Page 157 of The Problem with Players

Willow glanced over at him, a small smile still on her face. “And he frowns a lot.”

“It’s his signature expression. He’s not much of a people person.”

“But he’s a good person?”

“One of the best.”

She paused for a moment and shrugged with a hopeful expression. “Anyway, I’m looking forward to kicking the ball with you later, teammate. We are so going to win!” she said before she danced off. I wasn’t being dramatic, either—she danced away. Willow always seemed to be floating off in a dancing manner. As she pranced away, I looked over at the grill, where I found Evan watching Willow dance away. His grimace was still apparent, but curiosity was there, too. I hadn’t seen my brother appear curious about a person in a long time.

Wait a second.

Did Willow just say kick a ball around?

Cameron came rushing over to me before I could comprehend what she said.

“Hey, Coach P? I have a question for ya. I was just wondering…” He grew bashful and shrugged his shoulders as he wore his catching glove on his right hand. “Is Priya single?”

My eyes moved from him to my niece, who was tossing a ball up and down on the field, laughing with Yara and Alex.

I gave him a stern look. “Yes. She’s single until she’s in her nineties. Don’t get any ideas.”

“I don’t know, Coach,” Avery said, walking up behind me. “Rumor has it, Priya was asking about Cameron, too.”

Cameron’s eyes lit up. “Seriously?”

“Yup. You should go see if you can give her some tips on throwing. I bet she’d love that,” Avery stated.

“Gee! Thanks, Coach K! I’ll do that.”

I turned and gave Avery a stern look. “Why would you do that?!” I whisper-shouted. “Now he’s going to think she likes him.”

“She does like him. I think it’s cute.”

“It’s awful. My sweet niece…liking boys.” I shivered. “That’s traumatizing.”

She laughed. “Don’t be so dramatic. But speaking of…I think it’s time we tell everyone about us.”

I arched an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Yeah. I think so.”

We’d spent the past seven months secretly dating one another. We wanted the privacy of getting back together without too many outside voices getting involved. She still had her apartment, but I figured that was good. It gave us time to grow closer to one another. One day, she’d be living with me for the rest of her life, but I wasn’t in a rush to get us there.

Okay, I was in a rush. If it were up to me, we’d be married tomorrow.

We’d kept our relationship pretty much on the hush-hush, just to make sure we were moving in the right direction.

Now, we were ready to share the news with everyone else.

We headed out to the pitching mound before the game, and I got everyone’s attention.

“Hey, everyone. I just wanted to thank you all for coming out to Honey Farms to celebrate the holiday with us. It’s been a damn good time so far, and I’m really looking forward to smoking Avery’s team during this game. But before we start, I thought it was a good time to announce that Avery and I are dating.”

The space stayed quiet as everyone stared blankly at us.

Avery swallowed hard and gestured back and forth between the two of us. “Each other,” she added. “We are dating each other.”

Someone in the stands shouted, “Well, no shit, Sherlock. We all knew that.”

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