Halftime Husband (Sassy in the City 5)

I didn't even know why I had said that, even if it was the truth. She wasn't talking about the future in that way. She just wanted me to admit I had feelings for Brandon. My cheeks felt hot.

“And no, I never thought your life was a beautiful disaster. I always thought you lived your life your way, and you had all these cool experiences in the industry. All you wanted to do was dance and you did.”

“I still want to dance. The world doesn’t seem to agree with me.” I poured myself a glass of wine too. “And maybe I want something more now anyway.”

“Marriage and a family?” she asked. Then she gave me a smile. “Don’t answer that. Just think about it. You might be building something and you don’t even know it.”

Just then Willow came over to me, holding Amelia on her hip. “Isn’t she just the cutest?” Willow asked, brushing her hand over Amelia’s dark hair. “She looks like a baby Snow White.”

“She really does.” I had never thought about it in those terms, but with her dark hair, fair British complexion, and pink cheeks and lips, Amelia had the same vibe going on. “Next time I babysit for her you can come with me if you want.”

She kissed the baby’s head. “I would love that.”

When she walked away again, I turned to Leah. “Don’t say a word.”

“What?” She laughed. “I’m not saying anything.”

“You’ve already said enough, to be totally honest with you.” I grinned at her.

“That’s what friends are for.” Leah shook her head. “Remember when Grant’s assistant sent me a vibrator thinking that was what Grant told him to send me? That was so ridiculous.”

“I almost forgot about that. It was very awkward. Time has flown by these last couple of years.” It really had. Two years of stress and financial strain. Ugh. I wished I had simple and easy answers for my future but I didn’t.

We went and sat down with our friends. The view of the playing field was perfection. It was a sunny September day and I almost wished I was sitting in the sunshine. But I did enjoy the feeling of exclusivity in the box, I wasn’t going to lie. When I had dated Dante, there had been no perks. He’d been a rookie with a tenuous hold on his career and a bad reputation.

“Do you see Dad?” Poppy asked me. She squeezed her thumb and forefinger together. “Tiny Dad, right there.”

The kid cracked me up. Though I did need to discuss with Brandon her science experiment she had been working on. It was taking on the look of big pharm in her room. Lots of glass beakers and unknown potions that she wanted me to sniff.

“I see Tiny Dad. He looks very serious.”

“Tiny Dad is always serious.” Poppy stood next to me and wrapped her left arm around my neck. “Can I sit on your lap?”

She was probably too old to be sitting on my lap, but Poppy was still just a kid who missed her mother. As far as I knew, she hadn’t spoken to her mother in the time I’d been living with them. “Sure.” I pulled her onto me and enjoyed the weight of her warm little body cuddled against me.

“I want to be a placekicker for the NFL,” Willow told Maddox.

She did? That was interesting. I wondered if Brandon knew.

“Wow, that’s a cool goal,” Maddox said. “Do you play soccer?”

“I used to. In Seattle. I was honestly kind of good. But right now I’m not playing and it sucks so much.”

I’d never heard her brag about herself, so to hear her admit she thought she was a good player made me pleased. The fact that she was also so casually chatting with Maddox, who was covered in tattoos, was also reassuring.

The game started and Willow turned her attention to the field. I saw the players moving around, heard cheering here and there, but I didn’t exactly grasp what was going on. I was mostly sipping my wine, chatting with my friends, and having my legs go numb from Poppy’s weight.

Poppy still hadn’t moved by the end of the first quarter. I realized something was obstructing our view slightly. “What is that? Is that a drone?”

“Oh, no, we’re on camera.” Willow promptly disappeared to the back of the box and picked up Sully, who was playing on the floor. She used him to make sure her face was entirely obstructed. I felt bad for her. She was just sitting squarely at the awkward age of twelve.

“Good thing I wore makeup and curled my hair,” I said. “Sorry, guys, I never thought about that. They probably wanted a shot of the girls.”

Poppy waved at the drone.

“I don’t care,” Leah said. “I sing on stage in front of hundreds of people. You know I’m not self-conscious.”

“I look like death from this pregnancy, but I’m too tired to care,” Savannah said.