Sports & The Single Dad

by Emma Nichols

  From the background, Tegyn shouted, “I need wings! Let’s meet at Hooters. There’s a Buy Buy Baby in the same shopping center. Oh, and a Target and a Kohl’s.”

  “Wings give you heartburn,” DeSean reminded her.

  “Not if you buy me the key lime pie to go with it.” She giggled. “You know the dairy cuts the spice. It’s a well-known fact.”

  “Lord, help me. These cravings. Be glad you missed this.” DeSean moaned.

  I covered my mouth to hide my giggle. These two were a trip.

  “You have loved every minute of this, you big fat liar,” Tegyn grumbled.

  “She’s not exaggerating. I gained twelve pounds eating with her.” DeSean chuckled. “So, we’ll meet you at Carolina Pavillion in say…thirty minutes.”

  “I’ll be the one with the biggest hooters,” Tegyn joked.

  This time, I couldn’t help it. I absolutely snorted. Then my face flamed as I looked over at Paxton for his reaction. Thankfully, he was grinning back at me.

  “Okay, see you then.” Paxton ended the call and stood. “I think you’ll like them.”

  “I know I will.” I smiled shyly. “Not that it matters. I’m just your personal assistant.”

  Paxton stared at Molly, asleep in my arms and nodded. “Yeah, for now, but your position, hours, and title may need to be adjusted.”

  3

  Paxton

  * * *

  “It’s so nice to meet you,” Tegyn gushed as she greeted Avery while sliding into the booth. “I’ve heard a lot about you from DeSean.” She looked lovingly up at her husband who’d slid an arm around her waist and a laid protective hand on the side of her bulging belly.

  I tried to imagine what Harlow must’ve looked like all swollen with my child. I’d once thought we might end up married. She’d been my college sweetheart, but fell into the party scene and I couldn’t…make that I shouldn’t keep up. Drinking slows the reflexes and the thinking, makes a person sluggish on the field, impairs judgement, all the good stuff. In the end, Harlow wanted to have fun more than she wanted to slow down to be with me, so I let her go. And now, an itty bitty version of her was staring up at me from the car seat between me and Avery in the booth.

  “I like babies,” DeSean’s three-year-old son Keyon announced.

  “We know you do, buddy,” DeSean responded as he pulled the high chair closer to him.

  “We’re having a baby.” Keyon pointed to Tegyn’s belly.

  She laughed. “What if it’s not a baby? What if it’s a watermelon?” Tegyn teased.

  “I like watermelon too.” He smiled.

  “We’re lucky. That boy will eat about anything you put in front of him.” Tegyn smiled at her step-son and you could see how much she loved him.

  “Except your fried chicken,” DeSean muttered under his breath.

  She groaned and glared at him. “I swear your mother is hiding ingredients on me.” Tegyn looked at Avery. “You know how there’s always that one friend, that one cook, who pretends to give you the recipe, but doesn’t give you all the right ingredients or measurements so theirs is the best forever? Yeah. That.”

  DeSean laughed. “Mama Delta loves you. She just don’t want anyone making her fried chicken.”

  Avery smiled. She seemed remarkably at ease, considering she’d had my baby dumped in her lap. “That’s my mother. She refused to give me any of her recipes when she moved. She told me straight out, if I wanted them, I had to come eat them with the family.” She shook her head. “I can’t drive a thousand miles for a meal. Her cooking isn’t that good.”

  DeSean smiled at me. “Everything okay?”

  I shrugged. “Sure. Why do you ask?” Immediately, I regretted it. I knew what he was referring to. “Oh, Marley?”

  “Yeah, buddy. Marley.” He smirked. “She cool with this little peanut or what?”

  I sucked in my bottom lip while I considered his question. “No. I don’t think she’s cool. I don’t know if she’ll be cool ever again.” Then I stared down at my daughter.

  “Well, you have practices and games and all kinds of travel ahead. What you gonna do?” he asked even as he jerked his head toward Avery.

  When I peeked at her, she was blushing profusely. “I mean, I told Avery we’d need to renegotiate her job title and duties.”

  “And hours,” Avery added. “Which I assume means we also up my pay?” She batted her lashes at me playfully, but my breath caught in my throat.

  I’d never really noticed how pretty she was, or how green her eyes appeared. “Right. Pay.”

  “If I was you, I’d also renegotiate her living arrangement.” DeSean cleared his throat and looked away innocently.

  “Wow.” I took a sip of my soda and thought about what he meant. “Babies are a lot of work, huh?”

  Tegyn and DeSean looked at each other and started to laugh. Avery bit her cheek and refused to meet my eyes. Keyon scribbled on his kid menu happily. Before I could say anything else, Molly began to cry.

  “Oh no. Peekaboo!” Keyon shouted. He looked to his father. “The baby’s crying. We peekaboo.”

  “I’ve got her,” Avery murmured while I looked on helplessly. “I think she’s hungry, and probably needs a diaper change.” She expertly released my baby from the seat and scooped her up into her arms while she pulled a bottle from the bag. “Thank God she arrived with a day’s worth of bottles already made, but we’ll need more formula.” Then she started to feed her.

  “How do you even know all this?” I asked, the surprise evident in my voice. “Is this some class I missed out on in school?”

  Avery smiled at me. “I’m guessing while you were playing football in high school, I was busy babysitting. I started when I was twelve. At fourteen, I had one little guy I took care of until I graduated. So, yeah, I have some experience with this.” She shrugged like it was no big deal, but I couldn’t help but admire her.

  “So, you organize my life and now you’re raising my baby too?” My brows shot up.

  “Whoa. Cart. Horse. Hold up, crazy pants.” She shook her head. “I believe we need to have a discussion about all this.”

  “Talk. I’ll listen. I’m between a rock and a hard place. Your bargaining position has never been stronger.” I leaned on the table and studied her. “I can’t do this without you.”

  For several seconds, Avery stared down at my child and I was suddenly aware of DeSean and Tegyn staring at us expectantly. “Not now,” she murmured as my daughter hooked her fingers around Avery’s pinky.

  The food arrived, which saved her from me pushing any further. “How are you going to eat?” I asked.

  Avery and Tegyn laughed, like they were part of some club I wasn’t a member, but it was DeSean who replied. “Look at what she ordered. She planned this, Pax. The girl is a pro.”

  I studied her meal. She was eating chicken fingers and French fries. Avery wasn’t even the fry type. I’d guess she was more of a stuffed baked potato and roasted chicken kind of woman. Avery always struck me as incredibly classy and reserved. While I watched she reached out and started eating with one hand while balancing Molly in the crook of her arm with the other. The bottle was balanced in between her breasts. Funny, I’d never noticed those before either.

  “Well, okay then,” I murmured and turned my attention to my meal.

  Half an hour later, everyone had been fed, and a diaper had been changed. DeSean scooped up his son and I carried Molly to my vehicle. The funny thing was as I looked around, this felt right. Every bit of it. I’d been trying for so long to have a different kind of life. I wondered if I could convince Marley to slow down her lifestyle with all the social events, the benefits, and auctions so she could be a mom. As I buckled the seat into my SUV, I couldn’t picture it. She hadn’t even wanted to hold Molly, from what I could tell.

  “Across the parking lot. We’ll get you all set up.” DeSean pointed to Buy Buy Baby.

  I nodded numbly. “Okay. See you in there.”

  We d
rove across the parking lot in silence. Avery was in the passenger seat, but she mostly stared out the window and I wondered what I had done wrong. She’d seemed so comfortably around Tegyn and DeSean, but alone with me she became the poster child for introverts. We parked and I unhooked the car seat and carried my sleeping baby.

  “You can hook the seat to the cart,” Avery instructed.

  So, I hefted the seat and she attached it to the cart. “Do you want to push? Or maybe I should push and you can load the cart?” I wanted her happy. I wanted her bubbly again.

  “Sure.” She nodded. “You push.” Then she turned and waited for DeSean and his family to join us.

  As soon as she entered the store, Tegyn hooked her arm through Avery’s. “Come on. This is going to be so much fun. Let’s figure out the furniture first. We have DeSean’s truck.” She grinned.

  Avery nodded. “So we get to build a nursery.” She smiled and her eyes sparkled. I suspected she was a lot more excited about this than she let on.

  When we reached the back of the store where all the furniture and bedding were set up, my mind began to race. “I don’t know. Animal print?” I asked, trying to figure out what the modern baby girl needed for her décor.

  “No.” Avery shook her head firmly. In a second she had wandered past me into the thick of it. “This.” She lifted a lambs and flowers set in lavender.

  “Whatever you think. Crib, bedding, sheets, diapers, bottles, formula. We need it all. Today.” Just thinking about what I had to do to make Molly comfortable in my condo had my head reeling.

  Within half an hour, we realized that the truck and my SUV weren’t going to do it and DeSean pulled out his phone. “Tommy, I need you to pick up a U-Haul and come to the address I give you. Let me know when you get here. Pull up in front and we’ll load it.” Then he hung up the phone and grinned at me. “And that’s how you get things done, buddy.”

  “I’ve managed to accomplish some things,” I murmured, “but nothing compared to what’s going on right here, right now.”

  “You must have guys on the team you could call like this,” DeSean responded.

  I shook my head. “We’re a team on the field. Off, I’m more of a loner, ever since Harlow and I broke up and Marley took over.”

  “Imagine the kind of life you could have with the right woman.” DeSean jerked his head toward the furniture section.

  Avery was sitting in a rocking chair, feeding my daughter once more. She was humming while she cared for her. And something about this made my heart fill.

  “You think Marley will come around?” My brows peaked.

  DeSean groaned. “I said the right woman. You’ve taken one too many hits if you can’t see it.” Then he wandered over to his wife who was reading Keyon a story in another rocking chair.

  I guess I needed to get serious about finding the right woman for my daughter’s sake. Unfortunately, I had no idea where to start looking.

  4

  Avery

  * * *

  I’d sent my mother to voicemail a half dozen times since five in the evening. Naturally, I was working late. Paxton had hinted at least ten times since we left the store that he’d like me to spend the night.

  “Paxton, this is a three bedroom, but you have nothing in the spare room. There’s nowhere for me to sleep.” I huffed. By now it was after six with no end in sight. I was hungry, exhausted, and cranky.

  “You can have my bed.” He stood in front of me, blocking my trip to the kitchen.

  “If you don’t get out of my way right now, I’m leaving and I won’t come back,” I growled.

  His eyes narrowed. “You’ve never talked to me like this before.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Well, you’ve never kept me late, not fed me, and pretty much overworked me,” I challenged as I popped my hip out.

  “The hip pop. This is serious. Go on then. Shall we order food?” His brows rose.

  Tommy had left after unloading. DeSean and Paxton had assembled the crib and set up the room to my specifications. Tegyn and Keyon had curled up in Paxton’s bed for a nap. Molly was sleeping in her swing. All of this left me to manage the little things, and make more formula, otherwise he’d run out in the middle of the night. In short, I’d done a fine job of taking care of everyone and everything but me.

  “Yes. Food.” I collapsed against the counter. “And I’m sorry. This is me hangry.”

  “And tired. I see it in your face. This was a lot and you didn’t desert me when you could’ve. I appreciate this.” He reached into his pocket and peeled ten hundred dollar bills from the wad he had in his money clip. “For your trouble. Can we renegotiate after I feed you and everyone else leaves?”

  “Thank you,” I murmured as I pocketed the cash. Then I nodded in response to his question even as I opened the food delivery app on my phone. “Sushi?”

  Paxton grinned. “It’s like you read my mind. I was going to suggest that!”

  “For everyone?” I asked.

  DeSean wandered out of Paxton’s bedroom with Keyon in his arms and Tegyn trailing behind him. “I’m taking the family and we’re going to go. Little man needs to be fed and have a bath. And Tegyn should get more rest while she can.” He winked.

  “How much do I owe you?” Paxton asked, the money clip still in his hand.

  DeSean held on hand up. “This was a friend thing. We don’t put a price on friendship.”

  They did the bro hug thing and Paxton walked them out. Soon he returned and hovered nearby.

  Minutes later, I had ordered food. Molly ate again and was changed into her new jammies before our meal arrived. Then we had our first chance to sit at his dining room table, but we didn’t.

  “Here?” He suggested as he pointed at the coffee table.

  This spot was closest to Molly and he was understandably reluctant to leave her alone. My heart warmed. “Sure.”

  “So, let’s talk,” Paxton began. “I’m pretty confident I can’t count on Marley. And obviously I have to count out Harlow. That leaves you.”

  I blinked a few times. “Oh?”

  “Yeah. I need someone to care for Molly. I could add to your duties, move you in, and pay you a ton more money, or I could hire a live-in nanny.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s not ideal. I’d have to break someone in. And I’d want the nanny to travel with me. I can’t imagine leaving Molly for days.”

  Immediately, I pictured some perky, curvy blonde who would care for Molly and soon worm her way into Paxton’s heart. Of course, who could blame her? Wasn’t that what I wanted to do? Although after a year, I had about given up hope. He just didn’t see me. And now, he was only interested in me for the services I could provide. I closed my eyes. I didn’t want to give anyone else a chance, but I wasn’t sure how long I could handle it, especially when he would inevitably start dating again.

  I sighed. “Fine. I guess I could move in. I’ll be your nanny and personal assistant.”

  He grinned. “This is awesome. I don’t know why more guys with kids don’t do this.” Paxton shook his head while mentally congratulating himself.

  “They do,” I muttered under my breath. “They call them wives.”

  And that shut him up. I didn’t hear another word out of him all night. Paxton wasn’t pouting, exactly, but he was pensive to say the least. He set me up in his room, then settled in on the couch despite my protests that he was far too large for it.

  I checked on Molly, then stepped out onto the balcony to listen to my voice messages from my mother. Her voice always made me cringe, but I forced myself to hear her out. “Avery, is that footballer you’re panting after keeping you late? You need to put your foot down, play hard to get if you want him to get interested. Trust me. I know men. Call me.”

  She wasn’t wrong. My mother knew men. Hell, she had been married eight times and was on the hunt for number nine. Sure, not all of them were divorces. She claims my father, her first husband, was her true love, but he died of a heart attack when I
was three. I don’t remember him at all. And my mother has spent the rest of her life trying to replace the happiness and passion she has been missing ever since. Clearly, it hasn’t worked. Worse, her patience has dwindled through the years. She marries fast and divorces faster, which may be why I’ve been reluctant to date or act on my feelings for Paxton. Or it may be because Pax has never been interested in me. I sighed.

  Still, it was only seven in Seattle. I decided to call my mother back while I had the quiet. “Mom,” I murmured in a hushed voice, “how are you?”

  “I think the big question is, how are you? You always answer my calls.” I could picture her face, her platinum blonde hair teased out around her face, her lips puckered, her brows frozen by Botox.

  “I’m good.” I bit my lip, wondering how much I should tell her. “It was a bit of a crazy day. That’s all. But we’re talking now,” I reminded her.

  She sighed. “Yes. You’re going through the motions again, but I can’t help feeling like you’re hiding something. Is everything alright?”

  “Yes. Of course. Couldn’t be better.” This was mostly true. I was content with my life, but I knew it would have to be better at some point. This situation wasn’t sustainable.

  “I know you like this job. I know you’re making enough money…for now, but you need to consider your future. You need to think about where you want to be in ten years,” she urged.

  I was silent. I had been thinking. Hell, I’d done nothing but think. And I couldn’t leave Paxton right now. I couldn’t abandon Molly. I was only twenty-four, one year younger than my boss. I had time. A lot could happen in a year. Actually, around here, a lot could happen in a day. Pulling the ponytail holder from my hair, I murmured, “I have to go, Mom.” Then I slid it onto my wrist.

  “You know, some daughters would just change the subject, you have to end the entire phone call,” Mom grumbled.

  I laughed. “It’s late here and I have an early day. Let’s talk soon.”