Page 109 of Holding Penalty

I couldn’t think of a better one, even if I wanted to.

EPILOGUE

NASH

“Maybe that’s finally Vaughn,” Noah says as the front door tilts open.

But when it swings inward, it’s not the grumpy goalie who walks through the doorway. It’s a capybara. Cheesecake saunters into the house, drawing amused and surprised looks from our guests.

Piper and I are hosting team dinner tonight, and this is the first time my teammates and other team staff have been over to our house. They’re not yet accustomed to the fact that a capybara moseying indoors like she owns the place is just a basic feature of our daily lives.

“Uh … what’s going on?” Hayden asks, bewildered, as Cheesecake confidently struts around the room.

“That’s Cheesecake,” Piper explains. “She’s uh … well, not our pet, exactly, but she stops by now and then. From the petting zoo.”

Ines and some of the girls from the training staff and front office have all crowded Cheesecake, fawning over how cute she is.

It’s fun having our little rancher packed to the brim like it is tonight. Most of the players are here, and plenty of the staff. The get-together is spilling out of the front and back doors onto the lawns. It’s sort of like those house parties Piper used to throw that annoyed me so much when we lived next to each other.

A tiny tug of regret pulls in my chest. I wish I’d been less uptight back then and gone over and joined one of those parties some time. I would’ve enjoyed them if I’d taken the stick out of my ass. And I wouldn’t have been at odds with Piper for so long.

But then again, if our relationship had been any different back then, who knows if things would have worked out the way they did.

Who knows if we’d be where we are now. I wouldn’t trade how Piper and I ended up for anything in the world. So maybe everything was just the way it was meant to be, the stick I had up my ass in college included.

“You have all kinds of animals at that petting zoo, right?” Adriano asks, walking over with a spicy ranch water in his hand. Cooper’s been making them to order since after dinner, and they’re delicious. He’s got a talent.

I’ve only had a sip, though. Just in case, as host, I suddenly have to drive somewhere.

“That’s right,” I answer.

“Horses?”

I nod, “Yep.”

Adriano nods, brow rising with thought. “Damn, I bet I’d look pretty cool riding a horse. I should stop by sometime and learn.”

“The horse would throw you off in less than five seconds, and you’d land right on your head,” Ines interjects. Then excitement pops on her face. “Actually, let’s all go to the stables right now so Adriano can try.”

“Eager to see me ride something?” Adriano says to her with an ironically flirty purr.

“Eager to see you ride away in the back of an ambulance and never return.”

Piper and I exchange a knowing look across the sharp words that Adriano and Ines throw at each other. They’re so wrapped up in the verbal duel that they don’t even notice when we walk away.

We get back to making the rounds of the party. In the kitchen, we have to squeeze past each other as she goes for another spicy ranch water, and the curve of her ass brushes hard against the front of my pants.

Heat and arousal ignite through my veins, and it’s suddenly everything I can do to keep from slinging her over my shoulder and marching us into the bedroom, not giving a fuck what our guests can or can’t hear through the door.

I expect the arousal pounding through me to subside, but fuck me, it doesn’t. I can’t stop stealing glances at her across the room as I try to distract myself with conversations, and every time my gaze alights on my wife, my balls draw tighter with want.

Finally, Vaughn does arrive, hours late.

“Sorry, it was a nightmare finding a sitter for Aiden,” he explains.

I’m sympathetic. Obviously, I am. But I can’t help answering, “Well, yeah, when you fire the fourth nanny in a row with zero notice, logistics get more complicated.”

Vaughn just hums gruffly, sliding his gaze away from me avoidantly. I have a bad feeling that Vaughn’s going to go through double-digit numbers of fired nannies during the next season. He can’t seem to hold onto one for more than two months.