Page 27 of Sven

“My sister lived with me the summer between her freshman and sophomore year of college. I thought she might be back, but she decided to stay with the team the next summer. But regardless, I have a pool house that doubles as an apartment.”

So, he had a little sister he was close to. Green flag all the way. There was still so much to figure out about him, but she had a feeling she was going to like getting to know him... maybe too much.

“So, this is here if you ever decide, but we’ll figure out the schedule with you just staying here on road trips. Let’s head back in.”

As they headed in, the housekeeper was just cleaning up Winnie.

“I’m gonna go in the shower and get ready to head in. Do you want to fill in Natalie on Winnie’s schedule?” he asked Ms. Malone.

“Of course! You don’t have to worry about a thing.”

“Ms. Malone will be here with you all morning. I’ll be home before she leaves, in case you need anything. Then we can go over the schedule when I get home.”

“That works for me,” Natalie said with a cheerful smile.

He quickly made his way out of the room and disappeared upstairs.

“So, we’re just finished with breakfast,” she said, pulling the sweet girl out of the high chair.

“Good morning, Winnie,” Natalie said, squeezing her little hand.

“She usually goes down for a morning nap around ten and an afternoon nap around two-thirty. She just does basic baby food and snacks and bottles for nap time and bedtime.”

“Got it.”

“I can make a note of it in the files I mentioned earlier if you want me to.”

“No, I think we can figure it out.”

“Sounds good. If you give me your contact info, I can share them with you. There is one with the code to the pool house and instructions on the alarm system and thermostat and speaker system and all that stuff. And, of course, the shopping list.”

“Sounds good,” Natalie said as she wrote down her phone number and email on a piece of paper to give to her.

She took Winnie to the floor and got out some toys. It would take some getting used to, but so far, Winnie seemed like a pretty chill baby, and this house was beautiful. Yeah, she could get used to this, and she was starting to rethink staying at the pool house.

But while she was thinking about staying here, the reason she shouldn’t made his way down the stairs. Surely, the shock of his hotness had to wear off. Sven rounded the corner, with his blond hair slicked back, a magic T-shirt on, and some athletic pants. He walked right over to her and dropped to his knees. Her heart nearly beat out of her chest. What was he doing? Then he bentdown farther and placed a loud kiss on his baby girl’s squishy cheek.

Of course, he was just kissing his baby goodbye. No need to panic. What was the matter with her?

“Okay, I’m outta here. I’m running a little late. I’ll be home, but I just realized I didn’t ask if you were available for late nights... Ya know, with games and all.”

“Oh . . . yeah, of course.”

“Okay, I’ll see you after practice. Tomorrow is a game day, though.”

“Perfect, see you later.”

12

Sven

Sven made his way to the Magic center. He was having conflicting feelings about leaving Winnie. Even though he trusted Natalie with her, with the way Stacie had disappeared, a part of him was nervous she might show back up. Or what if Winnie wasn’t comfortable with Natalie? Or what if she got fussy? Would she know that she liked to be worn in the baby carrier he’d bought? He should have shown her that.

At a red light, he thought about pulling up her contact and telling her where it was. Instead, he just closed his eyes and took a deep breath. She could handle it.

By the time he made it to the center and into the meeting room for the team meeting and video review, he was one of the last ones there. He took a deep breath and sighed. He was dreading what he was about to do, but he knew he needed to do it.

“Coach,” he said as he walked up to Coach Wagner.

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