Halftime Husband (Sassy in the City 5)

“No. I want you,” I said, squeezing her bare foot, which was still resting against my leg. “I’m just grumpy, I’m sorry.” Maybe I didn’t like the secrecy of our relationship. Because I sure in the hell didn’t like listening to my daughters speculate on Dakota’s future blond babies with my quarterback.

“Then I’ll be there. Is this official nanny business or should I skip wearing panties?” She gave me a smile that made me forget all about possible competition.

“Definitely no panties,” I murmured.

“I wish I could kiss you right now,” she said.

I wanted nothing more, truthfully.

But then she seemed to realize that might have been too revealing because she immediately stood up. “Later, Hater.”

I turned the TV on and stared blankly at the screen.

We were getting into this deeper and deeper and I had no clue what to do about it.

When she came into my room that night, we didn’t talk about my territorial response or her desire to kiss me in the living room. We didn’t talk about anything. We just went at each other as quietly as possible in the dark.

This, we understood. Even if we didn’t have a clue about the rest.

Chapter Thirteen

“You look amazing,” Leah said, giving me a hug as she came into Brandon’s box before the game on Sunday two weeks later. “I haven’t seen you in forever and you look so much more relaxed. Happy.”

“A little you-know-what will do that to you,” I said, going for the joke. I didn’t want to admit that living at Brandon’s with a steady paycheck and no looming rent or bills to pay was a huge stress reliever. Or that it went beyond that. That I was happy being with him, even when we weren’t having sex. That I enjoyed his company. That I was really starting to care about the girls.

We had a routine and it was an easy one, an enjoyable one. My days were my own and I’d been on a few auditions and had started searching job sites to see what I might be qualified to do. Which was nothing. Then evenings we hung out, the four of us, then when our bedroom doors closed, I went in to Brandon’s room and we had amazing sex. Almost every night.

It was getting dangerous though and I knew it.

One, we were getting more and more careless. The day before Poppy had come looking for me in my room in the morning and I was still in Brandon’s bed. Fortunately, the bathroom door was locked and I had heard her, but it was a close call.

Two, we were a couple pretending we weren’t a couple while pretending to be a couple. Or something like that. And it was starting to scare me that I was feeling things I had no right to be feeling.

Now all of my friends were

in the box at the stadium and I was playing hostess. As if I were Brandon’s girlfriend or wife. “Do you want a drink?” I asked Leah after saying hello to her husband, Grant.

He looked like he belonged here more than I did. He had grown up wealthy and he moved easily in this world, greeting the rest of our friends. Felicia and her husband, Michael, were there with baby Amelia, who Willow was cooing over at the moment. Isla and Sean. Savannah and Maddox with Sully, who was over two years old now, which was crazy. That little guy was tearing around the place while Poppy followed behind him, watching him. Maddox had an eye on him too but he was sitting down indulging in a beer. Savannah looked exhausted.

“I would love a glass of wine. Whatever white you have.”

“Sure.” I went into the little refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of chardonnay.

“I’m serious,” she said as she watched me. “Something is going on with you. Would you like to share or should I just guess?”

“What would you guess?” I asked, grateful the bottle was a screw top. I twisted it open. My friends had all been eyeing me curiously. It was obvious I had been discussed among them.

Leah leaned in close to me, keeping her voice low. “That you are falling in love with your boss.”

I handed her the glass so fast wine splashed over the rim onto my hand. I wiped it on the team T-shirt I was wearing. “You would be wrong.”

Even as I denied it, I wondered if that were even true. I definitely had feelings for Brandon that were not straightforward. “I’m giddy today because I’m in the coach’s box at a football game. It’s fun. That’s what you’re seeing.”

“Okay,” she said. She sipped her wine. “Deny it all you want.”

“Isn’t this what you all thought would happen though?” I asked. “That I would be the last single girl standing in our group, my life a beautiful disaster? I’ve never really gone after marriage and a family, you know that. My life was, is, and probably always will be, chaos.”

“Who said anything about marriage and a family?” she asked, her eyebrows shooting up.