Touchdown Baby

by Rose Harris

Thoughts of the training he should be doing had him debating the logistics of how long it would take to work on the improvements, but after a moment of consideration, he realized the easiest way to stay in shape would be with some manual labor. Although Ava would deny his assistance, Roxi would jump at the chance to have someone else do the work around the house. He was counting on Roxi to persuade Ava over to his side.

  The sidewalk was new and led him to the brightest red door he’d ever seen. Upon entry, he called out, “What do you want done first, a new roof, the front porch repaired or would you like me to paint the front door?”

  “Nice seeing you again too,” Roxi replied from the family room. “I would have thought you would want to get out of your Mr. GQ clothes before you try to change our house. Just for the sake of sibling love, I’ll tell you a secret. If you ever mention the color of the door to Ava, she may take off your manly parts. She loves that door, she claims it feels inviting,” Roxi joked, as she set Ashlyn down off her lap.

  Jace watched his sister as she let the little girl down. There was obviously love and affection between them. He’d never really thought about his sister having babies, but looking at her now, he hoped she would give him a niece or nephew one day to spoil. As the chubby-legged toddler ran toward him, he just couldn’t bring himself to think of Ashlyn as just a friend’s kid or, worse, niece.

  So what does that mean? Am I ready to put someone before football? Am I ready to change my dreams?

  As if Ashlyn had missed him, she launched herself into his knees, almost knocking herself down in the attempt. Swooping her up for a toss he could remember his dad doing with him, Jace felt a sense of belonging that scared him to his toes. He hugged the little girl, who wrapped the sweetest smelling arms around his neck.

  “Well, it looks like you two must have bonded at some point between yesterday and today, because the only people who get a reception like that are the people Sweet Cheeks loves.” His sister smiled at the look of shock and terror he felt cross his face.

  Roxi stood up shaking her head, and with Ashlyn bouncing in her eagerness to be tossed again, he didn’t bother asking why. Then, in a typical, cut-to-the-chase Roxi way, she asked him what he wanted to do first, because if he was willing to do some work around her house, she wasn’t going to fight him. Grabbing his sister around the waist and hoisting her over his other shoulder, he made both of the girls laugh when he complained about them being too heavy.

  Jace and Roxi talked about the repercussions of having Jace do anything to the house. They both agreed Ava would hit the roof. Roxi would work out the details. The way she figured it, if her brother was going to be loafing on her couch, she didn’t care if he was the NFL’s Golden Boy; she was making him earn his keep.

  Roxi kept watching Jace. He wasn’t sure what she was watching for, but suddenly she looked sickly white. Before he even knew what was happening, he was beside her holding her hand.

  “Are you okay? Are you going to be sick?” Jace panicked as he watched his baby sister fall against the back of the couch with a look on her face as if she had seen a ghost.

  Eyes open, Roxi looked at him as if he was a stranger, and he couldn’t decide whether he should call an ambulance or their mom. She examined him as if she had never seen him before. Jace felt like he was being judged and found lacking. “What’s going on?”

  Roxi bolted from the couch, stating she had to call Ava immediately. Jace grabbed her arm in an attempt to slow her down. When she turned to look at him, she had the broadest smile on her face. “I am going to call Ava and see what we want to get done first.” Going on tippy-toes, she placed a sweet kiss on his cheek and then did the same with Ashlyn.

  Roxi disappeared into her bedroom. Jace shook his head and to Ashlyn he said, “I will never understand women. One minute they looked like they are going to pass out and the next they practically dance away.”

  ****

  When Rena told Ava she had a call from Roxi, Ava rushed to her office. After what seemed to be an abnormally long time to get through her office, Ava finally answered. As always, the first thing to come out of her mouth was, “Is Ashlyn okay?”

  “She’s great. She and Jace are watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.”

  Ava than relaxed and asked what was going on. “I was wondering if you would mind if Jace watched Ashlyn for a little while. We haven’t had lunch in a long time, and I was thinking, with him being here, what better opportunity to catch up.”

  “Well, actually Jace already offered to help with Ashlyn. Since he needed my car to get back home, he offered to take Ashlyn to Mom’s this afternoon. So I can go straight to school from work and get off early tonight.”

  “Then it’s our lucky day. Because now I can leave a little early, since he doesn’t know my schedule, and I can meet you at the coffee shop down the street from your office. I’ll just drive you over to the campus after lunch. If I know my brother, you probably have money sitting on your desk for cab fare.” Ava could hear the smile in Roxi’s voice. Ava paused to check her desk and gasped to find Jace was so predictable.

  “I can tell by your reaction it’s enough to buy us lunch and you cab fare back to work after class. Am I right?”

  “You’re right. He left a fifty, can you believe it? Where does he think I go to school, Nashville?” Ava knew when she’d heard a great idea and readily agreed to Roxi’s plan. Unfortunately, her boss stood in her doorway and didn’t seem eager to watch her leave the office.

  ****

  “H-hey, i-it looks like you were able to change clothes. Ava told me you offered to watch Ashy so she didn’t have to come all the way back home during her lunch. That was really nice of you.”

  Not knowing what was up with his sister, Jace looked her over. First she was pale, now she was stuttering. If she weren’t smiling like a loon, he would think she was getting sick. “It’s the least I can do. Did she tell you I got her boss to agree she be the only assistant in her office to work on my case?”

  “Why did you do that? Do you know how hard it’s been on her there? Her sleaze bag boss hits on her constantly and will use any excuse to get her alone. He makes her go on all of these bogus trips with him in the hopes she will give into his advances.”

  Fury built in Jace as he remembered the unprofessional way Lawson had kept his hand on the small of Ava’s back the entire time she was in his office. The creep had watched her ass as she left the office and stared down her shirt when she leaned across the desk to get a file he held just out of reach. Damn, he’d given the dickhead the best excuse to spend more time with her on his case.

  Jace dislodged Ashlyn when he stood from the couch. When she began to cry, he felt like an asshole. Not only did he give Ava more work and that boss the perfect opportunity to hound her, but he had made the kid cry. Just when he thought this was a great day, it turned. Could this day get any worse?

  Roxi stepped forward to pick up Ashlyn, but the little girl only had eyes for Jace. When she reached out to him, he immediately gathered her close and whispered soft apologies in her ear. “Forgive me, princess, I would never hurt you on purpose. You can have anything you want.” Ashlyn’s tears stopped, and she wrapped her arms tight around his neck and placed a sloppy kiss on his cheek. Her acceptance of his apology went a long way in calming his rage.

  When Jace made eye contact with Roxi, he’d made a decision. “I’m going to call the dickhead and tell him I am not going to use his firm after all. That way I will save Ava the trouble of dealing with him, she won’t have as much work to do, and she’ll be able to come home early to her daughter. I wish there was more I could do to help her out and get the creep off her back.”

  “You know you could always demand more of her attention be brought to your case. There is no way the cheapskate will want to lose your money. The only thing he wants more than Ava is billable hours.”

  In consideration of his sister’s suggestion, he decided that could work for both of them. He would be able to spend more time
with Ava, and she would not have to spend time with a man who she disliked. Just as he was about to make the call, Ashlyn grabbed his face and kissed him square on the mouth. He was stunned by the action of the sweet-smelling angel he held in his arms. The last time a female’s kiss made him speechless, he had been in middle school. Leslie Brock tried to sneak a kiss with him behind the old elementary school, the same one he was at yesterday when he met this little girl who had quickly stolen his heart.

  A giggle escaped Ashlyn as she batted her eyelashes to get his attention; he tickled her belly and told her to watch out or she was going to be as big a flirt as her mommy. As he kissed her on her forehead and hugged her just a little tighter, he sat her down so she could finish watching her cartoons while he talked to Aunt Roxi.

  Does that make me Uncle Jace? Never!

  Just like that, his smile vanished, and he knew he would do whatever it took to make sure Bob never had a shot with Ava. Even if he couldn’t give her everything a man should give a woman, he would make damn sure there would never be an Uncle Bob in Ashlyn’s life. She would not be giving that man any kisses.

  He was about to ask Roxi what she wanted him to do first as far as the house repairs went when the telephone began to ring and he settled back to wait for Roxi’s return. Jace contemplated the decisions he needed to make in the next few weeks. The only one that appealed to him was hitting something with a hammer. It would be therapeutic.

  The moment Roxi walked back into the family room, Jace knew something was wrong. “What’s wrong?”

  “That was Lia on the phone. She can’t keep Ashlyn this afternoon. I tried Mom, but since this is her day to help Dad with the office work, she scheduled a meeting with their accountant.”

  “Did you call Ava? I can go get her since I have her car?”

  “Yeah, after I got off the phone with Mom, but she’s swamped at work and asked me if I could keep her. She was about to call me to let me know she wasn’t going to be able to make our lunch date.”

  “So what’s the big deal? It’s sounds as if everything is worked out.”

  “That’s the problem. I can’t miss my afternoon classes, she can’t get out of work, and Lia has to stay at the hospital with one of her nursing home friends until their family can get there.”

  The moment Jace saw the light bulb go off in Roxi’s eyes, he knew he was going to hate whatever she was about to say. When she asked him if he would consider keeping Ashlyn for the afternoon, he didn’t hate the idea, but he was petrified. What did he know about kids? Nothing.

  Jace’s options were limited. He agreed to watch the toddler, and he knew this was a make or break opportunity for him. After all, if he really did have a child, he would have to get comfortable with the reality of parenting.

  What better way than to start with a kid who makes him smile and steals his heart.

  The possibility of having a son about six months younger than her made him sick to his stomach with the impending responsibility of being a father. He figured he should get all the childcare practice he could. How hard could it be with of one little girl?

  Daycare decided, he and Roxi discussed plans for the renovations of the house. After a heated discussion about the intelligence of a professional quarterback taking the chance of falling off a roof, while the media was already preparing to have him lynched for what were hopefully false accusations, Jace agreed to hire a company to do the roof repairs. He would work on the front porch.

  ****

  Before Roxi had even made it out of the driveway, Jace had a roofing company on the phone. To a small business, cash spoke the loudest. The company agreed to arrive bright and early on Wednesday morning to start the roof. It would have been Tuesday, but he requested the shingles with the longest warranty, and they had to be ordered. An extra day was not a problem because he wanted the best for the house that served as the shelter for three very important women in his life.

  He put Ashlyn in a light jacket so they could go outside and evaluate the supplies he would need to make the necessary repairs to the porch.

  When a tiny hand slipped into his much larger one, the sight of this child trusting him to take care of her made his heart stutter in this chest. The reality that he should prepping for minicamp and not babysitting had him questioning his decisions of the last few days.

  Who are you kidding? You want to be here, just not for the reasons that made you come.

  Walking out the front door, he knew he was where he needed to be.

  Six hours later, he still hadn’t managed to measure the porch, but he had wiped Ashlyn three times after the potty, and one of them had been poopy. Thank God, she wasn’t still in diapers. That was one thing he could live without, but the sweet sighs of the sleeping little girl who snuggled into his side was something he didn’t know if he would ever be able to give up.

  So now what are you going to do? You want the mother and you fell for the daughter, but you can’t decide if you are ready to put someone before football. You may have a son and you can’t remember his mother. How did things get this crazy in just a few days?

  Jace grabbed the chance to relax for the last fifteen minutes before he had to go get Ava.

  ****

  The thirty-minute cab ride in from the city had Ava bouncing on the edge of her seat with apprehension and dread. Her imagination ran wild with all of the horrendous scenarios she could possibly face upon her arrival home.

  Ava had to force herself to lean back into the seat. She pondered the day that had started bad and ended worse. When the morning began with Bob telling her she was going to work personally with Jace on his case, she’d thought dealing with the possible love child of a former lover was bad. When Roxi had called to invite her to lunch, she had convinced herself the day began to look up. That was until after she’d hung up with Roxi to discover Bob had been listening to her conversation and might have figured out Jace was staying at her house. When he smiled his sleazy smile, Ava relaxed with the knowledge he knew nothing. Bob would have started questioning her immediately if he thought she had direct contact with his newest high-profile client.

  When he closed the door to her office, she silently pledged, if he hit on her again, she would quit. Ironically, it would have been easy to quit if he had made another pass at her, but he did the unthinkable. He informed her she had to go with him to San Diego for the weekend. The excuse he used this time was he needed her help to finalize the paperwork for the sale of a racehorse. The problem with this scenario? She wasn’t needed.

  She and Bob both knew this, but he continued to force her on all of these trips she shouldn’t have to deal with. The extra money it brought in was so good she wasn’t able to say no. So staring blankly at his receding hairline, because if she looked directly into his shit-brown eyes she knew he would notice the I hate you vibes shooting out of her retinas, she agreed with a simple, “When do we leave?”

  When she’d called Roxi back to let her know lunch was out of the question, she discovered her mom wasn’t able to keep Ashlyn. Jace was just going to keep her for the entire afternoon.

  The only highlight of the day had been when she had made it to her child development class and discovered her professor managed to get her an interview for a teaching job at a private school. The downside, the school was in Nashville and the interview was in two weeks. She had calculated her budget to allow her a trip into Nashville and the day off of work all while standing with her new favorite professor. This was the opportunity she’d been waiting for and the chance she would be able to give her daughter the life they both deserved.

  When she had walked out into the cool spring evening, she couldn’t wait to tell Jace her news, but the thirty minutes she waited for him caused all the stress and anxiety of her day to multiply again with the images of an accident holding them up. She’d tried his cell and her house number without success. Eventually she’d come to the realization if she wanted to get home, she’d have to call a cab.

  The chauffe
ured drive home should have been relaxing, but without knowing what she was going to find when she got there, all she could manage to do was pray nothing was wrong. The alternative to a catastrophic accident was Jace had forgotten about her. She honestly didn’t know if she could handle the fact he found her forgettable. Especially since he found his way into her thoughts regularly. The truth, she thought of him constantly.

  As the cab pulled up to the front of her little house, Ava hurriedly paid, giving the driver the fifty-dollar bill Jace had left for her that morning. Luckily, she saved money when a friend dropped her off at school on her lunch hour. Rushing up the front walk, she noticed all of the furniture normally on the porch was now sitting in the front yard. Panic set in as she imaged scenarios that would have required the removal of the furniture.

  Everything was locked up like Fort Knox. She managed with shaky fingers to enter the house to discover a disaster zone. Frantically she searched every room for either Jace or Ashlyn, calling out their names. When she entered the family room, her heart began to pound out of her chest at the image that lay before her.

  Jace sprawled across the couch in a T-shirt and jeans with his shoes still on. The man who played a physical sport that took all of his mental and physical capabilities looked to be exhausted, yet content with Ashlyn lying against his side between the cushions and his chest. The image caused the anger and worry that had built on her ride home to dissipate.

  After a few minutes of watching the child of her heart and the man of her dreams snuggle in sleep, she gave in to the need to touch her daughter and reached across a chest so broad she felt tremors course through her body. Memories of her hands roaming over his body came back with clarity. The images that played out in her memory, like a movie, had her hesitating before she cleared her mind and began to pick her daughter up.

  ****

  Somehow, fifteen minutes turned into two hours, and the next thing Jace saw was Ava standing over him attempting to pry her sleeping daughter from the crevice between him and the couch. He relished the sight of her shirt gapping across her breasts, and her scent reminded him of a night where the only thing she wore was her perfume. That memory alone made him grab her arm and pull her down next to him on the edge of the cushion.