“Nothing but the best for you, baby.” I stopped at the rack just inside the equipment room. “Grab two of those poles off the wall and I’ll get the discs.”
She blinked at me. “What poles?”
“The long ones with the pronged ends.” I picked up the bins with the discs and carried them out to the courts.
Lucy followed behind me, and I heard her snort when she saw the elongated triangle that indicated what game I’d chosen.
“Shuffleboard?”
“Deck shuffleboard, actually. Regular shuffleboard is played on a tabletop with your hands. This one uses sticks called poles.” I faced her. “Have you ever played?”
She rolled her eyes.
“Right. Okay. I’ll explain the rules.” After I finished, I said, “Any questions?”
“Are you a PE teacher?”
It appeared we were back to her trying to guess my occupation. “No.”
“Are you an activities director for a senior citizens’ home?”
What the fuck? “God no.”
“Then how do you know—”
“Quit stalling. Time to play. You’re yellow; you go first.”
She put the disc down and lined the pole up. She went to push the disc but didn’t maintain her grip on the pole and it went flying across the playing surface, while the disc didn’t move at all.
For christsake, man . . . Do. Not. Laugh.
Then she turned and glared at me.
“You’ll get it this time,” I encouraged her.
Lucy managed to move all four of her discs. Two were completely out of play since they weren’t even on the board. The other two were easy for me to knock out of play when my turn came.
At the end of the first round the score was Lucy zero; Jax . . . thirty.
It was tempting to throw the game, but I was too damn competitive. Plus, it would piss her off more if she suspected I’d let her win. So I did the same thing with the discs as I did with a puck: put it exactly where I wanted it.
End of round two, the final score was Lucy minus twenty; Jax . . . seventy-five.
“Yay, you won. Can we go now?”
I laughed. “No. It’s the best three out of five games, not a single game.”
“Then I concede.”
“Huh-uh. This time I’ll help you with your pole handling.”
Her lips curved into a naughty smile. “I’m down with that.”
I directed her into the 10-off zone, and stood behind her, with my left hand on her left hip and my right hand curled around the pole just below hers. “Now put the tip against the disc. Don’t bump it; push it. Straighten your wrist and keep a firm grip on your pole so your hand isn’t sliding up and down like this.” As soon as my hand enclosed hers and I demonstrated that sliding motion, her breath caught.
She wiggled her ass against my groin and said, “So I’m not supposed to use the pole like this?” She moved her hand up and down the pole in long, sensuous strokes, as if she had her fist wrapped around my pole.
Instant erection.
“Then I don’t suppose I’m supposed to do this either?” she practically purred as she turned her wrist and slid her hand over the pole in short, fast bursts.
Yeah, baby, that’s how I like it.
“I’d think it wouldn’t matter how you held on to this thicker part of the shaft, because whether it’s long and slow, or short and fast . . . it gets the job done,” she cooed in a sultry tone.
“Lucy,” I gritted out, “you’re not supposed to move your hand up and down the pole at all. It’s supposed to stay in one place.”
“Oh. My bad.” Then she squeezed her fist around the pole and released. Squeezed and released, perfectly aware that my hand was still on top of hers, so it felt like—
“Are we going to shoot this off? Or do I need more help on my pole-handling technique?”
I slid my fingers around her hip and spread my hand across her pelvis, pulling her ass more tightly against my crotch as I nosed aside her hair to reach her ear. “You’ve got exquisite technique, dirty girl, making my damn dick hard when we’re playing shuffleboard.”
She turned her head and captured my lips, kissing me with heat, teasing me with sugar bites and small flicks of her tongue, rendering me immobile since she controlled the angle of the kiss and I sure as hell didn’t want to break the spell she’d put me under.
“Jax,” she finally murmured.
“Yeah, baby?”
“Will you let me concede now?”
“No. Way.”
A loud harrumph left her mouth, and she jerked on the pole, surprising me and sending the disc caroming across the court.
It landed in the ten-point spot perfectly.
For a brief moment I wondered if I had a ringer on my hands, but then her next shot went as wild as her previous ones.
Even after I beat her all three games, I knew she’d had a good time.
Since she had to work the next morning, we ended the night early, but we lingered by her car in the Perkins parking lot like a pair of infatuated teens who didn’t want to say good-bye.
“When’s the next time I’ll see you?” she asked.
“Not until next week. I’ve got a bunch of family commitments this weekend, and then as soon as that’s over, I’m out of town for several more days.” I brushed my lips across the crown of her head. “I’ll text you. Or call you. Sorry that’s how it’ll play out this week.”
“Okay.”
When she didn’t tack on a snarky comment, I nudged her chin up and stared into her eyes. “Talk to me.”
“I honestly don’t mind that we’re not seeing each other every night. Don’t get me wrong; I like being with you. But I also like getting to know you through text messages and phone conversations. The lust is starting to get pretty intense, and that’s not all there is between us.” She paused. “Am I wrong?”
“No, you’re right. I didn’t want to sound like I was feeding you full of shit, but even after just four dates and two weeks, you know more about me than I’ve ever let anyone else see. You’ve got no preconceived ideas about me. I can just be Jax, the charmingly annoying man you met at the car wash who interested you enough to keep going out on dates with him.”
“That’s true.”
“And you can be Lucy, the most charmingly blunt and beautiful woman I’ve ever had the pleasure of spending time with.”
She kissed me then. Sweetly, tenderly, softly. Her ability to recognize when I needed comfort instead of just passion absolutely bowled me over.
“Have a good week, Jaxson. I can’t wait to see you again.”
* * *
• • •
Any idea when Mimi will be back?” Nolan said, bringing me back to the here and now.
“She and Calder are hanging out in the rec room for a while.”
“Great. Then let’s watch these Iowa assholes get their asses handed to them by the Gophers.”
We returned to watching the game, forgoing any mention of our previous conversation.
Right as the game ended, the apartment door opened and Mimi skipped inside. “Hey, guess what? Calder got a cell phone!”
“That is cool,” Nolan said. “Speaking of, girlie-girl, come over here and sit by me for a sec.”
Mimi bounded over the back of the couch—damn Jensen for teaching her that little trick.
Nolan laughed. “Good thing your dad isn’t paying too much for this furniture. I’d whoop your butt if you did that to my leather sofa.”
She rolled her eyes as if that’d ever happen. Her uncle Nolan was a sucker for her and she knew it. “Am I in trouble or something?” she asked him.
“No. But I have something special for you.”
While Nolan reached inside his messenger bag, I took the chair opposite the couch to
see what he was up to. Nolan spoiled Mimi—he considered it his right as her only uncle—and Lucy and I mostly let him as long as his gifts weren’t too outrageous.
Nolan set a box on the coffee table.
A cell phone box.
Mimi gasped.
Since Nolan knew me so well, he held up his hand to forestall my immediate “hell no” response.
“This phone is exactly like Calder’s. It’s from Grandpa Archer and Grandma Edie, just like Calder got his phone from his Grandpa Ward and Grandma Selka. It’s not a fun phone for you to play games on, okay? It’s a safety tool. And having it carries great responsibilities, understand?”
She nodded.
“You’ll have to learn to put it in your backpack every day before school. You’ll have to remember to charge it every night before you go to bed. We’ve already preprogrammed phone numbers in it, like your mom’s and your dad’s, Grandpa’s and Grandma’s, and mine, with our pictures, so it’ll be easy for you to make calls. We’ve also listed 911 for emergencies, and the security desk at Lund Industries.”
That made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. What in the hell was going on?
“So you’ll have to be really careful that you don’t accidentally call either of those numbers, okay?”
“Okay.”
“But those numbers are important in case you ever get lost and you can’t get ahold of anyone else on your phone contact list. Those are your safety calls.”
Mimi gave him a thoughtful look. “Can I add my friends to my phone?”
Nolan shook his head. “This is a test to see if you’re big enough to follow these phone rules first before you get extra privileges with this one.”
Who did Nolan think he was, setting down rules for my daughter?
“Can I at least put Calder’s number in it?” she pleaded.
“Yep.”
She grinned and bounced off the couch. “I’m gonna go get him right now!” Then she looked at me. “Uh, is that okay, Daddy?”
“Make it fast, Meems.”
And she was zipping out the door.
As soon as she was gone, I said, “What the fuck, Nolan?”
His cool, assessing eyes met mine. “You and Lucy have been arguing over whether Mimi is too young for a cell phone since you lived in Chicago. It has fuck-all to do with Mimi and everything to do with a power play between you two.”
“Exactly. She is our daughter and we’ll make the decisions about what she can and can’t have. Not you. Not Mom and Dad. Jesus. Lucy is gonna blow her goddamned top over this. There’s no way she’ll believe I had nothing to do with it.”
Nolan’s eyes narrowed. “Do you hear yourself? That’s why we took the decision out of your hands. It’s not about which one of you can buy Mimi the fanciest cell phone and who she’ll love more. This is strictly a safety precaution.”
“Why?” I demanded.
“Last week, one of the Melgard grandchildren got separated from her class during a field trip. The outing was rural enough there were concerns about her roaming around lost in the woods, and the outing was just urban enough that there were four roads intersecting the area where anyone could’ve picked her up. There was a lot of ground to cover when she went missing. If she’d had a trackable device like this”—he pointed to the box—“as well as instructions on its importance to her safety and how to use it, then it wouldn’t have taken them twelve hours to find her.”
My gut twisted. I said, “Why wasn’t this in the news?” even when “Lindbergh baby” popped into my head. That kidnapping and murder had happened decades ago, but no one had ever forgotten the horror of that sick incident. The Melgard family were titans in the Midwest, owning a chain of home-improvement stores that were worth billions, so our family similarities weren’t lost on me.
“My understanding is the family immediately had their personal security firm handling the search, not the local authorities. The girl attends a private school, so no one spoke to the media. They found her sleeping in a barn, six miles from where her class had been.” Nolan ran his hand through his hair. “She was scared and hungry and confused. But it could’ve turned out a lot differently.”
“How old is she?”
“Six.”
“Jesus.”
“After the incident was whispered about among the Twin Cities elite at some fund-raiser last week, the Lund patriarchy met with our security detail. They made this decision for Mimi. And they volunteered me to be the messenger.”
“Who got stuck delivering the message for Jensen and Rowan regarding Calder?”
“Annika.”
I exhaled. “I suppose this is less invasive than embedding a microchip in the youngest Lund heirs.”
Nolan gave me a wry look. “Don’t think that option wasn’t discussed. Both you and Jens are sports celebrities with fans, so it puts your kids at an even higher risk than them just being heirs to a billion-dollar conglomerate.”
“Part of me knows that, but I still want Mimi to have a normal childhood.”
“Part of her normal will have to be her awareness of her safety. If you ingrain it in her now, hopefully it’ll stick.”
I hoped Lucy wouldn’t throw a huge fit about this. Maybe I could find a way to sugarcoat it. I glanced at my silver-tongued brother.
“What?” he said warily.
“I don’t suppose you’d be willing to play the messenger again for Lucy?”
“Nice try. You’re on your own.”
“You suck.”
Mimi returned with Calder. While Nolan let them add each other to their new phones and showed them how everything worked, I prepared dinner.
I’d had zero cooking skills during my hockey-playing years. It’d been easier to pay a personal chef and nutritionist to keep me on track health wise. After rehab, I needed an activity to fill my extra time, so I hired a few chefs in Chicago to teach me how to cook. Oddly enough, I discovered I enjoyed cooking. Every month I had a private lesson through the Minneapolis Culinary Institute, and now my cooking skills were above average. I couldn’t wait to test out the custom chef’s kitchen I’d had designed for my new apartment.
After Calder left, Mimi set the table for three—Nolan was always up for a free meal—and we settled in.
“Daddy, you made my favorite!”
I scooped a helping of orange sesame chicken with bok choy and pea pods onto the mound of cauliflower “rice,” topping it with a mix of cilantro and crushed baked garbanzo beans for extra crunch. It amused me that Mimi had no idea that her favorite meal was extremely healthy; she just cared that it tasted good.
“Jax. Seriously, man. This is better than eighty percent of the food I’m served eating out.”
“Only eighty percent?”
He shrugged. “You’ve yet to master desserts, and you know I need my daily dose of sweet stuff.”
“Mommy is teaching me to bake cookies,” Mimi added. “I’ll save some for you next time, Uncle Nolan.”
He leaned over and kissed her forehead. “Sweet cookies from my best girl. What more could a man want?”
I never would’ve believed my party animal, manwhore brother would be content spending an entire Saturday with me and his niece. Nolan and I had always been tight, but in the months since I’d returned to Minnesota and spent more time with him, I remembered why I’m so lucky that he’s still my best friend.
“Have you tried out your new phone and called your mom yet?” I asked Mimi as I watched her playing with it.
“Huh-uh. She probably won’t answer.”
“Because it’s an unknown number calling her?”
“Nope.” She reached for more rice. “Because she’s on a date.”
I went utterly still. Even in all the times I’d been bodychecked into the boards, I’d never had the wind knocked out of me so fast.
Why the fuck hadn’t she mentioned that little fun fact to me?
“Maybe because it’s none of your business,” Nolan answered.
Shit. I hadn’t meant to say that out loud. I sent Mimi a sideways glance, but she was too busy stuffing her face to point out my f-bomb slipup. But I couldn’t keep from grilling her. “How do you know your mom is on a date? She told you?”
“Huh-uh. I heard her and Aunt Lindsey talking about it.”
“Do you know the guy’s name?”
She shrugged.
“Do you know how many dates she’s had with him?”
“Jax,” Nolan hissed. “Stop.”
“What? I’m just expressing interest in—”
“What’s clearly not your business, bro. If Lucy had wanted you to know about her private life, she would’ve told you.”
I leaned in. “Which is exactly why I’m having this conversation with my daughter, to find out more information about this fu—”
Mimi looked at me.
“Fellow,” I amended. Christ. I hoped my smile came off as reassuring to her and not as menacing as it felt. “Have you ever met this man?”
“Nope. But I don’t think Aunt Lindsey likes him.”
Now I was getting somewhere. “Why would you say that?”
“Because she called him a pencil-neck geek.” She cocked her head. “What is that?”
“That is not a nice description for a man,” Nolan inserted.
“Has anyone ever called you that, Uncle Nolan?”
He coughed. “Uh, no, but I have been called far worse.”
“Like what?”
“Nothing worth repeating.”
My gaze landed on my fitness watch. Eight twenty. Lucy and Mr. Pencil-Neck Geek were likely in the middle of dinner.
Or in the middle of something else.
No. I would not think about some other man’s hands on her body. I would not imagine some douchebag’s mouth on her soft skin, searching for all those secret spots that drove her wild, spots I was already intimately familiar with. I could not fathom some dickhead looking into those molten brown eyes as he drove his—
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