Ralph stands there wearing shorts and a T-shirt, his hair falling on to his forehead. My mouth opens, and then I see he’s holding Ariella and she’s hanging onto his shirt with one hand. “Well, hello there, pretty girl,” I say, smiling at her, and she gets all excited and moves her hands and her feet.
“I am so sorry to come by so early, but we were in the neighborhood. I didn’t have your number, so I texted Justin, but he didn’t answer.” He starts to fumble, so I move aside.
“It’s more than okay. Come on in.” I wait for him to walk into the house, and then I hear Zoey.
“Is it Daddy?” she yells from the living room.
“We had a sleepover,” I say. “Come on in, please.”
“I don’t want to intrude,” he says as he follows me into the kitchen and then looks at all the dirty dishes and the flour everywhere. “Whoa.”
I shrug. “She asks me for pancakes,” I say. “I couldn’t say no.” I walk over to the fridge and grab the bottles. “Would you like something to drink?”
“Um.” He looks around, not sure. “I have a chair for her.” I walk past him and go into Zoey’s bedroom, bringing out the activity chair. “It’s a good thing I didn’t throw out any of this stuff,” I say, opening it and then grabbing Ariella from him and kissing her neck. I didn’t even ask if it was okay before I grabbed her. I’m such an idiot, I think as I put her into it. She squeals, and Zoey looks over.
“That’s mine,” she says, and I put my hands on my hips.
“That’s my television,” I say, pointing at the television she was just watching. “And I’m sharing it with you. That is what we do; we share.”
“Wow,” Ralph says. “You just went for it.”
“She can handle it,” I say and then look at him, and as soon as I do, there is the flutter in my stomach again. “What can I get you to drink?”
“Coffee, if you are going to have one also,” he says, and I walk around the counter, pulling the coffee cups out.
“Have a seat,” I say, looking at him as he looks around the kitchen. “Anywhere really that you think will not dirty you.” I laugh. “That stool looks like it’s in a safe zone. You can push my agenda aside.” Turning around, I make him coffee. My hands shake with anticipation and nervousness, and I want to throw my head back and laugh at how silly I’m being.
“Do you work every day?” I look over at him as he points at the book I was writing in. He pulls out a stool right next to Ariella, who is banging on the bell.
I slip onto the stool next to him and hand him his coffee. “Usually, I have everything set up the week before. I usually get on the phone with all my clients at the end of the month, and we talk about what we want to focus on in the months coming up.” I try to explain a little of what I do. I don’t know why I get nervous around him and just word vomit things. “My big workday is really on Sunday as I schedule everything I have. But then sometimes,” I say, taking a sip of my coffee, “things come up like yesterday.”
“Yesterday?” he asks. I grab my phone and pull up the picture that I posted for Justin of the three of them and then another one that is just him and Justin with the caption.
Off-season we are on the same team.
“I tagged you on it so you should see it on your side as well.” He smiles and looks down at his coffee, picking up the mug to take a drink.
“I’m social media dumb.” He looks over at me, and I swear his eyes just got a touch more golden.
“I doubt that,” I say and look over to see Zoey lying on the couch watching television.
“My agent, Becca,” he says, “was the one who mentioned you.” He starts to talk. “She is pushing me to get my ‘social media presence.’” He uses quotation marks at that, and I laugh, making him shake his head. “I swear that is exactly what she said.”
“Why, though?” I ask, wanting to know everything. “Why now?”
He takes a huge breath. “I want to get sponsorships,” he tells me, “and in order to do that . . .”
“You need to be ‘in demand.’” I use the quotations now, and he just nods.
“Yeah, all that.” He takes another sip of coffee. “So lets brainstorming about where to start in order to reach out to companies.” His thumb hits the coffee cup at the same time as Ari starts to whine, and I get up, walking over to the fridge.
“Should I warm up a bottle?” I ask, not sure if she ate or not, and he nods. I take a bottle out of the fridge, then walk over and place it under the hot water. She gets louder and louder, and he picks her up and then gets off his stool. I test the milk and walk over to him. “If she wants it warmer, just let me know.” He places her in his arms and feeds her the bottle.
“I did also have a reason for coming over,” he says, looking at Ariella and then looking at me.
I sit back down on my stool and wait for it. My heart starts to speed up, my palms get sweaty, and I can swear I’m going to be sick. “What?” I ask in a whisper.
“I need your help,” he says, and I bring my hand up that now holds a coffee cup. “And I was hoping that if I came, you would feel sorry for me.” Jesus, he wants me to babysit his kid, I think to myself.
“Um.” It’s my turn to stumble. “If I can help, I will.”
“Good,” he says, smiling. “I need you to work for me.”
Chapter 6
Ralph
I watch her face after I say the words as she looks at me and then the baby. “I don’t know how to tell you this,” she starts to say, looking back at Ari smiling, “but I’m not a babysitter.”
Closing my eyes, I think about how bad this is going even though I practiced my speech in the car. A speech that went out the window the minute she opened the door and I saw her. I could barely get anything out. I wanted to get in, get the bottles, beg her to take me as a client, and then get out. But what did I do? I sat down and watched her in her home as I drank a cup of coffee.
“Oh my God,” I say, opening my eyes. “God, I am such an idiot. I don’t want you to be a babysitter.” I shake my head, sitting next to her. “I practiced this in the car.”
She smiles at me, and our shoulders touch as I look over at her. “What did you practice in the car?” she asks, her voice going soft, and I have no control of myself as I slowly move toward her. She sits there, her eyes looking soft and beautiful and mesmerizing. This is crazy, I think to myself.
“Ralph.” She says my name, and I don’t know if she’s asking me a question or telling me to stop.
I’m about to say something else and maybe kiss her when the front door opens and then closes, and I hear a man’s voice. “Honey, I’m home!”
I’m shocked that I almost just kissed this woman who I met yesterday. Shocked that I even had a thought about it, I take the bottle out of Ari’s mouth. Is that her boyfriend? Is he going to think I’m putting the moves on his girlfriend? Is he going to know that I jerked off to her this morning in the shower? I’m ready to grab Ari in that circle thing and just run out of the house with her still in it.
When I got the text from Justin last night about leaving the bottles at Candace’s house, I smacked my head with the palm of my hand because . . . rookie mistake. I texted Justin and asked for her number, and he never got back to me. Then instead of waiting for him to get back with me like a normal person would do, I showed up at her house. Like a crazy stalker!
I rang the doorbell, thinking it was going to be fine and telling myself I didn’t really find her that pretty. It’s all in your head, you’ve been deprived of being around women. She’s not that pretty, I kept repeating to myself over and over again until she opened the door, and I just stood frozen with my mouth dry as she stood there with pink shorts that showed off her long legs and a matching tank top. I didn’t even let my eyes linger on the little part that showed her stomach. The only thing going through my mind was she’s hot as fuck.
I look at her now as she looks down the hall and doesn’t move when her brother comes into view with Zara
next to him. “Well, this is a surprise,” Zara says when she spots me and then turns to the couch when she hears her daughter call her name.
I watch as Zoey gets off the couch and runs over to her yelling, “Mama! Mama!” She bends down and catches her daughter in her arms and kisses her, and my heart suddenly hurts when I look back at Ari who watches, not knowing that she will never do that. She will never know what it’s like to have a woman’s love. I will give her all the love I have, but I wonder if it’s going to be good enough. “You’re all sticky.”
“Auntie CanCan made pancakes,” she says, playing with her hair. “I helped.”
“I can see that.” She looks past us and into the messy kitchen, and I have to say this is what a home is supposed to be.
I suddenly feel out of place. “I just stopped by to pick up the bottles,” I say to Evan, who is glaring at me for some reason. “Thank you for keeping them for me,” I say to Candace, who looks taken aback that I’m leaving since we were in the middle of a conversation. I put one bottle in my left pocket, another bottle in the right one, and I carry two in my hand. “Have a great day, everyone.” I nod to them and walk out of the house, feeling like a fucking idiot. I get to my truck and buckle Ari in as she smiles at me and slaps her hands up and down. “I’m sorry, baby girl,” I say, kissing her, blinking away the tears in my eyes.
“What was that?” I hear from behind me and make the mistake of turning around and seeing Candace standing in the middle of her driveway naked. Okay, fine, she has her shorts and top on, but it’s almost as if she’s naked. I look around to see if any of her neighbors are out looking at her. The Texas heat starting to get hotter and hotter as we stand here, I spot no one out of their house because of this.
“I didn’t want to intrude on family time,” I say, looking back at Ari as she smiles at Candace.
“You were not intruding on anything,” she says. “Would you like to come back in?”
“Not really,” I say and then look at the side, trying not to kick myself when I see her face.
“Okay, then,” she says, her voice going just a touch lower than it was before. “Have a great day.” She turns and walks away from me and instead of going after her, I get into my truck and drive back to my house. When I get home, I put a sleeping Ari in her crib, then go to the kitchen and clean out the bottles. I’m about to start a load of her clothes when the phone rings, and I see it’s Nico, the owner of the team.
“Hello?” I answer after the second ring.
“Hey, Ralph,” he says. “What’s up?”
“I just put Ari down for a nap, and I was going to go and run on the treadmill until she woke up,” I say.
“Keeping in shape. I love it,” he says. He’s been the owner of the team for two years now. His father used to own the team and was tired of having to deal with it, so he handed it over to Nico. I am not going to lie, the team sucked so bad when he took it over, they hadn’t made the playoffs in four years at that point. The GM was tits on a bull and was making the dumbest trades of his life. His scouting agent was arrested for having underage sex with a girl he met while getting prospects. It was crazy. I’m sure that his father thought the team wouldn’t thrive, but instead, Nico hit the ground running. First thing he did was fire everyone, and I mean everyone, right down to the coach.
Last July was a war zone. We didn’t know who was going to stay and who was going to go. I was shocked when I got a call from my agent that Nico wanted to have a word with me. Unlike other owners who let the GM handle things, Nico was doing the bidding himself. He got me on the phone and offered me a three-year contract. He told me it would be a rocky year, but he wanted to win the Stanley Cup. I thought he was crazy, but then I saw all the kids he brought on and realized we were a brand-new team. He brought on the coach, John, that no one wanted to hire because he would call out his players if they sucked. I’m not going to lie; I was scared every time I got on the ice. I was waiting for the coach to tell me that he’s benching me, but if you did your job the way you were supposed to, he had nothing to say. Now I’m not saying that everything I did was okay—it definitely was not—and I had made my share of mistakes during the year. I couldn’t even argue or be pissed when he yelled my name because he was right each time. When Cassie passed away, Nico was the first one to come and help me, besides Becca and Miller. He took care of everything that needed to be looked after, and I know that I owe him everything. Which is why I will do whatever he needs me to do to bring the cup back to Dallas.
“I got on the ice for the first time two days ago,” I say, sitting down. “It felt so fucking good to lace up those skates again.”
He laughs. “Well, I, for one, am glad you are back on the ice,” he says. “How’s Ari?”
“She’s good. She’s getting so big,” I say, my heart filling with pride. “I also am going to need to get in for some target practicing.”
“I saw the picture you put up last month,” he says, laughing. “She’s going to be a stunner.”
“I’m afraid of that,” I say. “She looks like Cassie.”
“She has some of you,” he says. “I saw her scowl at you once.”
I laugh. “She also has zero patience. Totally me.”
“Well, I was calling to invite you over for a barbecue. I’m inviting the whole team and whoever is still is town, and I’m not taking no for an answer,” he says of the players who usually go back to their hometowns when the season is over. “So far, we are a good ten plus their guests.”
“Sure,” I say, not even thinking about it. “That sounds like fun. When?”
“This weekend,” he says. “I’ll see you then.”
“Looking forward to it,” I say and hang up the phone seeing that I got a text while I was on the phone. I open it up and see it’s from Justin.
Justin: Hey, sorry I just got your message. I just sent you her contact information.
It was great seeing you! Also, your daughter is stunning.
I smile at that last sentence and then see he shared a contact with me. I answer him back.
Me: Great seeing you, too. Let me know when you’re in town again.
I press send and then delete the message thread along with her number. There is no way she is going to work with me after this morning’s debacle. I rub my face and try not to think about how massively of an asshole I was. I suddenly feel like just sending her an I’m sorry for being a dick message, but I deleted her number.
“It’s better this way,” I say aloud to just myself. “Besides, how can you work with someone you can’t even talk to? Plus, she wants the white picket fence, and you can’t even think about giving her that.” I’m about to tell myself that I’m an idiot when I hear Ari wail out. Tossing my phone on the couch, I stand and head to get my girl, putting Candace Richards out of my head. Or at least in the back of my head and only letting her out when I’m in the shower or falling asleep, or even when I look around my house and hate everything I see.
Everything is back to normal the next day when Miranda shows up to watch Ari. I go train on the ice and then go home where I take her into the home gym so she can watch me while I train, or until she gets fed up and starts fussing. Whatever comes first. When she sleeps, I hit the gym again. I’m just winding down my run when my phone rings. I’m not going to lie; I keep hoping it’s going to be someone I’m not supposed to be thinking about. I look at the phone and see it’s Becca.
“This must be a record,” I say, stopping the treadmill and grabbing the towel and water bottle. I sit on the weight bench to catch my breath while I wipe the sweat from my face. “Twice in one day.”
“Twice in one day so I can light a fire under your ass,” she huffs out. “You were supposed to call me back,” she reminds me.
“Call you back if I had an answer,” I remind her. “I don’t.”
“Listen, I’m going to be frank with you,” she says, and I roll my eyes at her.
“When are you not frank with me?” I ask, and she
groans.
“You want to get a shot with the big sponsors, then you have to step up your game. I told you this. You need to give me an answer, or I’m not even going to bother trying to help you.”
“An answer to what?” I say, frustrated with myself and the situation. “I don’t have an answer, and you know that. Can you get me a list of names and I’ll call them?”
“I got you a list,” she says. “I emailed you this morning. Did you not check your email?”
“I do,” I say. “I just do it at night.”
“You’re killing me, smalls,” she says, and I laugh. “Look at the list and get back to me. I’ll call them for you.”
“See, now that is a plan,” I say, taking a sip of water.
“Well, if I had to be in charge of the plan, I would call Candace and beg her, but . . .” She stops talking when I groan.
“Fine,” I say. “I have the barbecue tomorrow at Nico’s, but after that, I’ll get in touch with Candace and see if she will take me on as a client.”
The minute I say the words, my stomach gets all upset, and Becca cheers out loud. “Good. Fuck, it’s about time.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I say. “I’ll let you know what she says, but let’s get a backup plan ready just in case.”
She laughs now. “You silly, silly boy.” I can even picture her sitting in her office, leaning back in her chair. “I’ve already got plan B, C, D, and even E in place.”
“Why am I not surprised?” I ask her.
“It’s why you pay me the big bucks,” she says and hangs up.
The next day, I try not to think of her as I dress Ari in a one-piece shorts outfit that looks like jeans and has little white hearts on it. I look at the headband that comes with it. “What do you think, Ari?” I ask, holding it up on my finger. “Do you want a big bow in the middle of your head?”
Only One Kiss (Only One Series) Page 4