Page 6 of Rushing Into Love

“This is it.” I nodded at the white Malibu, fumbling in my purse for the keys. I had to lean into him to get to my purse and I fully appreciated his strong, muscled chest against my side. He gripped my waist tighter while I searched, so I wouldn’t topple over.

“Here they are.” I dangled the keys, unlocked the car.

“Are you alright to drive?” Ryder asked, concern clouding his eyes.

“Yep, perfectly fine,” I nodded, stifling a wince. He opened Alex’s door first, then mine, easing me down gently into the seat. His face was so close to mine, I saw his five-o-clock shadow. My breath hitched and we locked eyes for a moment. A frisson of heat shimmered down my body as I gazed at the darker navy flecks in his eyes.

“Sure you’re okay?”

“Right as rain,” I sing-songed in my most cheerful voice, nodding.

In reality, I could barely hear him over the thumping of my racing heartbeat. No, I was definitelynotokay.

I was crushing hard on Peachtree Grove’s most eligible bachelor, Ryder McCauliffe, former NFL football player and hot-as-hell single dad.

2

Ryder

Damn, Alex’s aunt was hot as hell.

I exhaled hard as she pulled out of the lot and turned left, towards the main road leading to the center of Peachtree Grove. Those legs, that body—it’d been a long time since I’d seen a woman that good looking.

Possibly since the ill-fated day I met the train wreck known as Shayna Bowman, my narcissistic, gold-digging ex-wife. The only good thing that came out of that relationship was Charlie. Thank goodness my very competent (albeit expensive) attorney had managed to get me full custody of my boy, minimizing the amount of contact I was forced to have with his mother. He’d also preserved the majority of my assets earned during my career in the NFL, much to her chagrin. If only he’d been able to protect my emotional welfare even half as well, then perhaps I wouldn’t have such a jaded perspective on the opposite sex.

“Daddy?” Charlie tugged on the ends of my jersey.

“Yeah, bud?” I looked down at him, ruffled his dark hair.

“What’s for dinner?” He fixed his matching blue eyes on mine, looking very, very serious.

“We’re going over to Gigi and Pops’ house for dinner.” I grabbed his chubby hand, his warm fingers curling around mine. “We should actually get going, it’s kind of late.”

We walked to my SUV and I lifted him into his ‘big boy booster,’ buckling him in.

“You did great at practice today, bud,” I said, firing up the car and turning out of the lot, heading the opposite direction of Bree.

“Thanks. Daddy?”

“Yeah, bud?” I met his eyes in the rearview, noting the deep crease in his brow.

“How come we have to have a gi-irl on our team?” He whined the word, making it at least four syllables.

I chuckled. “We’re lucky to havethatgirl on our team. Alex is fast, the fastest one on the team. She’s gonna be our secret weapon.”

Charlie banged his fist on his leg. “No fair! I want to be the secret weapon!”

“You can be, too, bud. Everyone on the team will be a secret weapon, that’s why there are so many different positions.”

Charlie nodded, happy enough with this answer. “Daddy?”

“Yeah?”

“Can we listen to KidzBop?”

Inside I groaned, even as I punched the button on the radio, changing the station. I’d made it almost all the way to my parents’ house without having to listen to KidzBop. A small victory.

Five minutes later, I turned down the lane leading to my parents’ farmhouse. Built in the 1800’s by my great-great-grandfather, it sat on eight acres of land and was a perfect spot for raising kids. Luckily for me, my great-grandfather had also built a second, smaller house on the property for his farm hand, and that’s where Charlie and I had lived for the last four years. It was big enough for the two of us and proximity to the grandparents was great for babysitting. I gotta admit, I was a little spoiled by all the homecooked meals and TLC we both received.

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