Page 45 of Her Football Star Ex

Now if having my ex-wife sleep on my dumpy couch wearing a coat to stay warm when she stayed the night at my place wasn’t a sign that I was the worst host in the world, I didn’t know what was.

“You can just sleep in my bed,” I said, realizing I should have offered in the first place. “I can sleep on the couch.”

She gave me a skeptical look. “But you just got tackled by a bunch of three-hundred-pound guys,” she said. “I can’t take your bed from you when you’re already being so nice to let me stay here.”

“No, really. I can take the couch. It’s no problem.”

She looked back at my couch and seemed to inspect it. It had definitely seen better days, and there was a spot in the middle that had sunk in.

But it wasn’tthatbad. I could handle one night of bad sleep. It wasn’t like I had a game to play tomorrow.

“You know better than I do how important rest is for you after these games.” She turned her gaze back to me and studied me from head to toe. “Plus, you’re six-four and sleep on a California king-sized bed. There’s no way you’d even fit on that couch lying down.”

“So I’ll curl up a bit,” I said. And to prove my point, I walked past her and lay myself down on the couch. Sure, it was lumpier than I remembered, but my body was exhausted enough that I was bound to fall asleep anyway. I waved a hand in her direction. “I’ll be fine out here. Go ahead and take my bed. I can’t have my mom finding out that I’m not a gentleman.”

Emerson just stared at me with a smile that told me I looked ridiculous. “How about we both just sleep in your bed?” she said. “I mean, it’s not like we haven’t done it before. It doesn’t have to be weird.”

“What?” I bolted upright, not sure I was hearing what I thought I was hearing.

She nodded and gave me an uneasy look. “We can be adults about this, right?”

Sleep in the same bed as Emerson?

I knew we’d done it hundreds of times before, but for some reason, the thought of her sleeping just a foot or two away from me made my heart race.

But if she was okay with it, I could be okay with it.

So I said, “I guess that could be okay. It is a big bed.”

“Right,” she said, seeming a little more comfortable with the idea. “And as long as we promise to stay on our own sides of the bed it will be almost like sleeping in separate beds.”

Except that when we used to share a bed, we’d always both end up in the middle by the morning—even when we’d gone to bed angry and had clung to our sides when we’d first fallen asleep.

But I wouldn’t mention that right now, because the prospect of sleeping on this terrible couch was feeling less and less appealing the longer I sat here. So before either of us could see reason and change our minds, I stood and said, “I guess we should probably get to bed then.”

A little apprehension formed behind her eyes, as if she wasn’t quite sure it was a good idea to sleep in the same bed as me after all. But then she nodded and said, “Yeah. Let’s go to bed.” Then she quickly shook her head, her face flushing. “I mean, let’s go to your bedroom.” She shook her head again. “To sleep. Only to sleep.” Her cheeks darkened further. “You know what I mean.”

I laughed, loving the way the color on her cheeks made her look. And also loving that even though we weren’t together, she could still blush around me.

“I know what you meant,” I said.

Her shoulders relaxed and she released a sigh. “Good.”

And without another word, I led her down the hall toward my room. But from the butterflies that swarmed in my stomach a little harder with each step I took, I had a feeling that I probably would have gotten more sleep on the couch tonight.

Because I was definitely not tired anymore.

17

Emerson

Well,this night just got more interesting, I thought as I followed Vincent down the hall to a part of his apartment that I had never been to before.

And as I followed, I allowed myself to take in his muscular torso.

He really was the epitome of a male specimen. Broad shoulders. Amazing triceps. Perfect forearms with just the right amount of vein poppage going on. His torso was lean, but even though I couldn’t see through his shirt, I knew he had a natural eight pack that most of his teammates had to do lots of core workouts to achieve. His athletic butt deserved to have its own Instagram fan account dedicated to it. And his legs, yeah, they were amazing, too.

Pretty much my ex-husband was God’s gift to the universe and a huge reason why the Dragons’ female fan population had risen over the past few years.

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