Page 70 of Power Play Pursuit

Even among the crowd of octogenarians, James’ bombshell drops hard, and they all gasp.

“You are dating?” Esther asks, eyes darting between the two of us. “That’s fantastic.”

“Took you long enough,” Grandma chuckles, placing her hand over mine.

“Grandma!” I exclaim with a laugh. Really! Was everyone waiting on me to finally cave? Because it certainly seems so.

“And you,” she continues, eyes narrowing on James. “Don’t break my granddaughter’s heart, or you’ll be answering to me.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He nods vigorously, then shoots me a wink, clearly unfazed by my grandma’s threats. Granted, she’s probably not that scary to him. But even still, there’s a determination and a sincerity in his eyes. I don’t know how I didn’t notice it from the beginning. “Although she’s more likely to break mine.”

He smirks at me, and I just shake my head.

We play a few rounds, but before long, it’s already time to go. We say goodbye, and I excuse myself to use the restrooms. As I step back into the foyer, my bag hooks on a doorknob, and some of the contents of my bag fall to the floor. I crouch down to pick them up.

“Here,” someone says, handing me my favorite night cream.

“Thanks.” I lift my head to see Janice grinning at me.

She gives me a knowing look. “It’s a good one. I’ve been using it my whole life.”

I blink back, surprised. “Oh, really! I love it too. Glad to know it really makes a difference.”

“It does.” She gestures to her skin. “Just look at my face. Not a lot of wrinkles for an eighty-two-year-old, right?”

My smile widens as I nod, placingthe rest of my stuff in my bag. “Definitely not. You look great.”

As I stand up and wave her goodbye, I bite my lip. Now, I have to find Grandma, ASAP.

After I track her down, I spill the beans on Janice’s big secret. Grandma is still highly suspicious of her youthful neighbor despite my explanation, so I leave her to ruminate on it. With that settled, we can finally go to the restaurant. We stroll hand in hand, as if we’ve been dating for months, but in a way, that’s how I’ve always felt with James. Comfortable. I just needed a little push, that’s all.

We approach the restaurant, and a couple of women stop dead in their tracks when they spot us—well, James.

“Oh my gosh, you’re James Adler. We’re huge Raptors fans,” the shortest one gushes. “It’s so crazy to meet you here.”

“Hi,” James says with a smile. “It’s nice to meet you.”

She agitates her hands, her beaming smile stretching across her face. “Can we take a picture together?”

He casts me a glance, and I nod, taking a step back.

“Absolutely,” he says, grabbing one of their phones and taking a selfie with them.

“Can we also get a hug?” her friend asks, blushing.

He hugs them both in turn, and I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a little weird. True, he’s not giving them the same hug he reserves for me, but I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to seeing my man with other women in his arms. Maybe with time.

“That was weird, right?” James says once they’re gone.

I shrug. “What do you mean? Isn’t that a pretty standard fan interaction for you?”

He frowns. “Yeah. But I don’t know. Now it feels different, somehow. It’s the hug. Maybe I should switch to fist bumps instead. They’ll call me, James ‘The Fist’—nah. James ‘The Bump’ Adler?” He winces. “We’ll work on the name.”

I laugh. “Yeah.”

“Or maybe, for once, they’ll give me a nickname based on my actual game. How crazy would that be?” he says with a chuckle. “The scorer?Crab,no. It’s already taken. Or why not The Chaser? That works pretty well.”

I shoot him a smile. I love it when he rambles like that. “It’s perfect.”

---