Page 17 of Risky Game

“I don’t know.” She shrugged and chewed on the inside of her cheek. “Can I ask what happened? I mean, I figure Amelia will say something about her mom. It’d be nice to know what to say to her.”

“Ugh. Yeah, but I need a drink for that conversation.”

“You drink during the season?” Her voice rose with surprise.

Nice to know at least one of my players didn’t. Several did, and I didn’t really care as long as they weren’t getting drunk in the hotel the night before the game. What they did after game time or on their days off was their business. As long as it didn’t affect their performance, I didn’t really care. Some coaches did, though.

“I’m not the one taking the field. And I’m not planning on getting drunk.”

“Right. Of course.” If I wasn’t mistaken, a pale pink rose on her cheeks.

“Want one?”

“A drink?”

“Yeah, you’re old enough, right?” It was a shot at her age. Probably rude to do, too, but with her looking so damn cute in my kitchen, the reminder helped.

Too young for me. Way too young for me. My employee. I would not be the creepy guy who banged the nanny, despite the thought of it sending a spark of lust to my groin.

She scrunched up her nose. Adorable. Absolutely adorable. “Yes, dad. I’m old enough to drink, but I’m good for now. Maybe once dinner comes, if that’s okay.”

“My house is your house.” At least temporarily. “Speaking of, I do have someone who does all my shopping for me. There’s an app we use, so I can add things to it as I run out. Nanette delivers everything on Thursdays. Any food we run out of or anything you need, you can put on there. Remind me to show you later.”

“All right. Thanks.”

I turned to the fridge to grab a Heineken. “And you, too.”

“That’s all right. I’ll handle my own stuff.”

I shut the fridge and turned to her. She had that uncomfortable look on her face. The same face she made when I offered to help with her luggage. Help was hard for her to accept.

It shouldn’t have bothered me as much as it did, but I wanted to help her. I knew little of Jassen’s personal life, but he hadn’t made it a secret his mom wasn’t that great, and he had no dad in his life, ever. He hadn’t talked about his sister all that much, but that just meant Ruby grew up the same way.

The independence I understood, but I wanted her to lean on me.

Or against me… on me… beneath me… there were a lot of positions I’d thought of Ruby in the last few days.

I opened the beer and took a healthy swallow. Those thoughts needed to be banished from my brain immediately.

“So, Vanessa,” I said. Nothing cooled me down faster than thinking about her. Especially this last week.

“Your ex…?”

“We were married for ten years, happily married for probably five of them.” I didn’t have a traumatic story. I didn’t suddenly despise women and obviously Vanessa wasn’t going out on some revenge tour against men or anything. “There’s no huge story. We grew apart. Had Amelia and things changed. I was busy all the time, had just started coaching in the pros instead of college, and my focus was on my job and then being the best dad I could be. Like I said, I wasn’t always a nice guy. I can admit, looking back, I pushed her to the side. It was football, my daughter, then my wife, and she still wanted to be number one. She should have been.”

Ruby’s lips pulled into a frown, but there was no judgment.

“Jassen’s always said he wanted to ensure Molly knows she comes first, above everything, so I get that, but still… you were busy then. A baby and a new job? Shouldn’t there be some grace to adjust, too?”

“A five-year grace period?” I smirked as I asked. Truth be told, I’d pushed Vanessa off to the side and then naively believed she was okay with it. We rarely fought. She’d never started a fight demanding my time. She grew quiet, sure. Asked for dates and my time.

To me, she’d appeared totally okay with the scraps I was giving her, even when I realized I was doing it, and didn’t change. It was easier to keep taking advantage of her that way than make the effort to change.

Ruby’s lip curled. “You have a point. So, what? You got the job here and she said nope?”

“Yep.”

“Really?”

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