Page 1 of Her Football Star Ex

1

Emerson

“Congrats on winning the case,”my paralegal, Kira Zigler, said after the judge had sentenced the defendant to six months in prison. “I knew you were worried about having enough evidence to convict him, but you pulled through once again.”

I smoothed my hands along my pencil skirt and stood. “I couldn’t have done it without you finding that last-minute witness, so thank you.”

Kira really was a lifesaver. Without her help, I probably would have lost my first case of the new year.

And I couldn’t have that. I needed this year to be better than last.

“Do you have any plans to celebrate your win tonight?” Kira put her bag over her shoulder, pulling her long and braided brown hair out of the way of the strap.

I shrugged and put my tablet into my bag. “I’ll probably end up taking a bubble bath or something,” I said. “Vincent won’t be dropping Jaxon back home until after dinner, so I should have just enough time to get one in before I have to get Jaxon to bed.”

I was missing my son who had been with my ex-husband for the past couple of days, so having him back with me again would be a reward in and of itself.

“A bath sounds nice,” Kira said, and I was thankful for her kind comment, instead of looking at me like my life was so dull and boring these days.

My life hadn’t always been this way, though. Before the divorce, when I first started practicing law and was winning my first cases, Vincent always made such a big deal out of it. Every ruling in my clients’ favor was worthy of celebration, and he would insist on taking Jaxon and me out to the fanciest restaurants in Denver where we’d wine and dine until we were so full we could barely walk out of the restaurant.

But that wasbefore he’d cheated on me with his physical therapist.

Life was a lot different now.

“Are you and Derek doing anything to celebrate the Dragons winning the wild card game?” I put my bag on my shoulder and led the way out of the courtroom. “He’s got to be excited about that.”

Derek was one of the defensive ends for the Denver Dragons, the NFL team my ex-husband, Vincent Lake, was the star quarterback for. And in the six years that I’d followed the team closely—ever since I first met Vincent and fell in love with the sport at the same time I was falling in love with him—the team hadn’t made it into the playoffs.

“He’s on top of the world right now.” Kira smiled, her brown eyes sparkling with pride for her fiancé. “The whole team is.”

“I bet. It’s pretty exciting.”

“Did you watch the game with Jaxon then?” She glanced sideways at me as she pushed open the door that led to the big hall of the courthouse.

I tucked some of my blonde hair behind my ear. “He went with Vincent’s mom and sister to the game since it was Vincent’s weekend to have him. So, no, I didn’t watch the game.”

“Knowing you, you were probably working all weekend anyway.” She gave me a knowing look.

I shrugged. “You don’t win cases without preparation.”

“Well, you missed a good game.”

“That’s what I’ve heard.”

We passed by the lawyer we’d just gone up against, standing in the hall with his legal team. We’d already shaken hands in the courtroom earlier, so I simply smiled at them as we continued toward the exit doors.

“So you never said what you were doing to celebrate Derek’s win,” I said to Kira as we walked down the steps. I pulled my wool coat close as the January air sent a chill through my body.

“My mom is cooking a special dinner for Derek and me tonight. So we’ll be heading over there once he’s back from his workout.”

“Does that mean you’ll also be doing more wedding planning?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Of course.” She smiled. “You know my mom will make any excuse to get us to her house to do wedding stuff. I think we’re finalizing the seating arrangements tonight.”

“I bet Derek’s excited for that.” I laughed, trying to imagine the big, tough guy who hit other big guys for a living caring about those particular details.

“He’s a pretty good sport. He says he’s just happy the planning is almost over and we’ll be getting married next month.”

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