Page 9 of Her Football Star Ex

“Thank you for putting your dinosaurs away,” Emerson said to our son, breaking into my train of thought. “Now it’s time for you to put on your pajamas and brush your teeth.”

“Okay,” Jaxon said and went to his dresser to pull out the dinosaur footie pajamas Emerson’s housekeeper had folded in the second drawer.

Deciding that was probably my cue to leave them, I stood and started toward the door.

I was just about to walk past Emerson when she spoke, “I forgot to tell you earlier, but congrats on winning the wild card game this weekend. That’s got to feel so good after all these years.”

“Yeah.” I looked at her, trying to push away the thoughts of the past so I could be normal right now. “It’s pretty exciting. I was worried we might not pull it off when we were so far behind at the beginning of the fourth quarter, but the guys really came through for me.”

“That’s what I heard,” she said. “Kira told me how close it was.”

Kira told her?

My heart sunk as I realized what that meant.

Emerson hadn’t watched the game.

All these years of talking about the day when the Dragons would finally advance in the postseason, all the times she’d told me she couldn’t wait to cheer me on as we did it, and she hadn’t even watched the game?

She must have seen the disappointment in my face because she glanced down at the plush carpet and said, “I had a big case to prepare for, so I wasn’t able to watch it.”

A big case?

I cleared my throat and forced a smile. “And how did it go?”

Her face brightened. “It was a lot like you said your game went. I didn’t think we’d be able to pull it off, but we actually won.”

The look on her face when our eyes met made my heart stop for a second. I loved seeing her like this. So happy and full of life.

“That’s so awesome,” I said, and the smile on my face was genuine. I really was happy that she was doing well in her career. Even after everything, I wanted her to make her dreams come true.

In the past I would have pulled her into my arms and hugged her after hearing such great news, but even though the urge was still there to celebrate like that, I forced my arms to remain at my sides.

Because we didn’t do that anymore.

We hadn’t touched in over a year.

She hadn’t let me touch her since I confessed everything to her that night.

Our eyes locked, and I worried she could read everything I was thinking in that moment. So before she could, I cleared my throat and said, “Anyway, I have practice early in the morning, so I better get back to my apartment.”

“Oh, yeah.” She stepped back, almost like she too had gotten caught up in the moment we’d been sharing. “I-I have an early morning as well.”

I turned back to Jaxon, needing the distraction. “I’m going to go now, buddy. Come give me a big hug before I leave.”

He had finished changing into his pajamas and was just working on the snap at the top.

“Here let me help you with that.” I crouched down on my haunches, knowing that was the one part of footie pajamas that he still had a hard time doing on his own.

He ran to me and lifted his chin so I could snap the part of his pajamas together. Afterwards, I pulled him into my arms and kissed him on the cheek. “Have a good night, buddy,” I said in a soft voice. “I’ll see you in a couple of days.”

“I’ll miss you.” His little arms squeezed my sides tighter. “Sleep well, Dad.”

I gave him one last kiss on the cheek and stood, and when I glanced back at Emerson, I saw a hint of tears in her eyes. But she quickly wiped them away so I couldn’t be sure if they’d really been there.

“Have a good night, Emerson,” I said, my voice coming out thicker than I wanted.

“Good night, Vincent.” She gave me a curt nod. “I’ll bring Jaxon to your apartment on Thursday night.”

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