Page 42 of Unrivaled

“I bet you are.” She pulls a blue water bottle out of her magic bag and hands it to him.

Drinking deeply, he turns his guileless face to me, studying me for a moment before pausing to say, “Hi.”

“Hi.” I’m sure my grin is big and dumb, but I don’t even care. This kid is adorable and hilarious.

“You gonna have snacks with us?”

I nod, even though we’ve already covered this. “I am.”

He bounces up and down. “Yay!” After one more drink, he hands the water back to Tiffany.

“You ready for snacks now?” she asks.

He shakes his head and takes off running, shouting, “No!” over his shoulder on his way back to the slide.

Tiffany checks her phone. “Next time he comes over, I’ll give him a ten minute warning, then we can go to the food court and get something to eat. We’ll tell him then.”

My heart rate picks up, and I take a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “What if he starts, I dunno, like screaming and crying or something?”

Tiffany looks at me and lets out a soft chuckle. “You think he’ll be that upset at the prospect of finding out you’re his dad?”

I give her an answering chuckle, looking down at my coat and fingering the plastic dinosaur hidden inside it. “Maybe? I don’t know. I mean, won’t it be a shock?”

Risking a glance at her, I see her pulling her mouth from side to side while she watches Ben and thinks about that. “Yes,” she says slowly. “It probably will. But how we act about it will help him figure out how he should act too. If we act like it’s normal and no big deal, he shouldn’t freak out. He’ll mostly want to know what that means for him.” Her blue eyes meet mine. “Which, I suppose, we should figure out a little bit more first. Do we want to do a weekly time together like this? And”—she swallows hard, her eyes darting to the side as she considers her next statement—“I mean, you’ve already come with me to preschool pick up a couple of times. We could start making that a regular thing too. And depending on your schedule, add in a visit one afternoon during the week.”

I have to clear my throat, stunned and happy and a little choked up at her willingness to offer … anything, really. It’s way more generous than I would’ve expected from the rocky start to this phase of our relationship. Nodding, I clear my throat again. “That sounds … good. Yeah. Let’s plan on that. We can adjust as everyone gets more comfortable and Ben gets to know me better.”

She shoves my shoulder, a grin on her face that looks too forced to be genuine. “Aww, don’t get all soft on me. You’ll ruin your reputation if people here see the star quarterback with the NFL expectations crying at the mall’s indoor playground.”

Shaking my head, half my mouth lifting at her words, I reach out and pat her leg without thinking. “Don’t worry. I won’t do that.” I stare down at my hand just resting on her leg like it belongs there. When I glance at her, she’s just staring at it too. Jerking my hand away, I stuff it back under my coat. “Sorry,” I mutter. Being with her feels so comfortable, touching her like that seems natural, but I need to remember that we don’t have that kind of relationship. She made it clear the other night that she’s not interested in me. Even if I’m attracted to her, that’s one sided, and I need to deal with my own feelings and not push them at her.

She dismisses my apology with a wave of her hand. “You’re fine. No apologies necessary. We’re all still figuring out where we stand with each other.”

Before I can respond, she stands and waves at Ben. “Ten minutes, bud,” she calls, giving him a thumbs up. He holds his little thumb up in response, and Tiffany settles back into her spot on the bench.

Ten more minutes, then we’ll find a table and tell Ben I’m his dad over soft pretzels and Orange Julius. No big deal, right?

Ha.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Tiffany

The imprint of Grayson’s hand seems branded into my skin. It took a second for my brain to catch up to the sensation of his hand on my leg—the warm comfort of his touch—and the stupid horny part of me is sad that he removed his hand so quickly.

Which is ridiculous. I mean, really ridiculous. Sure, he’s wanting to be a father to Ben, and that’s good, as long as he follows through. Good for Ben more than for me.

But the memory of our night together has been playing in my head on repeat ever since Grayson showed up again. And the warmth of his hand on my leg brought all those initial feelings of attraction and boldness flooding back.

What would it be like now? He was good back then, and I can only imagine that he’s had a lot more experience since then, what with all the attention I’m sure being a star athlete generates. Whereas I’ve been … not getting much action. That must be why my vagina is trying to take over and do the thinking right now.

Because let’s be honest, getting together with Grayson for any reason would be a terrible idea. He’s supposed to be building a relationship with Ben, not with me. And would he even want a relationship with me anyway? He’s off to the NFL in a matter of months. If things went sour between us, that would make it even more difficult to co-parent effectively.

And it’s not like things are off to a great start as it is …

No. It’s good that he jerked away. Because us together is too risky. And our focus needs to be on Ben, andonlyBen.

We don’t speak while we wait for the clock to tick down for Ben to finish playing. I keep my eyes trained on Ben, watching him play with the other kids, running around, and generally wearing himself out in the best way, studiously ignoring the hot football player sitting next to me and the tension running between us. Though it’s probably only me who feels it. I’m sure he was just being friendly with his leg pat, and I gave him horny eyes, and he jerked away to make it clear that’s not what he’s here for. And who can blame him? I already told him that I was absolutely not interested in him at all.

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