Page 43 of Her Football Star Ex

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It was almostten o’clock by the time we left Janet’s house. It had been a long day and I was exhausted. And when we got on the road in Vincent’s truck, it only took a few minutes for Jaxon to zonk out in his booster seat in the back. Which left Vincent and me a twenty-minute drive to fill with small talk.

It had been a long time since I’d been in his truck, but it was still basically the same as it had been when we’d been married. It was clean, with just his football bag on the seat next to Jaxon. His black lava stone mala hung from the rearview mirror. And the light scent of his cologne filled the air.

That man had his faults, but coming home after practice or a game smelling like sweat was definitely not one of them. He always smelled so good. I allowed myself a moment to settle into the heated leather seat and just breathe it in.

Even though this day had been long, I had to admit sitting in his truck right now was nice. Like for the next twenty minutes I could just sit here and not worry about anything.

I’d always loved his truck. There was just something about a big, muscular guy driving a big truck that had always been so attractive to me. Like the primal need I had as a female in our species to be protected from danger was instantly set at ease by this.

“What are you thinking about?” Vincent asked as he pulled onto I-70. “I don’t think you’ve been this quiet around me for a long time, and I can’t tell if you’re lost in thought or just tired.”

A slight smile lifted my lips at his question. He was always curious about what was going through my mind. Even when we’d fought in the past, he always wanted to know exactly what I was thinking so he could figure out a way to make things better.

But since I couldn’t come out and tell him that I was thinking about how amazing he smelled and how the primitive side of me missed being in his truck, I said, “I was thinking about how nice it is to just close my eyes in a car and still be going somewhere.”

“Yeah?”

I nodded and lazily turned my gaze toward him, with my head still resting against the headrest. “I didn’t even think about it until just now, but since I do all the driving wherever I go these days, I forgot how much I used to love closing my eyes and dozing off whenever we took long drives.”

He nodded slowly, his gaze still on the road. “I guess I never thought about things like that.”

“Yeah,” I said, looking through the windshield at the moonlit road surrounded by snow-covered spruce trees. “It’s just interesting to think about the things I used to take for granted.”

Like how I’d always had someone there to help carry the load when things got crazy.

Or how I always had someone to talk big decisions out with before I made them.

I mean, my mom, Ivy, and Kira were great to listen to me, but having someone with an actual vested interest had been nice. Vincent had always helped me see things from different angles.

And I didn’t have that anymore. The only other person directly affected by my choices these days was Jaxon. Since he was only four and a half, he didn’t exactly have the same insights an adult would.

Which was definitely something I missed about being married.

But I guess, in a way, Vincent was still showing up for me.

I was the type of person who hated asking for help and Vincent knew it. So he’d offered it anyway—almost demanded it—because he knew me well enough to know that I needed him to be that forceful to accept the help.

I didn’t think I’d thanked him for it yet. And the least I could do was tell him thank you.

So I looked back to him again, swallowed some of my independent woman pride, and said, “I don’t think I mentioned it earlier, but thank you for helping me out tonight. I know having your ex-wife stay at your bachelor pad probably isn’t your first choice for your Sunday evening after a long game, so I really appreciate it.”

He glanced sideways at me for a second. “Of course I’d help you out.” He gave me one of his meaningful smiles. “Even though we’re not married anymore, I still care about your well-being.”

I nodded and shifted in my seat. “Well, you’re a much bigger person than I am sometimes.”

“So…” His smile widened and his eyes lit up in the way they always did when he was about to tease me. “Are you saying that if the tables were turned, you’d be telling me to go ahead and stay at the house and hope the gorilla guy got me?”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “If it happened a year ago, I wouldn’t put it past me,” I said. “But thankfully, for your sake, my beast-mode has calmed down a little more in the past few months.”

The anger phase of my grief cycle had definitely been strong in the first six months after the divorce. I was easily triggered and definitely had Vincent walking on eggshells every time we exchanged Jaxon.

But things were getting a lot better now that my emotions had calmed down a bit.

He raised an eyebrow. “Does that mean you don’t throw darts at my NFL photo anymore?”

I gasped. “How did you know I did that?”

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