Page 36 of Her Football Star Ex

12

Emerson

“I’m ready for breakfast,”Jaxon’s voice sounded at the side of my bed Sunday morning, waking me up way earlier than my body was ready for. “I want pancakes.”

“You woke up too early.” I rolled over to my side, wishing I could just have a few more minutes of sleep before I had to get up for the day.

But Jaxon grabbed my arm and pulled on it. “Get me pancakes now, Mom.”

I sighed and rolled back over to face him. He had his mind on pancakes, and I knew my son well enough to know that once he decided he wanted pancakes for breakfast, he wouldn’t give up on them until I let him help me make them.

“Okay, just give me a minute.” I sat up in bed, adjusting my shorts that had ridden up in my sleep. “Let Mommy go to the bathroom, and then I’ll meet you downstairs in the kitchen.”

That seemed to do the trick because he got a big, wide smile on his face and he scampered out of my room, his feet making a soft thumping sound in his footie pajamas.

I dragged myself into the bathroom. I knew once I got myself going I’d wake up a bit more.

It had taken me a while to fall asleep after my chatting session with Tyler. I had chatted with a few other guys during the day and had even scheduled to meet a guy named Andy for drinks on Monday after work, but for some reason, it was my conversation with Tyler that had me unable to fall asleep until the wee hours of the morning.

There had been something about it that just seemed different from my other conversations this week. Not only had we been able to touch on a few difficult topics right from the start, but we’d also been able to just talk about random stuff.

And I’d loved it.

It was the kind of conversation I’d been missing. Deep one minute, lighthearted and flirty the next.

He’d told me that he too had been divorced for about a year, and while I didn’t know any of the particulars that had led to that yet, I couldn’t help but feel that his ex-wife’s loss was every single women in the Denver area’s gain.

Maybemygain.

I shook my head.

Now I was being ridiculous. I hadn’t even met him in person, and yet, I was already running off with thoughts like that.

Heck, I didn’t even know what he looked like. Not really. His face was covered or hidden from all of the photos he’d shared.

And believe me, after I’d put Jaxon to bed last night, I’d definitely inspected his profile photos again to see if I could zoom in on that fishing photo and get any insight into how cute he might be.

Because he just had to be cute, right?

But he wore a hat and big sunglasses and everything from the eyes down was blocked by a huge fish, so I had no idea what the rest of his face looked like.

Once I was done in the bathroom and had switched my messy braid into a high ponytail and put on my robe, I grabbed my phone from my nightstand and headed downstairs.

Jaxon was already standing at the kitchen island on his special stool when I got to the kitchen, wearing the dinosaur apron my mom had sewed for him.

“Looks like you’re all ready to go,” I said before opening the pantry and grabbing the box with the pancake mix.

I mixed the pancake batter in a bowl and then he helped me pour it onto a warm cast iron skillet. While we waited for it to get to where he could help me flip the pancake over, I checked my phone to see if I had any messages in my dating app.

But when I looked at my screen, I saw a notification from the security system that said motion had been detected at our front door at 3:37 this morning. I frowned and swiped my finger across the notification, wondering what it could have been.

When the infrared video came up onto my screen, I saw someone wearing a black hoodie and a gorilla Halloween mask walking onto my front porch with something under his arm.

My eyebrows squished together and my heart raced as I watched the unfamiliar figure bend over and put whatever he’d been holding down on my porch and then run off.

What the heck?

I slid a shaky finger across the video feed to rewind it and watch it again.

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