Page 101 of Her Football Star Ex

His jaw dropped. “Mommy must be magical.”

“I think she is,” I said, feeling so undeserving of everything she had done for me in the past twelve hours. “Your mom is amazing.”

* * *

Emerson wokea little after nine and joined Jaxon, Evelyn, and me in the living room where Jaxon was showing the moves he’d learned in his karate class last week.

“Good morning, Mommy!” Jaxon said, running to her, mid hand-chop. “You sleeped here again?”

“I did.” She gave him a sleepy-eyed smile. “I wanted to see how comfy your bed was.”

Her gaze flickered to mine, reminding me of the other time she’d stayed here and how Jaxon had thought I’d been crying in his bed because it was more comfortable than mine.

Man, life could sure change a lot in a month and a half.

“Did you sleep good?” Jaxon asked.

She nodded, returning her attention back to him. “I slept all right. Baby Evelyn only woke me up once.”

I cleared my throat. “Hey, thanks for taking care of her last night.” I glanced around the room. “For taking care of pretty much everything, actually.”

She sat on the arm of the couch. “It was no problem. I’m happy to help.”

“Guess what, Mom?” Jaxon interrupted, not caring that his parents were already mid-conversation.

“What?” Emerson looked at him and smiled.

“Daddy says we get to go to the playground after Evelyn’s nap!” He said it with so much excitement you’d think I was taking him to Disneyland.

“He did?” Emerson asked, mirroring his enthusiasm.

He nodded. “Yeah.”

“Well, that sounds like it’ll be really fun.”

“Super fun,” he said. Then he raised his eyebrows like some sort of amazing idea had just occurred to him. “Can you come play with us, too? You can watch me go down the big, huge, slide.”

“A big, huge slide?” She smiled, clearly loving how excited our son was.

He nodded. “I can do it all bymyself!”

I didn’t want to burst his bubble, but since I also didn’t want Emerson to feel like we were trying to steal her whole weekend away from her, I said, “I’m sure your mom has lots of things to do today.”

But Emerson surprised me by saying, “It actually sounds fun.” She looked at me. “I just finished up a big case yesterday so my day is wide open, and if you don’t mind, I’d be happy to join you guys at the playground.”

“Really?”

Shewantedto spend time with us?

With me?

Because while she had been super selfless and amazing to help me out last night, I figured the last thing she would want to do was spend time with me.

She nodded and said, “I actually went clothes shopping right before coming over here so I have some fresh clothes in my car. If Jaxon doesn’t mind me using his bathroom, I could shower and get ready here, and then we could hang out.”

I was momentarily speechless, trying to wrap my mind around what seemed like a one-eighty from two weeks ago when she’d basically said goodbye to giving me another chance.

Maybe she’s just bored,I told myself so I wouldn’t get my hopes up.Maybe she just wants to hang out with Jaxon and it has nothing to do with me.

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