Page 68 of Foster

“I wanted to wish Mazzy good luck. Can I talk to her?”

I grin, looking around, but I have no clue where she is. “Sorry, kiddo. I haven’t seen her yet. And shouldn’t you be getting into bed?”

“I am. Got my pj’s on and I’ve brushed my teeth. I just wanted to tell Mazzy to break a leg. She told me that’s what you say in show business.”

Laughing, I continue on to the bar. “That is indeed what you say. I’ll pass the message along. Now you get to bed.”

“Okay,” she chirps.

“I love you, kiddo.”

“Love you too.”

Yesterday I spent all day and night with Bowie Jane as well as today up until it was time to come here. She seems to like her babysitter, Janie, someone I found through a personal referral from teammate Dillon Martelle, as she routinely watches his two kids. It’s been a relief to find someone reliable, especially so Mazzy can take some time off from the grueling schedule required when I’m on extended road trips. I don’t worry about it as much as when she first started, but I don’t want her to be so overwhelmed that she quits, so I work hard to give her that time away.

Except… I hate her time away. I want her to spend it all with me and Bowie Jane, and I want to have time alone with her and it’s just a lot to work through, but I’m committed.

One other thing brings a huge measure of comfort to have Mazzy caring for my kid—the fact that she’s there for Bowie Jane on the big things that really count. This week I was in Vancouver playing my old team on Halloween. It’s a holiday I’m rarely able to attend, even when Sandra and I were married. I think there have been two occasions in ten years when I’ve been at home without a game on Halloween and have therefore been able to partake in the fun of trick-or-treating with Bowie Jane.

This week, Mazzy went all out to make it special for her and also for me. She carved pumpkins with my kid, decorated the house, took Bowie Jane costume shopping, and then took her trick-or-treating in the Archers’ neighborhood with Mason and Landon.

Mazzy even went above and beyond to help bridge the gap between Sandra and Bowie Jane as Sandra surprised me and sent a costume that she’d picked out. She didn’t go out and buy it and mail it from Singapore, but rather had it delivered from Amazon, which was fine. It showed she was thinking about her daughter and wanted to have some involvement. It was a Dorothy costume from The Wizard of Oz, not something that Bowie Jane would’ve been interested in. She never liked the movie and this year, she really wanted to be Hermione from Harry Potter. Mazzy took her out to buy the robes and wand and even got a crimper to do her hair like Hermione’s. But when that Dorothy costume came in, she had to navigate with Bowie Jane how to be gracious with her mother for the gesture while also wanting to dress up as the character she wanted to be. Mazzy talked it out with Bowie Jane and helped her be a part of the solution and ultimately Bowie Jane decided to wear the Dorothy costume to school and Mazzy even arranged a FaceTime call with Sandra that morning so she could see her. Then for trick-or-treating that night, she wore her Hermione outfit, and Mazzy bombarded me with photos and video of the evening.

While I missed Bowie Jane terribly and hated I couldn’t be a part of that experience—one of the sacrifices of being a professional athlete—I felt more a part of it with Bowie Jane than I ever had before. Sandra never did anything to make me feel included and I never realized it until Mazzy went above and beyond to do so.

At the bar, I can tell the bartender recognizes me, but he plays it cool. “What can I get for you?”

I order a local beer and while he pours it, I glance around. There she is, fifteen feet away, standing at the edge of an alcove that leads to a hall where the restrooms are. She’s talking to a waitress, that lovely smile on her face that’s always so open and inviting.

Through no will of my own, my feet move her way. Mazzy’s gaze comes to me, as if she could feel me approaching, and her eyes sparkle with welcome. I move past the woman she’s talking to and pull her right into a hug.

When we separate, the waitress touches Mazzy’s shoulder. “I need to get back to work. I’ll catch you later.”

“See you, Sonya,” Mazzy murmurs with a smile before turning back to me. “You made it.”

“I made it.” I grasp her hands and hold out her arms so I can take in all of her. “You look beautiful.”

She looks like she belongs here. She’s rocking an off-the-shoulder black sweater paired with a pair of skintight, black leather pants. Sexy as fuck. But she dresses it all down with a pair of black high-top Chucks. She’s a mixture of folk singer and rocker chick. Her hair is full of wild curls that she must’ve put in herself because it normally falls in loose waves around her shoulders.

“You look very handsome yourself,” she says, tugging playfully on my black Henley. “This totally shows off all your chest muscles and might be distracting to me tonight.”

“You’re an utter distraction all the time,” I mutter, and then glance back in the direction the waitress just went. “Friend of yours?”

“Old high school classmate that I just happened to run into.”

“Nice,” I say with a nod. “Bet that was cool to catch up.”

“Not really,” Mazzy says, her nose wrinkled. “She was a total asshole mean girl bully back in school and was horrible to me.”

My head whips back around, looking for the woman. I find her taking drink orders from a table of men. Pretty girl, dark hair and eyes, voluptuous and flirty. I turn back to Mazzy with narrowed eyes. “I don’t like her.”

She laughs and it possesses me to kiss her. Both hands to her face, I pull her to her tiptoes and slide my tongue into her unsuspecting mouth. My girl moans ever so softly and I let one hand slide down her back to pull her closer. Her hands grip into my shirt and she kisses me with passion.

So much passion that it’s with reluctance I know I must pull away but… just a few more seconds.

“Let’s go, Archer,” a male voice says, and I recognize it as Leo’s.

Mazzy sighs and steps away from me, shooting a glare at Leo who just came out of the bathroom. He bumps her hip playfully with his and I know this is a byplay of them being close friends since they were kids, but I don’t fucking like it at all.

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