Page 19 of Game Changer

Another wave of laughter rolls through the room, and I can’t help but chuckle, bouncing her on my hip.

Another question gets thrown at her. “How do you and your mommy like living in Blue Valley with your daddy?”

“We don’t live together, but we’re a family and love each othersomuch. And Daddy and Mommy?—”

“All right, all right, I think that’s enough for one night.”

“Daddy,” she whispers loudly, her voice carrying through the mic, “did I do good?”

I kiss her on the forehead. “You did perfectly. But next time, you wait outside like we talked about, deal?”

She nods solemnly then flashes the reporters her biggest, toothiest grin. “Okay! Bye!”

As I carry her out of the room, the reporters cheer and clap, and I know tomorrow’s headlines won’t just be about the game. They’ll be about the three-year-old who stole the spotlight.

As we’re walking out of the press room, she asks, “Can we do that again?”

“Miss Lily.” Lindsey shakes her head.

“Mommy”—she pouts out her lower lip—“Daddy needed help.”

Lily crashed in my arms mid-conversation with the Blue Valley matriarchs, who have embraced the hell out of Lindsey, which I am truly grateful for. The second generation BV babes, now including Cupcake—Sydney Sparks—have also embraced her. They talked about New Year’s Eve and asked if Lily would want to join the kids at Harper and Maddox’s house, who would be with the grandparents, and Lindsey said she’d think about it. That’s progress.

I came back to the house with them, knowing my sweet little girl would throw one of her epic tantrums if she woke up and I hadn’t said goodnight to her. Plus, I wanted to talk to Linds to see what more I could do to help her adjust to life here.

Lying in Lily’s room, even with her little white noise machine going, I can hear Lindsey’s repeated apologies to whoever she’s talking to on the phone. I block that shit because I’ve offered to handle it, and she’s not about that, so I have to respect that until it gets to a certain point—a point I’ll know when I get to it, I suppose.

She’s the girl I hooked up with all those years ago in college, who got pregnant and didn’t know it because her cycles had never been right and was a mess when she found out she was too far along to take a pill—thank fuck. Turned out this little one is everything. I can’t imagine life without her. Hell, even when I was fighting for whatever time I could get, I still cherished every moment. I know Lindsey feels the same. I just need to get her to remember that girl who was loving life at Jersey U. The girl who got drunk and told, not asked me, that I was gonna help her checkfuck an athlete and not a math-leteoff her list of shit sheneeded to do before heading back to her preplanned life in South Carolina.

I press my lips to the top of Lily’s little head and can’t help but smile.

Lindsey enters the room and whispers, “What’s the smile about?”

I shake my head. “Piss-poor timing to try to make you laugh. Everything okay?”

“Make me laugh?” she says as she leans against the door.

“You good?”

“Boone,” she whisper-hisses, narrowing her eyes at me.

“All right, you asked for it,” I warn.

“Spill it.”

“I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop, but hearing you apologizing to someone who I probably wouldn’t, I was thinking about that night you demanded I tick a box.”

“I did not demand.”

“Shit, you’re right.” I quirk an eyebrow. “That wasn’t you who wanted an athlete and not a math?—”

“Shush,” she says and almost smiles.

“In your defense, you were drunk.”

“I was,” she agrees with a nod. “And you were, too.”

“Jesus, look at what we made out of that night, Linds. Look at what we did.”

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