Page 71 of Nanny for the Athletes

I was a nervous bundle of excitement the rest of the afternoon and the entire next day. Braden and Christian had made their interest in me clear, but Logan was far more reserved. Giving me a ticket to the game might have been a romantic gesture, or he might have simply been apologizing for dumping Claire on me.

And then there was the fact that Braden was coming, too. I wasn’t surewhatto think of that.

The Wide Receiver picked me up later that evening. Suzie gave us a big wave and insisted that we have a good time.

“Hopefully she doesn’t let the dogs go wild again, like the night in the limo,” Braden said as we got into his Miata.

“She’s gotten the hang of everything.” I held up my phone. “Besides, we installed a new security system. There are cameras all over my property. I can check on the kennel whenever I want.”

“Nice.” The leather creaked as he leaned across the console toward me. “By the way: hello.”

“Hi.”

His hand slid along my cheek, cupping my face as he leaned close enough to kiss me. My body came alive at the touch of his lips, urgent and needy. Even though he’d spent the night just three days ago, it felt like so much longer.

“Now that’s out of the way,” he said with a grin, “I need you to try something for me.”

He handed me an opaque plastic bottle. It was a dark brown, similar to a bottle of chocolate milk, except the label said: ALPHA MILK.

“What’s this?”

“This company wants me to sponsor their new athletic drink,” Braden explained. “They sent me a huge box of the stuff. It’s packed with protein for post-exercise recovery. Try it.”

I opened the top and gave it a sniff. It had a jumble of competing smells, making it difficult to discern what the flavor would be. I took a sip, and barely managed to swallow it down.

“Ugh, Braden!” I sputtered. “This tastes like someone mixed vodka with spoiled chocolate milk.”

He grinned. “That’s pretty much what it is. Except for the spoiled part.”

I looked more closely at the label. “Ten percent alcohol by volume?!”

“Fuck yeah!” he replied excitedly.

All I could do was stare at him. “Why would there be alcohol in a post-exercise recovery drink?”

“To get a good post-workout buzz.” His enthusiasm was waning. “It seemed like a cooler idea when my agent explained it to me.”

I patted Braden on the thigh. “Sweetie. You can’t sponsor this stuff. It’s horrible.”

“Damn, all right,” he muttered. “That sucks, because they were going to give me like two million just to slap my name and face on some advertisements. I wouldn’t even have to do commercials.”

“Two milliondollars?”I stared at the bottle in my hand. “Nevermind. Forget I said anything. Take the deal.”

He frowned at me. “But I don’t want to endorse something that sucks. I want people to trust me.”

“For two million dollars,” I said, “you can hire someone to personally apologize to every person who ever buys this stuff.”

Braden laughed. “Dope. Thanks for being my guinea pig. You ready to watch some hockey?”

“I’m glad I’m not going alone,” I admitted as we began driving. “I’m not ahugehockey fan, although it will be fun watching Logan play now that I know him better.”

“These seats are great. Logan always has access to two front-row tickets,” Braden explained while driving. “If he wants more than two tickets, we have to sit farther up. Christian mentioned coming, but I told him to stay the fuck home so we can sit in the front.”

I laughed. “Makes sense.”

“Besides, he got to hog you the other night. It’s my turn.”

Since the topic was brought up, I decided to ask a probing question. “I’m surprised you guys are so cool about… dating me at the same time. You joke about being jealous and stuff, but you don’t seemlegitimatelyjealous.”

---