Page 50 of Romancing My Grumpy Goalie

“Maybe next time,” Lucas promises. “Today it needs to dry out more.”

Will there be a next time? Whatever happened to keeping the relationship to mentoring only?

But deep down, I don’t want Lucas at arm’s length. I want more days in the park like this, feeling the breeze, laughing, and bonding with Lucas. Running my fingers through his dark hair, letting his stubble scrape against my cheek.

But for everyone’s sakes, I have to keep that my little secret.

SIXTEEN

LUCAS

After gettingmy morning coffee in the kitchen, I head to the sunroom, my man cave where I work on my RC cars. I have shelves neatly lined with various vehicles I’ve built and upgraded over the years when I’m not doing soccer stuff. I have a table set up in the middle of the room where I sit and tinker. The Maxx is sitting there all torn apart. I set my mug on the table and begin cleaning.

Thankfully, the damage from the submersion was minimal. These electric RC cars are pretty resistant to moisture. I smile at the memory of Nolan flipping the Maxx into the water. I wasn’t worried about the damage because all the parts to these vehicles can be customized and swapped. Nolan was a natural at the hobby and soaked the information right up.

I put the battery on the charger since it’s finally dry enough and take a sip of my coffee.

Nolan had looked so devastated when he’d thought he’d ruined my Maxx. But when I taught him how to fix it, he’d looked at me like I was his hero. I’ve had plenty of kids treat me that way, which is pretty normal for a pro soccer player to experience. But this was different.

When I was a kid, I looked at my dad the same way. Until he left. I worshipped him for the longest time. He wasn’t always good to me, even when he was with my mom. He always got so frustrated when my room wasn’t clean enough. No matter how hard I tried, he complained. My mom was so stressed all the time. But I was only five, and when he left, I cleaned my room every day, hoping it would make him come back. But he never did.

He couldn’t handle being a dad. And I wasn’t the easiest kid.

It’s what I do. I make life harder.

I stand and walk over to my shelf of RC cars and pull a little crawler down. It needs new shocks, but I happen to have a spare in the top drawer from a crawler I upgraded last month. Over the years, as I’ve upgraded various vehicles, I’ve gifted them to fans. I upgraded this one last year, but since I was injured, I wasn’t around my fans as much.

Tinkering on these cars has helped me get through my injury. I’d watched all the seasons of multiple shows, and I couldn’t take the idleness anymore. So, I got back into the hobby. I’d loved it as a kid. My stepdad introduced me to it when I was about Nolan’s age.

The championship game is only days away. I should be focusing on warmups, team drills, and scouting reports. But all I can think about is how Nolan’s face lit up when I let him drive the Maxx.

Once I have it fixed up, I grab some lunch and then tuck the crawler into a box with the remote, charger, and battery and head out to my truck.

Anabelle’s car is parked at the boutique when I get there. Nolan should still be in school, so I won’t be there to see his reaction when I give him the crawler, but I’ll have to teach him later how to use it. There are some rocks behind the boutiquethat would be fun to use the crawler on. This one is a little black Jeep Wrangler, and I have a cowboy figurine behind the wheel.

I grab the box with the Jeep and supplies and head into the boutique.

Anabelle is staring at her phone when I enter. She turns it face down and places it near the register. “Hey, Lucas. What do you have there?”

I set the box on the counter. “It’s a gift for Nolan.”

She peeks inside. “Oh, how cute! He’s going to love this!”

“I thought the Maxx would be a little too much power for his age, but this one is perfect. It’s for crawling around on rocks and mounds of dirt. It’s more for precision, not speed.”

“That sounds like a good one for him, although I’m sure he’d want the fast one, too.” She smiles.

“And maybe he can work up to that,” I say.

Her eyes soften. “This was so nice of you. Thank you for thinking of my boy.”

“He’s a great kid.”

Her phone pings, and she flips it over. “I’m sorry. I have some drama going on with Nolan’s father.”

“What’s going on?” Why do I suddenly feel so protective of this woman and her son?

She sweeps a hand across her forehead, like she’s bone-deep tired. “Jeremy is threatening legal action. He says he wants shared custody of Nolan.”

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