Page 29 of Risky Game

I crossed my arms across my chest to prevent myself from reaching for her. “You okay?”

“Of course.”

A lie. Obvious with the way she scrunched her nose and glanced toward Amelia’s room before responding. “That was really rough. I wasn’t expecting Amelia to be like that.”

“You don’t have to apologize for your four-year-old daughter, Logan. She’s been through a lot in her little life.”

All true things. That didn’t make it okay. “Regardless, I’m sorry about that. Hopefully, she’ll adjust quickly.”

Her smile wavered, and doubt shone in her ocean-blue eyes. “I’m sure she will.”

Her confidence matched mine, and I should have probably left, but after the night, I didn’t want to be alone, worrying about how I was failing Amelia any more than I wanted to think about all the small comments she dropped about Vanessa. “Can we talk? About the rest of the week?”

Ruby’s eyes widened and she darted her gaze to her bedroom and back to me. “In here?”

With only a bed to sit on? Absolutely not.

“Downstairs? It’s a busy week, so I’d like to run through the schedule with you.”

“Sure. Give me five minutes?”

“Perfect.”

Less than five minutes later, I was sitting at the kitchen table, scribbling down not only Amelia’s normal routine, but my schedule and all the numbers Ruby would need to know to get ahold of me. I never took my cell phone onto the practice field with me, so she couldn’t reach me that way. It’d probably be better to print it out, too, or something, but I hadn’t thought that far ahead. Hopefully, my writing was legible for her.

She entered the kitchen and went straight to the fridge, refilling a water jug she’d carried around with her most of the night.

She took the chair across from me, and I didn’t glance up until she was fully seated, legs hidden beneath the table. She wore the same oversized, pale yellow shirt she had on earlier, so large it draped off one shoulder.

No bra strap in sight.

I focused on my laptop and pushed the notebook in her direction.

“Wednesdays are the team’s busiest and longest days once the season really starts. I know I told you I’d be able to get Amelia up and ready in the mornings, and I will most days. But I need to be at the facility by seven tomorrow.”

“Okay. Can I have that pen?”

I slid it toward her. She scratched out something I wrote and rewrote it in her own hand.

“Can’t read it?”

She glanced up and that pretty nose of hers wrinkled, making her glasses bounce on the bridge of her nose. “Your penmanship says doctor not coach.”

I chuckled. “Not the first time I’ve been told I was better suited for prescription scribbling.”

“I can get the numbers you wrote down. Those at least make sense. I’m assuming you won’t have your phone on you?”

“Not while I’m on the field, no. In meetings and times like that, I might, if I remember to grab it, which I’ll try to do for a while in case you have questions.”

She scanned the sheet of paper, flipped a page, and when she looked up at me again, she was blushing. “Maybe just walk me through everything else again and I’ll write it?”

“No problem,” I said, once again laughing.

God, she was cute. And fun to be around. Once Amelia warmed up to Ruby, I had no doubt they’d become fast friends.

I shook all the thoughts of her beauty away and walked her through everything I’d already written down.

When we were done, Ruby surprised me by saying, “I called all the local preschools today.”

---