Page 93 of Nanny for the Athletes

The Jaguars answered with a quick touchdown of their own, and then we were back on the field. I caught two passes as we slowly marched down the field, with Christian handing the ball off to our running back on the other plays. After one especially decisive running play, we ended up on the three-yard line. On first down, we tried another running play that didn’t work out. We did it again on second down, but only gained one yard. Now it was third down on the two-yard line.

The crowd was whipped into a frenzy when the ball was snapped. Christian pretended to hand the ball to the running back, but it was a fake. I had a button route to the back corner of the end zone, a route which totally fooled the defender in charge of covering me. Christian’s helmeted gaze swung in my direction—he saw me. I was wide open.

But then he abruptly charged forward. He faked a throw to me, which caused two of the defenders to pause. Then Christian tucked the ball under his arm, made three long strides, and dove across the goal line for a touchdown.

I pumped a fist. “Let’s gooooo!” The cheering in the stadium was so loud I couldn’t hear my own voice. I headed over to celebrate with Christian, but he was running past me with a huge grin on his face. I understood what he was doing a moment later: he leaped into the crowd, tossed the football to a little boy a few rows back, and then lifted his helmet to give Beth a big kiss.

Which wasslightlylonger than the kiss I’d given her.

He gave Claire a high-five, then patted Logan on his bearded cheek before dropping back down to the field.

“That’ll give the tabloids something to talk about,” he said while running up to celebrate with me.

I gave him a huge smack on the ass and laughed while the cheers rained down around us.I love our weird little polyamorous group.

37

Beth

“It’s a shame they lost!” I said as we left the stadium with the rest of the fans. “I can’t believe the Jaguars kicked a field goal to win it.”

“What’s a field goal?” Claire asked. She was clutching the souvenir football to her chest.

“Remember when they kicked the ball through the big yellow poles?” Logan said. “That’s a field goal. It’s worth three points.”

“Why don’t they kick the ball every time?” she asked.

“Because this sport is dumb,” Logan said, “and inferior to hockey in every way.”

“I like hockey!” Claire chirped. “The puck zooms all around. It’s fun to watch.”

Logan put his arm around her and glanced at me. “I’ve never been prouder in my life.”

We had parked our cars in the garage underneath Christian’s building a few blocks from the stadium. The original plan was to hang out at his place after the game, but after losing that nailbiter of a game, I figured Christian would want to be left alone.

Logan and I said our goodbyes in the garage, sharing a soft kiss while Claire shouted, “GROSS!”

I helped Suzie put all the dogs to bed when I got home, then went inside with Hank. I wanted nothing more than to change into my pajamas and crawl in bed, but I had a lot of administrative work to do before tomorrow.

“They don’t tell you how muchpaperworkis involved in running your own business,” I told Hank. “I thought I would be playing with dogs all day.”

Hank responded by rolling over to face the other direction on the floor.

After an hour of paperwork, I got a text.

Christian: You didn’t want to wait for me at my place after the game?

Me: I didn’t think you would be in the mood! I know how important that game was, and it must suck to lose it at the very end.

Christian: We’ve suffered worse losses. You could’ve helped me forget all about it ;-)

Me: I’m sorry! Next time I’ll stay.

Christian: The night’s not over yet. Are you tucked into bed yet?

Me: Not yet. Why?

I winced as I waited for his response. I would have loved to see Christian tonight, but it was late, and I didn’t want to drive half an hour into the city after driving there and back once today.

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