Page 9 of Man Advantage

Trev grimaced, shifting uncomfortably. “Yeah. I can imagine. Some of my teammates bring their kids to the training center’s gym, but they watch them like hawks, you know?”

“As they should. Do your kids like coming in here?”

He quirked his lips, then wobbled his hand in the air. “Sometimes? They’re still too small to use a lot of the equipment, and they get bored if I’m in here for a long time. I don’t like to keep them in here if they’re getting restless because I don’t want them to associate boredom and restlessness with the gym, you know?”

“Oh, yeah, that makes sense.” I scanned the room. “I did work with some of the youth fitness groups, so maybe I can modify some things for them. Just so they can have fun with it.”

Trev’s smile made my knees weak. Oh my God, I’d missed this man. Unaware of my rush of butterflies, he said, “I’d be thrilled to have you work with them in here.” He paused, smile fading a little as he gazed around the room again. “I’ve played hockey with a lot of guys who don’t have a healthy relationship with exerciseorfood, and they’ve passed that on to their kids.” Meeting my gaze, he added, “I don’t want to do that to my boys.”

“I don’t blame you. I worked with a lot of clients who were the same way. Their own relationships with food and exercise, and what they did with their kids.” I gestured at all the mats and kid-sized equipment. “I can make it fun for them. But kids don’tneed to be lifting weights yet. I’m sure they get plenty of exercise when they’re playing.”

He laughed and nodded. “Yeah. If I had that much energy, I could play an entire sixty-minute game without slowing down.” He motioned toward the weights. “They just like to come in here and imitate me, you know? Dad’s lifting, so they want to.”

I smiled. “A lot of kids are like that. And it’s a good opportunity to teach them correct form. Learning that young and internalizing it will cut down on injuries, not to mention bad habits they’ll have to unlearn later.”

“Exactly. I just don’t want to put pressure on them.”

“You don’t have to worry about that with me.”

Ugh. God. I’d missed this man’s smile so, so much.

“Anyway,” he said. “The gym is off-limits for the kids unless someone is in here with them.” He gestured toward the door. “Come on—let me show you the yard.”

His yard was, much like the house, huge. A tall white privacy fence encircled a long, narrow, and gently rolling lawn, and it was immediately obvious the kids spent a ton of time out here. Though the front yard was pristinely landscaped, the backyard had a few areas of dug-up ground with dirty toy trucks and bulldozers scattered around them. The grass was mowed, but had definitely taken a beating from feet, bicycles, and whatever else kids could do to a surface.

Looked like heaven for a couple of high-energy kids.

The one thing that gave me pause, though, was the very large swimming pool off to the side. There was a waist-high fence around it with a padlocked gate, but still… kids and pools. I’d spent exactly one summer as a lifeguard, and though I’d been very fortunate not to see or experience much, I’d heard some horrific stories. The training alone was the stuff of nightmares; my instructor had even opened by saying, “Welcome to 1,001horrible ways for kids to die,” and she hadn’t been entirely kidding.

Trev either remembered me talking about that or he saw the dawning horror in my eyes. “The boys know the pool is absolutely off-limits unless an adult explicitly tells them they can get in.”

I arched an eyebrow. He and I were living proof that kids could hear all the reasons something was dangerous, then immediately forget when the dangerous thing sounded exciting. Bike jumps, stunts involving trees, extraordinarily stupid things on skateboards—we did it all. If anyone in our area had had a pool, well…

“Trust me,” he said, his expression completely serious. “We didn’t even put water in it until they’d taken swimming lessons, and Bryan and I have both explained to them how dangerous it is.” He grimaced. “I think we even went a little overboard, because Zach was actually afraid of the water until a year or two ago, and Zane still doesn’t venturetoofar away from the shallow end. They absolutelyloveswimming now, and it’s a struggle to get themoutof the pool when it’s time to quit, but they do have a healthy respect for the water.”

I considered that, then shrugged. “I mean, I don’t want kids to be afraid of the water, but there are worse things than being cautious, I guess?”

“That’s kind of where we landed. We still swim with them a lot, and we want them to be strong swimmers. And like I said, they enjoy it now.” He gestured at the pool. “It helps that they’re still absolutely joined at the hip, so it’s incredibly unlikely one of them would end up in the pool completely alone. If one of them fell in, the other knows to throw in some pool noodles and then come get help.” He paused. “We’ve also taught them how to tread water, stay afloat, get to the edge…” He waved his hand and exhaled. “Honestly, with as much as we’ve done to makesure the kids don’t drown, even as much as they love it now, I seriously considered just ripping the damn thing out or filling it with concrete. It stressed me out more than I enjoyed it for a long time.”

“I believe that.” I chafed my arms. “It would stress me out too. Whydidyou get a house with a pool if it was so stressful?”

He suddenly looked exhausted, and he shook his head. “Because Bryan and I were idiots.”

I raised my eyebrows.

Trev gestured at the pool, the house, and the yard. “We were just so damn excited that we could build a big house to raise our kids in. I’d just locked down my contract with the Rebels, and we suddenly had more money than we knew what to do with. The idea of a huge house with our family…” He rolled his eyes. “Then we moved in, and suddenly it’s like—shit, we’ve got toddlers and a pool. We’ve got this huge yard… that wasn’t fenced at the time and backed right up to the woods. We’ve got stairs, stairs, and more stairs.” Trev shuddered and looked at me again. “When we got divorced, I seriously considered selling it just so I could downsize to something a bit saner.”

“Why didn’t you?” I paused. “Whydon’tyou?”

“Eh, the kids were getting older. Stairs aren’t as much of an issue. The yard is fenced off now. The pool has a gate and the boys are stronger swimmers. Plus, they like it here. They were already confused about why Bryan was moving out and they were bouncing back and forth between the houses. Selling it just seemed like…”

“Too much?”

“On top of everything else, yeah. Or maybe that’s a copout. I don’t know.” He looked in my eyes with a startlingly vulnerable expression. “I really try to be a good dad, but sometimes I wonder if I’m as bad at that as I was at being a husband.”

The candor caught me off-guard. “You… don’t think you were good at being a husband?”

“I mean…” He held up his left hand and pointed at the bare third finger.

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