Page 57 of Love Game

“I had no idea there was such a gap between you.”

He swallowed the lump along with the absurd urge to laugh. “Oh yeah, there’s a gap.”

“He’s coaching in the NFL now?”

Danny closed his eyes as he nodded, once again sending up a silent prayer of thanks for Pate Wilson. The wily football legend was too smart to confuse his brother’s talent for coaching with Danny’s penchant for fucking up. “Quarterbacks coach.”

“Did he play quarterback?” Kate asked.

Danny shook his head but couldn’t muster the strength to speak out loud.

She sighed and drew little patterns through the hair on his stomach. “You were a quarterback. I bet it was hard growing up in your shadow.”

Those maddening circles tickled, so he stilled her hand by covering it with his. “I bet he’s happy to have operating knees.”

“He probably worshiped you.” Her remark held a note of teasing, but it struck too close to home.

“If he did, he had a funny way of showing it.” Silence blanketed them.

“I only have my sister left. Audrey.” She laced her fingers through his. “We’ve never had much in common, but my niece, Kylie, is more like me.” She sighed contentedly. “She’s at camp this week, but we have to pretend we don’t know each other, because she doesn’t want the other kids to know we’re related.”

“Kids,” he said with a short laugh.

“Did you ever want any?”

He shrugged. “To be honest, I never really thought much about it.” He turned to look at her. “You?”

“I figured if it was meant to happen, it would happen. It just never happened, and after my divorce, I figured it wouldn’t.”

They lapsed into silence once more. The television flashed and glowed. He squinted at the logo painted at center field, marveling at the sharpness of the display. “This is a great TV.”

Kate snorted softly and burrowed deeper into the curve of his neck. “Better be. It cost enough to feed a small village for a year.”

He chuckled. “Took me forever to find the DVD setup, but I figured you had to have one in here.” His lips curved into a smile, and he kissed the top of her head. “You watch film in bed.”

“It was Jeff’s setup.”

“Ah, the infamous Jeff Sommers.” His smile faded at the mention of her ex-husband. He managed to hold back just a second. “What happened there?”

“Nothing much, really. Mike hired Ty Ransom as head coach. Jeff was offered a job in Texas.”

“And you wouldn’t leave Wolcott?”

She quirked an eyebrow at the surprise in his tone. “You think I should have? You think I ought to have given up a job as head coach in which I had already won two championships for my alma mater to follow my husband halfway across the country so he could take another assistant’s position?”

“Well, no, but you were married.”

The genuine confusion in his tone seemed to soothe her ruffled feathers. “Yes, we were.” Settling back against him, she stared at the television screen. “So you’d think I’d at least rate an invitation, right?”

“He didn’t even ask you to go?”

Kate’s smile was wan. “Jeff blamed me for Mike not hiring him.”

Danny started to sit up, but she pressed him back into the pillows. “Blamed you? How could he blame you?”

“I didn’t go to bat for him, pull enough strings…”

She trailed off, but Danny picked right up on the trail. “You were too damn good, made him look like the loser he is.”

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