Page 58 of Play Book

And if Harper brings me down to the family lounge, well, he’s just going to have to deal with it.

To my surprise, I get a text from Canyon late in the afternoon.

CANYON: Hey. I know I’ve gone radio silent—I apologize. It’s been…a lot. It wasn’t personal. I really want to see you, but getting my eleven-year-old niece settled has been all-encompassing. I have a lot to tell you. Are you coming to the game tonight?

SAYLOR: I’m almost always at the games unless I have to work.

CANYON: My niece will be with me—I have nowhere else to leave her until I find a nanny. It’s a school night, but she doesn’t start at her new school until next week, so I was thinking a group of us would go get some food after the game. You want to come? I really want to see you.

My gut squeezes with a combination of excitement and annoyance.

Excitement that he reached out.

Annoyance that I’ll have to share him with the team and…his niece.

His niece.

Not his child. His niece.

For some reason, that makes me feel better.

Not that I would be angry that he’d unknowingly fathered a child sometime in the past. It just would have further complicated something that’s already complicated.

How do you continue a friends-with-benefits arrangement with an eleven-year-old in the mix?

I should walk away.

This is more than I bargained for.

But I don’t want to.

The memories of his lips on mine make me shiver with need.

My nether regions clench with arousal just thinking about him being inside me. His touch. The way it felt when he covered my body with his and rocked my world.

Incredible sex is apparently capable of making me less cautious. So my fingers type out a response even while my heart and mind continue to war about what to do.

SAYLOR: I’ll come down to the lounge after and we can figure it out. I’m anxious to meet her.

CANYON: Well, don’t say I didn’t warn you. She’s ornery as fuck.

SAYLOR: Just like her uncle?

CANYON: LOL She’s ten times worse than me. And that’s saying something.

SAYLOR: Damn. Well, I guess I’m going to find out. I’ll see you later. Have a good game. Don’t get hurt.

CANYON: Thanks, babe. I’ll do my best. See you later.

I put my phone away and do a mental head shake.

What is it about this guy that makes me want to be stupid?

No-strings sex?

Sure.

Ghost me for a week?