Page 25 of Under My Skin

“You kidding? This shit isgold,” he snickered. “But hey, at least you’re not fucking one of your teammates’ moms.”

I groaned at our running joke. “I’m hanging up now.”

Ian just laughed. “I’ve gotta get going anyway. Ky’ll be home any minute.”

I chuckled. “Okay. Just let me know when I need to book my flight out there.”

“I’ll text as soon as I figure it out,” he told me.

“Sounds good. Tell her I said hi.”

“I will. Talk soon,” he said.

“Later, man.”

I ended the call with a smile. I couldn’t wait to be there when Ian and Kyler got engaged. They loved each other fiercely, in a way I’d never seen before, and Kyler deserved this happy ending after all the shit she’d been through.

Part of me wished there was someone in my life I cared about that much, but another part of me couldn’t imagine settling down right now. Besides, as a professional athlete, I traveled all over the damn country so much that I didn’t havetimefor a relationship.

At least that was what I told myself. And I almost believed it. But the truth was, hooking up with random women to scratch an itch was getting old. If I was honest, I kind of envied what Ian had with Kyler. Someone to come home to. Someone to celebrate the good days with and make the bad days better. Someone who always had my back and believed in me no matter what.

Whoa! Where the fuck did that come from?

Who was I and what had I done with Braden Hicks?

CHAPTER TEN

DANIELA

ONE WEEK LATER

I could barely hearmy text message notification over Isaac’s wailing. He’d been crying nonstop for the past hour, and after trying everything I could think of to get him to stop, the best I could do was get a few minutes of peace at a time before it started back up again. I was at my wit’s end and about to burst into tears myself.

How did single parents do this? How did they go to school full-timeandtake care of an infant? Or, hell, how did they even manage to hold down full-time jobs and have kids?

I was really praying that the nanny I was interviewing today would end up being the right fit. Of the three other women I’d interviewed in the past week, one had sat there glaring at me when I’d explained that I was in school full-time, and the other two hadn’t been able to make their schedules work because they also worked with other families.

Shifting Isaac so I was holding him with one arm, I pulled my phone out of my pocket to check the text I’d just gotten.

Braden

Hey, Dani. I haven’t heard from you since we left my lawyer’s office on Tuesday, so I wanted to check in and see if you’ve found a nanny for Isaac yet. Not trying to rush you. I know it’s a huge decision. Just making sure you don’t need anything from me.

Damn it. In the middle of the chaos that had been this week, I’d actually forgotten that I had a sort-of deadline for finding someone…and I only had six more days. Even though Morgan had told me she’d watch Isaac for my first “date” with Braden if I hadn’t gotten a nanny started by then, I still wanted to at least have someone lined up.

I let out a sigh and hit the button to call him back instead of texting, since the crying only got worse whenever I tried to put Isaac down.

“Hey there, beautiful,” he answered.

Stop it. Stop being so damn charming,I silently pleaded as tears stung my eyes.I hate myself enough already.

“Oh, man. Sounds like you’re having a rough day,” he said before I had to come up with a response to that.

“That’s putting it mildly,” I sighed. “He’s been like this for an hour, and I’ve triedeverythingto get him to calm down and nothing’s working. If it doesn’t stop soon, I’m taking him to urgent care to make sure nothing’s wrong.”

“Anything I can do to help?”

“Just pray that nanny number four ends up being the right fit,” I muttered. “She’s supposed to be here soon for an interview. I hate to tell you this when you’re already doing so much for me, but her rate’s higher than the other three people I’ve interviewed because she’s looking for full-time hours. But I’ve figured out I need someone who can work exclusively withIsaac. The first two girls I talked to had other families they worked for too, and with my school schedule, I don’t have any flexibility.”

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