Page 66 of Risky Game

Amelia was sitting at the edge of the pool with Molly on one side of her and Maggie Hall at the end.

She and my running back, Davis, were married in the off-season, and she was now holding her infant daughter to her chest, tugging down on the pink and white brim of her sunhat.

“Daddy! There’s Miss Ruby!” Amelia squeezed my hand and pointed to Ruby with the other.

“I know. Want to hand me your towel and sandals so you can go say hi or jump in the pool?”

Her hand squeezed mine together and for once, her voice wasn’t at a shrieking, high volume level. “There are lots of kids in there.”

“There are.” I couched down and squeezed her shoulders. “Remember what we talked about? How Daddy helps coach all these guys here and their kids wanted to meet you? That way you can have friends to play with if you ever come to my games.”

She scanned the pool and her eyes grew wide, face paled. Turning back to me, she put her hand on my arm. “I can stay with you.”

She was nervous. Not unexpected. For as outgoing as she was, she wasn’t used to large groups of children. One of the reasons why I so desperately hoped a spot in one of the preschools would open up. “Okay. You can stay with me for a bit or go see Miss Ruby.”

“No. Your games. I’ll stay with you.”

I bit back my laugh and a smile, glancing toward the crowd. Ruby was facing away from me, so all I saw was the back of her head, but Molly and Maggie were laughing at something. She hadn’t seen me yet.

Good.

“We’ll talk about my games another time.” Hopefully, that appeased Amelia. “For now, do you want to get a snack? Go for a swim? Or say hi to Miss Ruby?”

Her lime green Crocs brushed against the pavement and her nose wrinkled. She needed to decide soon. I wanted to be on the opposite side of the pool before Ruby saw me, so I gauged her expression.

The edges of Amelia’s lips pushed down and she finally sighed. “I’ll go see Miss Ruby and that baby.”

“All right. Go on.”

She headed in their direction like she was walking a plank, keeping a close eye on the chaos going on in the pool. I hurried around the pool, nodding hello to some of the wives I’d already met. There’d be time to talk later. I wanted to see…

Her cheeks turned a furious shade of pink and her ocean-blue eyes widened when Amelia settled her hand on her shoulder. Instantly, Ruby looked behind Amelia, asked her a question, but there was no hiding the desire, and quite possibly, the irritation swimming in her eyes as she found me across the pool.

I reached down and grabbed an ice-cold water bottle and lifted it in her direction.

Ruby’s eyes flared and I was pretty damn certain her chest heaved with heavier breaths.

Oh yeah… She’d listened to me. I could tell from the way she bit down on the corner of her lip, glanced back at Molly and then at Amelia before her tongue swept along her bottom lip.

It was that easy. That one needy and wanting look from her and I chugged the entire bottle of water.

“Glad you could come,” Cole approached, beer in one hand, wearing only red swim trunks. He held out his free hand and I forced myself to tear my gaze off Ruby’s and onto him.

“Thanks for planning this. I really appreciate it. And your ankle isn’t wrapped.”

“It’s good to be around us every once in a while, get to know us, so stop working,” Cole said, smiling. “Ankle’s fine. Don’t want it wrapped if I get in the pool with Jasper.”

“Where is he?” His son wasn’t that much older than Amelia.

“Backyard.” He gestured to the part of the yard where a handful of players and a half-dozen young boys were tossing around a football.

“And you tell me not to work.” Mason Yeets, one of our wide receivers, who wasn’t even a parent but was still here, was out there with them, tossing the ball in the air so the kids had to scramble to catch it.

“You tell Yeets there’s a party, and he’s not missing it. How you been? Where’s your little girl?”

“Amelia,” I told him and then looked back where she’d been. She was now sitting next to Maggie, her little mouth moving nonstop as her fingers played with the brim of the baby’s hat. “Sitting with Maggie.”

“Ah. All the kids are obsessed with Lulu. I’m not surprised.”

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