Page 67 of Offsides Attraction

During a late-night discussion with his dad, fueled with some of Cal’s Thistlestone whiskey, Bash had argued they were in the business of selling stories, and looking from that lens, there were plenty of other options. Books weren’t the only one, and Bash was determined to find others.

His first project was middle-grade readers. Over the summer, a market research firm had interviewed the youth book club members at Get Lost and five of the other indie bookstores who had joined their program. From that, Bash had a laundry list of what the kids wanted in a book—Jemma wasn’t the only one who wanted dragons—and what parents and teachers wanted. The next step was sharing it with the editors at VV Pub to increase their odds of acquiring a bestseller.

He was also looking into adult literacy. Penny hadn’t found many options for Derrick Nickerson last fall, but thankfully Nickerson hadn’t been picky, and what she’d found had been helpful. Ruthie Shockley—their coach's wife and Nickerson’s reading coach—thought there was a need for it, and it would benefit adults for whom English wasn’t their first language and people recovering from brain injuries and strokes.

The only rain cloud in his near-perfect life was his mother and Elspeth. His mom wasn’t a fan of Penny and Elspeth wasn’t a fan of him. His therapist thought they felt threatened, but eventually they’d come around. Bash wished they’d figure it out because Penny was hurting over her strained relationship with Elspeth. But she wasn’t as bothered by Gloria’s cold shoulder.

Bash thought guilt might be clouding his mom’s feelings. Penny met his emotional needs better than his mom had. If Bash was an expensive sports car, Penny knew to fill him with super premium unleaded, but his mom kept offering ordinary unleaded gas. He could run with either, but he performed best, and at his happiest, fueled by Penny’s love.

Tiny barked and greeted him at the side door. Bash leaned against it and toed off his running shoes, glancing at Penny and wondering if she was naked underneath her, I Love New York sleep shirt. “Good run?” Penny asked.

“Why?” He peeled off his T-shirt and wiped the sweat from his brow before tossing it toward his bedroom.

“You’re smiling.” She flipped over the bacon and cracked eggs into a bowl.

Bash shrugged. “It’s nice to come home to a house that smells like bacon and coffee. A dog that’s happy to see me and breakfast almost done.”

“Is that all?”

“And you. I’m happy to come home to you.” He dropped a kiss on her cheek. “Can I help?” He leaned his chin on her shoulder, and she shifted away when his hands skirted over her thighs.

“That’s not the type of help I need right now, but later. I promise. We’ve got that appointment with my mom in a little over an hour and then the call with Tanya early this afternoon. And we need to call your mom.” He grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator and sat at the table. Watching her, rumpled and disheveled while making them breakfast on his off day, was almost as much fun as watching her naked. But their to-do list made his off day sound more like a work day.

“Wouldn’t it be better if we talked to her agent? That’s what we’d normally do.”

“Bash, this is your mother. Calling her agent with a rejection would be cold.”

“But it would be easier.”

“Easier isn’t better.” She sounded exasperated. At him. Again. Maybe today isn’t the day?

“How exactly am I supposed to tell my mother that her football romance is flat, and the sex scenes make no sense and are physically impossible?” And they were. He’d dissected each scene and had written the moves on index cards. He hadn’t the strength for one of them, and Penny wasn’t flexible enough for any of them. They’d quit when Penny had pulled a muscle during a reenactment of the second sex scene. This conversation would not bring the two most important women in his life closer.

“By letting me do most of the talking,” Penny said, dropping a kiss on his head before setting their plates on the table. “I’ll remind her that most writers are strongest in a particular genre. She’s wasting her talents on romance, but she created strong characters and I think the female lead would make a wonderful detective. I’ll throw out some bad ideas, and your mom will run with it and give me better ones. We’ll toss out more ideas and by the time we’re done, she’ll have a rough outline for her next thriller using the female lead and the settings she created for the romance. Win-win.” Penny smiled at him before tearing into a piece of bacon.

“You’re brilliant,” he said, amazed by her insight.

“I know.”

“And I love you.”

“I know, but I really wish you’d tell me why we’re meeting my mother,” Penny said.

Bash didn’t want to split their time between the two cities when the season, and his career, ended. He wanted to put down roots in Cascade City. With her.

“I know.” He winked at Penny before digging into his overcooked scrambled eggs and extra crispy bacon. He dropped Tiny a charred piece of toast and the dog looked at it and then at the bacon in Bash’s hand. She laid at Bash’s feet with a small whimper of resignation. Maybe today is the day, he thought, dropping a small piece of bacon in front of Tiny’s nose.

Penny looked out the living room’s floor-to-ceiling windows. Cascade City stretched below her. The oversized, outdated, and slightly run-down home was one of the first built in the exclusive development in the mountains overlooking the city. Its futuristic design didn’t blend with the other homes in the area. It must have looked really weird fifty years ago, Penny thought as she heard her mom and Bash approach.

“I’ll leave you two to look around. Just make sure the front door latches when you leave,” Alison said as she hugged Bash and blew Penny a kiss. Bash wandered into the kitchen at the back of the house. It overlooked a small backyard which butted up against the forest. Several abandoned bird feeders sat on the deck.

“What do you think?” Bash asked as Penny entered the room. She didn’t know how to best answer him with no context.

“The rooms are large, and there are a lot of them, and they all need work.”

“But can you see the potential?” He sounded excited about this six-bedroom house with its four-car garage and heated driveway.

Penny joined him at the island. From there she had a full view of the main floor except for the master suite with its wrap-around three-season porch. The view was overwhelming and beautiful. Penny imagined ending each day there curled up on a couch with a book in her hand as the city shimmered below her. Bash would either be with her, or in the garage, working on his latest project. Assuming he finishes Grandad’s tractor. Downstairs there were three bedrooms, two full bathrooms—one of which had a small sauna—a massive family room with a wet bar, and a vast storage and laundry room. Two bedrooms were above the garage area, with a shared bathroom and a small seating area between them.

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