A Game Changer

by Nikky Kaye

“Are you hungry?” Payton asked me, looking up at me with her big brown eyes. “We were going to surprise you with breakfast in bed, but you ruined it by waking up.”

  I laughed and kissed her forehead. “Sorry, sweets, if I’d known then I would’ve slept longer.”

  Payton’s eyebrows furrowed. “But if you knew then it wouldn’t be a surprise!”

  Emma laughed, her back still to us. As nice as this view was, I suddenly craved a sight of her smile.

  “Good morning, Emma,” I said. Turn around. Come on, turn around.

  “Morning.” Her attention remained on the bacon she was frying and the eggs she was cooking.

  I tried to get her attention, but she continued to avoid me.

  Payton and I were setting the table for the three of us when my phone rang. I stepped out of the kitchen to answer it, since the girls were chattering about getting haircuts. When I returned, my niece looked up at me expectantly from the table, breakfast in front of her.

  “Who waffat?” she asked.

  I chuckled at the sight of her. Oh wait, I have to be a dad not just the fun uncle. “Don’t speak with your mouth full,” I told her, trying to channel my sister-in-law.

  “Sowwy,” she said around a mouthful of eggs.

  Teaching her good manners was definitely going to be a work in progress. Then again, so were mine. “Well, I guess training is canceled today.”

  Payton’s eyes glimmered with delight as she purposefully swallowed before speaking. “Does that mean we can go to the park today?”

  I looked to Emma. “Uh…”

  She just sat there, looking amused.

  Was this a test? What was the correct answer, here? Both of us wanted Payton to feel loved, even if it was different from the relationship she had with Dean and Maggie. That didn’t mean, however, saying ‘yes’ to everything she asked for. Right?

  This parenting thing was hard. Some days I wasn’t sure if I was up to it. Okay, most days. Emma was definitely better at it than I was. The conversation she and I had the night before, about her ending up in a series of foster homes, suddenly came back to me.

  God, was it actually possible that Payton could have been in the same situation? If I hadn’t taken her, then… well, yeah. How fucked up was that? How could I have contemplated the alternative, even for a second?

  I looked at my niece and smiled, nodding my head slowly. She just about levitated off her chair.

  “Can we go now?”

  “Sure. But don’t you have a class or something?” I asked as I tried in vain to remember her schedule.

  Since it was June, the school year was done. She’d just finished kindergarten, I think. Maggie had pre-registered her in a zillion activities over the summer. After I arrived in Denver for good, I’d thought about cancelling them, until Emma reminded me that keeping Payton busy meant she slept better at night. Emma and Anderson were always the ones who moved her back and forth, though, while I adjusted to the new team and environment.

  “Oh! You can come with us!”

  Payton sounded so excited and I knew that I couldn’t refuse. Her heart had been broken a couple of times recently; how much more heartbreak could a little girl take?

  Apparently, parenting was basically about trying to avoid feeling guilty.

  “Sure, sweets, what do you have today?”

  Emma answered for her. “It’s Monday, so I guess dance.”

  “Okay.” I could watch little girls in tutus.

  “And piano,” she added, “and art in the afternoon.”

  Wow. This kid better be a fucking prodigy at something. I didn’t even know we had a piano.

  “And we better get ready, sweetheart,” Emma said as she put her plate in the sink.

  Once we were done with our breakfast, showers, and getting dressed, I grabbed the keys to my car. “Let’s go!”

  Emma put her hand on my shoulder. “Um, your car isn’t child-friendly, Zach.”

  I stared at the Challenger sitting peacefully in the garage and then at Emma. “Then how are we driving her to her lessons?”

  Just as I spoke, Anderson rolled up in a minivan. I hadn’t called him, so either Emma had or he was just used to the schedule. He got out of the van and looked at me with surprise. “No training today?”

  I rolled my eyes, knowing full well that he always knew my schedule before I did. I turned to Emma. “You’re not gonna make me drive that thing.” It was a minivan.

  “Oh, yeah,” Emma said with a grin on her face.

  She chuckled and opened the door for Payton, who jumped into a booster seat. Anderson tossed me the keys before sliding into the backseat with Payton.

  I grudgingly got in the driver’s seat and whined, “You didn’t complain about my car yesterday.”

  “That’s why I’m complaining now. We were cooped up in that car yesterday. More leg space here. Not to mention that you didn’t have a booster seat for Payton,” Emma pointed out.

  I huffed and said no more until we’d deposited Payton at dance.

  “So, what do you do while she’s in class?” I asked Emma outside, leaning against the stupid minivan that basically ripped away my masculinity.

  Anderson didn’t even look up from his phone. “We can go for coffee while we wait,” he said. “I have to get your schedule fixed for next month. You’ve been getting calls from companies for endorsements.”

  I smirked. “Oh, the price of being this handsome and talented.”

  Emma made a scoffing sound deep in her throat and headed off to the café without even a glance backward at the two of us. Quickly Anderson fell into step beside her.

  I watched as the two of them chatted, suddenly feeling out of place.

  At the coffee shop I cleared my throat behind them as they ordered, and the all-knowing Anderson ordered for me. The three of us took our seats and I fidgeted with my phone as my assistant alternated phone calls with conversations with Emma.

  I wanted to talk to her, but every time I tried to she just gave me one-word answers or shut me down completely.

  In the car afterwards, Payton asked if we could have lunch at the park. So, while she had art lessons, the three of us bought lunch and a blanket to spread out at the park for a picnic. Before Payton was done, Emma received a call from her piano teacher that today’s lesson was cancelled. Payton was thrilled because it meant she could play longer at the park.

  I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been with my niece like this, just making up silly games and being together.

  I didn’t even check my phone.

  We played on the monkey bars, the swings then the slides, and I found my heart filling more and more each time I heard Payton’s infectious laughter. We were playing tag with Emma and Anderson when she spotted a classmate from dance class. With our permission she went to play with her, and we three adults headed back to the blanket.

  “She has so much energy.” Emma admired Payton from our position under the trees.

  “No kidding.” I was exhausted. “She could run drills sometime for us, give the coaches the day off.”

  Anderson laughed, knowing that I wasn’t totally joking.

  “Uncle Zach!”

  I turned my attention to my niece. “Yes?”

  She and her friend rushed up to us. “Can I have a sleepover at Ethan’s? Pleeeaaaase! You can pick me up tomorrow at their house. Emma and Andy know where it is.”

  I turned to Emma who smiled at Payton and then nodded at me. “They have play dates sometimes.”

  “I have to ask Ethan’s mom…”

  Right on cue, a blonde woman appeared beside Ethan. I looked at her and she smiled warmly at us. “Payton already asked me. I’m fine with it. They have play dates and sleepovers all the time...”

  Her voice trailed off and I knew that she meant to say that she and Maggie would arrange play dates for the kids.

  I found myself nodding. “Well, if you’re okay with it then I guess I am, too.”

  Ethan and Payton squ
ealed with delight and started chasing each other around the picnic blanket.

  “I’m Serena, by the way.” She stuck out her hand.

  “Zach. And that’s Anderson and Emma.”

  Serena nodded. “I know. I’ve met them before, but it’s finally nice to get the chance to meet Payton’s uncle. She talks highly of you and my husband loved you even when you ruined Denver’s streak.”

  At least someone in Denver liked me. “That’s nice to hear.”

  Serena simply smiled. “Well, you guys can go while I round those two up. You can have Anderson bring me her clothes if you want. He knows the address.”

  Just how much of Payton’s life had I been missing out on?

  “Yeah, sure,” said Anderson. “C’mon, Zach, we should head home.”

  Payton hugged me and kissed me on the cheek and did the same thing to Emma and Anderson. Then the three of us headed home and Emma packed a bag for Anderson to take to Serena’s house. Before I knew it, he was out the door again.

  Emma and I were alone for the first time all day.

  Finally.

  Zach

  I followed Emma into the kitchen, where she looked in the fridge.

  “I’m ordering pizza,” I announced.

  She threw me a relieved smile. “Great.”

  My forehead furrowed as I pulled up the app on my phone. I wondered if she didn’t really like cooking but did it because it had become part of her job. She was so good at it, though. What else did she do for us, just because she was the nanny?

  After I placed the order, I found Emma in the living room. I blinked at the sight of her sitting cross-legged on the velvety sofa with a bright pink cushion over her lap like a shield. Suddenly it occurred to me that furniture with throw pillows was essentially the adult equivalent of Payton’s bed full of stuffed animals.

  It still gave me a start every time I realized this was my home now. Maggie went for a bohemian kind of style that didn’t really suit me, but I didn’t have the heart to change anything. Well, maybe the floofy curtains could go, and about twenty damn pillows. I’d chucked six of them into the guest bedroom closet when I arrived.

  As if she’d read my mind, Emma tilted her head. “Do you miss Florida?”

  I shrugged. “I lived there because I played there.”

  “What about your friends?”

  “Well, I—” I stopped. Huh. “I didn’t really have a lot,” I realized out loud.

  “Really?”

  “I’d go out with teammates.” Clubbing and blowing off steam, mostly, but I didn’t think Emma would want to hear about picking up jersey chasers. “But mostly all I did was work. Train, play, travel.”

  “And your brother was here. Was it hard to be away from your only family?”

  I blinked.

  “I’m sorry.” She looked down at her lap. “That was kind of nosy. I was just curious.”

  “It’s okay.” And it was. I was just as interested in her. I wanted to know what her favorite food was, what she dreamed about as a teenager, what kind of panties she wore.

  The conversation was put on hold as the pizza arrived. We fell upon the open box in comfortable silence, and I thought about what Emma had asked.

  “Dean and Maggie wanted to raise Payton like a normal kid,” I said after my first piece. “Not around a bunch of celebrity bullshit.”

  They’d been so proud of me when I was drafted, and even more so as my talent made me a household name. That was the problem, though. I was busy with endorsements, sponsors, flying around the country, and in the weight room or on the field the rest of the time. I barely had time for Netflix, much less spending a lot of time with Payton.

  “Were you close to Payton before?” she asked, halfway through her second piece. “I mean, I know you’re her favorite uncle and all.”

  I snorted. “Only uncle.” Maggie had been an only child. Damn, I kept forgetting to get Payton on Skype with her grandparents in New Zealand.

  “Did you visit much?”

  “When I could, mostly at holidays.” Except when we played on Christmas. Or Thanksgiving. I frowned, feeling regretful and grumpy.

  Emma began to round up our plates and I helped her. I hadn’t realized that we had finished half of the box. I dried the dishes as she washed them and then we both moved to the living room with our wine glasses refilled and sitting close together on the couch.

  “My turn for questions.”

  “Okay,” she said apprehensively.

  “Why’d you have to be stuck in foster care? You didn’t have any other family?”

  She swallowed a big gulp of wine before answering. “Not really. My mom and dad actually came here from Ireland, basically eloping.”

  “Romantic.”

  “More like impulsive and rebellious.” Her smile faded. “They were different religions, and their parents didn’t like that so much. Then I came along and my mother died…”

  “Right. I’m sorry.”

  She shrugged. “I think they blamed my dad. And my father’s side couldn’t forgive him running off.” Her chuckle had a hard edge to it. “Family drama.”

  “Didn’t you miss having more family?”

  “Hard to miss what you never had.”

  I got the feeling that Emma felt the loss more than she let on. I couldn’t resist reaching out to squeeze her arm. “If it counts, Payton and I could be your family.”

  She looked down, blushing. “Thanks.”

  I put down my wine before cradling her chin and lifting her face to meet my gaze. “Hey, they’re the ones who missed out.”

  “That’s sweet.”

  Didn’t she get it? “Emma, I lost my parents. Now my brother and the closest thing I had to a sister. But I never realized how lucky I was in my life until I met you.”

  “Wow.” With a trembling hand, she set her glass down beside mine on the coffee table. “That’s a hell of a line.”

  I shook my head. “I’ve honestly never said anything like that in my life.”

  Emma looked at me and sighed. “Look, Zach, about last night…”

  I dragged my thumb over her lips to hold in any regrets she had. “I was the one who kissed you. That’s on me, and you know what? I’m not apologizing and I’m not taking it back. All I want is to have the chance to kiss you again.” Lots.

  Emma’s eyes widened. “Oh.”

  I leaned in, as though in slow motion, and replaced my thumb with my lips.

  As my mouth slanted to cover hers, she gave a hitching little sigh of submission and melted into me.

  Yes!

  I pulled her tight against me, but she still wasn’t close enough. Her lips parted, her tongue tentatively touching mine. With a growl of satisfaction, I intensified the kiss until we were forced to draw back enough to catch our breath—but not for long.

  Our lips collided again and this time, it felt different. I was more aggressive this time around, kissing her with the passion that had built up inside of me all day as I spent it with her.

  I’d known beautiful women, but they were all too aware of their looks. It was all surface stuff, I now realized. Everything in my life had been superficial until now. Other than Dean and Maggie, I didn’t allow anyone close enough to share my triumphs or fears.

  Until Emma.

  Emma’s beauty and spirit shone from inside her. Whether she was sipping coffee or tucking Payton into bed, her every movement was graced with elegance and warmth. She couldn’t possibly know how lovely she was.

  I needed to show her.

  Her hands flew to my neck as mine slipped under her shirt. She gasped at the feel of my palms sweeping up her ribs.

  “Wait,” she whispered, pulling away.

  I groaned but stopped. My body felt overheated, straining with desire, but I let her hold me at arms’ length. I searched her gaze, licking my lips.

  Damn, had I crossed a line? Had I pushed too far?

  Emma’s eyes burned bright and before I knew it, she crashed her lips
into mine and tugged at my shirt. My hands resumed their rightful place against her skin.

  “Please, Zach.” Her voice was breathless. “I want you. All of you.”

  I’d already begun to open my soul up to her. Worshipping her body would be like running on the field—like I was born to do it. She wanted me? Well, then I would give her everything I had in me, and I would take anything she offered of herself.

  From that point on, there was no hesitation. No more shyness. We came together with equal force.

  I carried her to my bedroom and threw her gently on the unmade bed, removing my clothes before our lips met again. Soon enough, her clothes joined mine on the floor and we were tangled together on the bed.

  Instinct led us. Passion overcame us.

  I kissed every part of her body and every inch of skin I could put my mouth on, wandering over her like a blind man memorizing her. She writhed beneath me, moaning my name over and over again. By the time I sank myself inside of her, her sighs and screams were more than primal responses of pleasure and need.

  They made my heart happy.

  Emma

  The sunlight woke me up. In the back of my mind, I automatically listened for Payton stirring but heard nothing. Looked like I had a few lazy moments to myself. Yay! I smiled to myself, my eyes still closed against the day as I stretched.

  And hit something warm and firm at my side.

  Uh oh.

  I let out a gasp, my eyes popping open to find Zach sleeping beside me.

  Naked.

  As was I.

  While my brain struggled to process everything, my body went into fight or flight mode. I clutched the sheet to me and rolled away from him like he was a grenade about to go off.

  You know how in movies, when this kind of thing happens, the heroine always lands with a gentle thud with a sheet draped elegantly around her?

  Well… With a very naked, heavy, naked Zach Pennington sleeping on top of the other end of the sheet, I’d rolled myself into the sheet and now dangled off the side of the bed like a weird cocoon.

  “Fuff!”

  My face was smushed against the side of the mattress, my arms bound over my breasts. For some reason, gravity was not working for me. I was stuck. I wriggled a little, trying to free myself.