Page 124 of Trying Sophie

Keeping my eyes trained on Maggie, I filled her in. “My grandfather owns a pro basketball team back in America. Let’s just say my dad left my mom for a Maggie when I was eight.”

“Ah,” she responded knowingly. “Professional sports do tend to attract a certain sort, do they not?

I smirked. “What does that say about you and me?”

She nudged her hip against mine with a chuckle. “Oh, you and me, we’re alright. It’s that lot over there that gives the rest of us a bad name.”

Her voice going serious again, she added, “Being with Declan, you’re going to meet a lot of vultures. Ugly, vile people. Don’t let them tear you down.”

That’s what I was worried about. It had been the main reason I’d initially fought my attraction when we’d first met. I’d witnessed firsthand how wives and girlfriends of professional athletes all too frequently became ex-wives and ex-girlfriends. I very much wanted to avoid that trap.

Brightening, Claire continued, “But you’ll also meet some of the most loyal ones too. People like my Fetu, who considers Declan a brother. Aidan and Liam too.”

“I can tell,” I told her, because it was obvious they really did love him, and despite him telling me none of them actually knew him, I wondered if some of that was because he’d been trying to figure out who he was too. Maybe now that he had a better grip on the type of man he wanted to be, he’d let them in the way he’d done with me.

“Hey baby,” Declan greeted, wrapping his arms around me from behind and dropping his chin on my shoulder. “I need to make a snack run. Aidan sent the caterer home already and he’s out of food. You okay with Claire?”

I twisted in his arms so we stood face to face. “Are you okay to drive?”

He’d had a beer in his hands all night and I wasn’t sure leaving was the smartest decision. He looked and sounded fine, but I didn’t want him out on the roads if he wasn’t.

His eyes sparkled and he grinned. Leaning forward, he whispered against my cheek, “The trick is to always have a bottle in your hand and, when no one’s watching, you fill it with water.”

“Very clever,” I murmured as his tongue snaked out to caress the shell of my ear.

“I’m a very clever boy. Remind me to show you later just how clever,” he remarked, his teeth grazing my earlobe before he stepped away. “I hate to leave you all alone but Sean and I are the only ones not drinking, so …”

“Be gone with you.” I shooed him away and looped my arm through Claire’s. “I’ll be fine. I’m trying to persuade Claire to tell me a ton of embarrassing stories about you.”

Declan gripped the back of his neck and bit his lip. “Maybe I shouldn’t go after all.”

When Claire accused him of being scared about what she’d reveal, he dropped his hand and fisted it at his side. “I am not.”

“You are!” she accused, laughing. “This is hilarious.” Turning, she called her husband over. “Fetu! You have to come here.”

When the Fijian joined us, she said to him, “When was the last time you saw Declan nervous?”

Fetu eyed Declan and shook his head. “His first big game, then never again. Nerves of steel, this one. Why do you ask?

Claire’s lips hitched up in a wicked grin. “Because right now he’s terrified I’m going to spill all his deep dark secrets to his Sophie.”

Declan’s eyes jumped to mine. Those weren’t nerves I saw staring back at me wide-eyed. Whatever was going on in his head was something else entirely.

Oblivious to Declan’s reaction, Fetu and Claire shared a laugh. “Leave him alone Claire. We want Sophie to stick around, not run away.”

Pushing aside my own trepidation, I fisted my hand in Declan’s shirt and pulled him to me to plant a quick kiss on his lips. “It’s fine, really. Go,” I said, pushing him away. “I won’t let Claire malign your good name … too much.”

His eyes searched mine for a beat. “Yeah, okay. Half an hour, tops, and I’ll be back.”

“I’ll be fine,” I assured him.

Famous last words, right?

For fifteen minutes, Claire stuck by my side while she shared a handful of embarrassing but harmless stories about Declan when he’d first gotten the call up to the senior team. Unfortunately when nature called, it called, and I was left standing by myself for a few minutes before I ambled toward the kitchen.

I was in the process of pouring my beer down the drain to and fill the bottle with water from the tap when Maggie and a short blonde stepped into the room behind me.

“So,” Maggie said, leaning her hip against the counter while the other women stood next to her. “You must be Declan’s latest piece.”

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