Page 11 of Crossed Up

“Crew, come in here and brush your teeth, please!”

“Yes, Miss Lyla!”

Heavy footsteps reach my ears, and I’m surprised to find that he already has his shoes on. “Do you know how to tie your shoes, Crew-bug?”

He offers me a proud grin and nods. “My daddy just teached me how!”

I smile at him, matching his excitement with my own. “Your daddy taught you how, and that is so cool, dude! I don’t know very many five-year-olds who can tie their own shoes, so you must be really smart.”

Crew beams at me, and within ten minutes, we’re in the SUV and headed to the stadium. I listen to his animated stories the whole way there and fiercely try to ignore the butterflies that erupt the closer we get to seeing my boss.

5

AIDAN

“Hey Preach, I heard you got another new nanny. This one crawl into your bed yet?” Davis’s mocking words threaten to upset the delicate balance of my mood today, but luckily a mild glare aimed his way has him raising his hands in surrender as he backs away slowly.

Ethan Davis is a rookie and a pain in our asses on his best behavior, so I’m normally immune to his needling. However, the last few days have me on edge.

Lyla has most definitely not crawled into my bed, and I can’t tell if I’m more happy or disappointed by that. I should be happy, right? I’ve fired no less than a dozen nannies for invading my space and hitting on me when they should have been doing their jobs.

So why does the thought of coming home to Lyla in my bed appeal to me so much?

I sneer at Davis with a flick of my middle finger before gulping more water. It’s hot as hades today for it only being March, and I’m sweating buckets. “Fuck off, Rook. Not all of us are only capable of thinking with the heads located below our belts.”

The few guys in the dugout with us let out a collective “oooh” that has me laughing until a flash of color catches my attention from the tunnel leading out of the stadium. A smile grows unbidden on my face when I see a mop of wavy blond hair above the neon blue shirt that caught my eye.

“Holy shit,” Daniels chokes. “If you’re not into the nanny, then I definitely am.”

His comment pisses me off because it’s not like I’m blind. Lyla Taylor is drop-dead gorgeous. The kind of stunning that steals your focus and makes your mouth go dry at the thought of approaching her. The kind of unattainable beauty you see in movies and in your wildest fantasies. But she’s amazing with Crew, so no matter how attractive she is, it’s more important that she sticks around.

It doesn’t matter that I want to wrap her long, dark hair around my fist as I slide my tongue in her mouth. Or that her green eyes look like the Spanish moss that hangs from the trees in our backyard after a tropical storm. Or that she always smells like sweet cherries steeped in vanilla, all soft and sexy and tempting.

It doesn’t matter that I want her more than I’ve wanted anyone in years because Lyla is off-limits.

I barely manage to shake out of my haze in time to catch the fifty-five-pound bundle of excited energy flying at me before his knees connect with a part of my anatomy I am not ready to lose function in yet. “Woah there, little raptor!”

His giggles are music to my ears after such a stressful week, and I’m even more thankful Lyla accepted my invitation to the field today. Leaving Crew every day is hard, but leaving him alone with someone I don’t know very well has felt like a puncture wound to a balloon, slowly deflating my energy and mood.

“Daddy! Miss Lyla didn’t tell me we were coming here and I’m so excited, but I didn’t bring my bat! I wanna go play with Uncle Rho.”

Shaking my head, I look up to find Lyla smiling softly in our direction. At least she was smiling, until Rhodes tossed his beefy arm over her shoulder with a smirk and made her jump about a foot in the air. I see him grimace at her and say something but it’s too loud for me to catch exactly what he says.

My curiosity peaks when he turns the arm on her shoulder into a full-blown hug. Rhodes has always been a hugger, but Lyla seems pretty averse to touch, so seeing him with her like that makes me a little uneasy.

It’s absolutely not because I’m jealous he can touch her, and I can’t. Not even a little bit.

Turning back to my son, I ruffle his soft hair. “I guess it’s a good thing we keep your backup bat in the equipment room then, huh? Why don’t you go with Uncle Rho to find it,” I say with a brow raised towards my best friend. Thankfully, he knows me better than almost anyone else, and takes my son with him no questions asked.

I feel this ridiculous urge to check on my son’s nanny, even though she’s standing right in front of me, and Rhodes would never do something to intentionally hurt her. The second Crew is out of sight, I make my way over to Lyla with slow, measured movements.

“Hey, you okay? It looked like Rhodes took you by surprise for a second there.”

The smile she gives me is brittle at best, but I don’t call her out on it. Maybe she’s just nervous.

“I’m okay. Like you said, it was just a surprise. And, um…”

Keeping my hand in her line of sight so I don’t freak her out, I place my hand on her shoulder and duck, so we’re eye-to-eye. “And what, Lyla?”

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