Page 59 of Stick Play

“Uh…”

“Emma, Charlotte, come here.”

They hurry over and both gasp when they see me. “Told you I knew him. Come here.”

Before I realize what’s happening, they surround me, and Callie starts taking a bunch of selfies.

“Uh, okay. I better get going.”

“You’re not staying for a ride,” she murmurs, rubbing up against me.

“I have an early morning. Travel day tomorrow.”

She pouts. “Call me when you get back? Maybe we can hit up a pub before I go home.”

“Uh…”

“Yeah, I don’t know. I’m pretty busy.”

“Ash,” she cries out and tangles herself around me. “Please.”

Taking a play from Gina’s book, I say, “We’ll see.” Honestly, I have no intentions of calling her. I just said it so I could untangle myself from this situation.

“I look forward to it.”

“See you, Ash.” The girls trot off, and as Callie opens the side door to her grandmother’s house, I glance up and see Gina move past her window. I need to get the fuck out of here. But then, as though moving of their own accord, my feet move, and I find myself headed back up the steps, two at a time. Even though I have a key, I knock on Gina’s door, and when she doesn’t answer, I call out. “Gina, it’s me. Dad went to my place by mistake.”

The door swings open and the second I see her, standing there in the jersey Dad gave her, her hair flared around her shoulders, her cheeks a pretty shade of pink, my heart starts pounding hard.

“Gina,” is all I manage to say as I step inside and lock the door behind me. “You…” My gaze moves over her again, admiring her bare legs, and the way her hard nipples are poking against the jersey. “Do you have any idea what seeing you in this does to me?” I lightly rub the sleeve between my thumb and index finger.

She grins, because yeah, she does know. “You were really good tonight, Ash,” she tells me, her voice low and breathless.

My heart thumps and I too am a bit breathless when I murmur, “Yeah.”

She quivers when I exhale that one word and I can’t stop looking at her in my jersey wondering if she’s wearing panties, or is completely naked beneath the shirt. My fingers itch to touch her, to explore all that’s hidden from my hungry gaze.

“But now…”

“Now what?” I ask.

“Now I want you to be bad.”

19

Gina

He called me his girlfriend.

Sure, it was a slip, a mistake—Freudian perhaps—and then he tried to walk it back. Yet, despite all that, I liked it. A lot. It was a healing salve to my damaged soul. I can’t explain why or how, but suddenly, I’m tired of being afraid, of worrying that every man is going to hurt me or my daughter because they’re not who they say they are.

Ash Wheeler is a good guy. He’s proven that over and over again, and while I no longer have any idea what’s happening between us, I do know that I’m finding it harder and harder to fight what I’m really feeling for this man. Is it love? I can’t say for sure, because I’m not sure I ever knew what love was. What I felt for Lucian, well…I thought that was love. Now, I know it wasn’t.

But I am sure that Ash cares about me, my daughter, his father, and his teammates. He’d do anything for any one of us, and I used to think he took care of me because I was friends with the WAGs. I’m not so sure about that anymore, either. Seems like I’m not too sure about a lot of things.

Maybe the WAGs—my good friends—are right. Maybe Ash and I are perfect together—a word he’s used a time or two where I’m concerned—and while I worry about Zoe getting too close, maybe she could still have Grant in her life if Ash and I go our different ways. Wow, I just used the word if, not when.

Does that mean I want something more? I think it does. Does it mean even if Ash doesn’t, Zoe could still have a faux grandfather? I think it does. Zoe and Grant seem to love hanging out, both seem to need each other in their lives. Right now, however, what I need is the man standing before me—in my life and my bed. He swallows as he gazes at me like he’s dying to see what’s underneath the jersey. Perhaps I shouldn’t keep him guessing.

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