professional athlete who is also a really, really good guy. My money’s on you, pal.”
“Wait, seriously?” Riley laughs, looking at Brian and Olivia. “You guys got snowed in, and that’s how you got together?”
Brian grins at her. “You bet. I crushed hard on Liv for, like, three years before that, but her brother—Sophie’s dad—is my best friend, so I never did anything about it. Then there was asnowstorm and she got stuck at my house overnight, and I found her in the kitchen baking cookies at two in the morning.” He looks at Olivia with an intensity in his gaze that I feel deep in my bones. I know what it’s like to feel that way about someone, because now I’ve felt it twice in my life. “The rest is history.”
Sophie smirks. “My dad still talks about finding out about you guys. He acts all affronted, like he couldn’t believe you deigned to keep your relationship a secret from him when everyone knows he’s the most protective human on the planet.” She rolls her eyes. “Last month, my mom needed a new car, and he did, like, two weeks of research to make sure she would have the safest car in existence. I swear if he didn’t find one that met his standards, he would have manufactured it himself.”
Laughing, Olivia reaches over and laces her fingers with Brian’s. He immediately brings her hand to his mouth, pressing a kiss to her knuckles. “My brother does have a tendency to be a little…overbearing about the people he loves. It’s part of his charm, and we love him for it.”
“This whole thing is like a movie,” Riley says, looking between Brian and Liv. “One day when I’m older, I want to write your story but in movie script version.”
“You thinking about getting into screenwriting, Ry?” I ask. “I thought you wanted to be an actress.”
She rolls her eyes at me. “I’m writing it and starring in it. I’m going to be a double threat. Triple threat, actually, because I can sing too.”
I feel Maddy’s body shake with laughter beside me, and I move just a little closer. My body presses up against the side of hers, and I hear the little catch in her breath, loving that she’s as affected by our proximity as I am.
“That’s so awesome,” Sophie says from her place across the table from me. “I thought about screenwriting once upon a time.”
Maddy snorts, taking the last bite of her hamburger andpushing her plate away. “You thought about everything once upon a time. You don’t decision well.”
Sophie shrugs with a grin. “My bestie tells no lies. Why make one single decision when there are so many awesome things you can do?”
“You’re one of a kind, Soph,” Tyler says with a chuckle, stretching his arm over the back of her chair. “That’s why we love you.” Sophie’s face goes bright red, and she looks down at her plate as if to hide it, except her feelings for Tyler are obvious to anyone who’s looking. Which Tyler isn’t. Yet.
“Is it dessert time yet?” Zoe asks. “I convinced Mom to make her monster cookies, and they’re so good you could die.”
Olivia stands, grabbing a couple of plates. “Let me clean up and then we’ll do cookies.”
“No way, Liv,” Brian says, standing and dropping a kiss on the top of her head and taking the plates out of her hands. “You cooked and set up. I’ll clean.”
“Sold.” She plops back down and takes a sip of her beer.
“Neither of you is cleaning up.” Maddy stands too. “I’ll take care of it.”
“I’ll help!” I say immediately, seizing the opportunity for a few minutes alone with her. She narrows her eyes at me, but I just give her a grin and a wink, loving the way she rolls her eyes just a little, muttering as she grabs some plates and heads into the house.
“I’ll help too.” Tyler starts to stand, but Liv puts a hand on his shoulder to keep him in his seat.
“They can handle it. You and Sophie stay. I haven’t seen you guys in a while, so I need a ten minute catch up of everything you’ve been up to over the past month.”
Liv gives me a guileless smile, and I see Sophie snicker as she leans back in her chair. Sending Liv a silent thanks, I pick up a couple of platters from the middle of the table and make my way into the house.
When I get to the kitchen, Maddy is standing with her backto me, water running in the sink as she rinses plates and stacks them in the dishwasher. “I Drove All Night” is playing from her phone, and her hips are shaking from side to side, her ponytail swinging as she moves to the beat. The whole scene is so endearingly hot, I have to tighten my grip on the platters I’m holding to keep from dropping them to grab her and ravish her right against the sink.
“You afraid to be alone with me, Wildcat?”
Maddy yelps, the plate she’s holding clattering into the sink as water flies everywhere. She spins around, pointing at me. “Jesus fuck, Cameron, don’t do that.”
“Don’t do what?” I ask, taking a few steps forward and setting the platters down before reaching back to flip off the water. I crowd her against the sink, a hand gripping the counter on either side of her. “Don’t…talk to you?” Unable to resist, I lean in closer, watching as her eyes flash with a kind of heat that has my cock twitching in my pants. “Don’t…touch you?” I lift one hand off the counter and graze my knuckles down her cheek, grinning when she swallows hard. “Don’t…kiss you?” I lean in closer like I’m going to take her lips with mine and Maddy sucks in a breath, but then I drop my head and press a light kiss to her bare shoulder, lingering there for a second and breathing her in, filling my senses with the scent of her hair and soaking in the way it feels to be close to her.
“This is so complicated,” she says in a low voice as I stand up straighter, ghosting my thumbs over her hips and then leaning in to kiss her cheek.
“I know. I wish it weren’t, but I fucking know. Doesn’t make me want you any less though. Especially when you’re shaking those gorgeous hips to Celine.”
“Fucking same,” she mutters. “Not the Celine thing, although…” She trails off. Giving me an appraising look. “That would be pretty hot. I don’t think I’ve ever wanted anything or anyone the way I want you.” She looks away, her cheeks flushing again like she didn’t mean to say that.
