Page 41 of Her Football Star Ex

“Just a little curious,” I admitted.

“So it’s actually a long story.” She pressed her lips together. “But I, uh, ended up going to the game with everyone after all, and your mom insisted that I stay to eat dinner with you guys.”

“You were at the game?” My eyes widened.

She’d come?

She looked to the side like she was uncomfortable then lifted a slender shoulder and said, “Yeah, things just worked out so I could come.”

“I’m sorry we couldn’t win it for you,” I said, wishing we could have won the one game she’d attended this season.

“You guys did great.” She smiled, like she didn’t want me to be disappointed on her account. “It was a close game. I was just happy to be there again.”

Jaxon’s song ended and he stopped his ninja dance long enough to say, “Guess what, Dad?”

“What?” I asked.

He stepped closer, his face full of some sort of excitement. “Someone left a scary doll at our house today. Mommy called the police.”

“Wait. What?” I scrunched up my face in confusion, not sure I had heard Jaxon right.

And when I glanced at Emerson, I saw her giving Jaxon a stern expression that made it seem like she hadn’t wanted Jaxon to say that.

“What’s he talking about?” I asked, watching Emerson’s face for her reaction. “You called the police today?”

“Hey, Jaxon, buddy,” Emerson said to Jaxon who had started turning around in circles on the carpet. “How about you go help Grandma finish setting the table, okay?”

“Okay.” He stopped his spinning, wobbling a little like he was dizzy, then he ran out of the room toward the kitchen without another word.

Once Jaxon was gone, I crossed my arms over my chest and studied Emerson. “What’s going on?”

She chewed on her lip for a moment before shrugging. “I guess someone visited our house last night and decided to leave us a little gift.”

“A gift?”

She nodded and then went on to tell me about how the security camera had caught someone with a gorilla mask putting a porcelain doll on the front porch, and how when she’d checked this morning she found a threatening note attached to it.

Then she told me about the police coming right over and searching the yard for anything else that seemed suspicious. And the more she talked, and the more I thought about the kind of danger they could be in, the more upset I became.

“Do they have any idea of who it could be?” I asked, my whole body feeling rigid.

She shook her head. “We’re guessing it might just be some bored high schoolers trying to pull a prank on us, but we really have no idea.”

“And what’s going to happen in the meantime?” I asked.

She just shrugged and said, “I guess we just have to wait and see if anything else happens.”

She looked like she was trying to pretend there was nothing to worry about, but from the way her hand was shaking when she smoothed the front of her shirt down, I knew she was scared.

15

Emerson

“You’ll waitand see what happens?” Vincent's eyebrows knitted together, his brown eyes showing a fire in them that I hadn’t seen since I’d given him the divorce papers.

Before he could get more upset, I hurried to say, “The police are planning to watch the house for the next few days to make sure nothing else happens.”

“And that’s supposed to make me feel better about you and Jaxon staying there tonight?” He shook his head. “Come on, Emerson. You deal with criminals all the time at work. You have to know that staying at your house isn’t a good idea.”

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