Steele (Arizona Vengeance 9)

I’m the one who tends to like fancy trips, cars, and clothing, but we’ve always kept most of our spending modest. Our house isn’t as big and luxurious as some of the other players, and Ella doesn’t want a different designer purse for every occasion. We’ve always been about saving as much as we could because no day in this league is guaranteed. I could sustain a serious injury, and, just like that, be unemployed.

Regardless, I’m about to get extravagant and I enlist Lucy’s help.

The team was on a short road trip to Vegas to play the Spades yesterday, and we came back late last night. Lucy took the bus to school this morning and I get her tonight per the loose and casual custody arrangement Ella and I worked out and are always willing to adapt as needed.

Before heading to school to pick up my kid, I swung by Ella’s house. She was on puppy duty while Lucy was in school, and I entered the house using my key. Without knocking, as Ella said she’d be on a Zoom meeting with her team in New York, I went inside. I found Brody in her office. Ella had earbuds in and was talking with someone on her computer screen, the back of which was to me. Brody was under her desk, happily gnawing away on a cow hoof. The minute I walked in he came running to me.

Not that he likes me best, but because he’s just a puppy and loves everyone. I scooped him up, shooting a wink at Ella. She didn’t dare return it or blow me a kiss, as everyone would see. She did give me a smile and a subtle chin lift.

I mouthed the words “Call you later,” and quietly slipped out of the house with a wiggly, licking puppy in my arms. Before putting him in my car, I placed him on the grass and made a general fool of myself by encouraging him to go potty. When he did, I made a bigger fool by praising him—probably to an extreme—but his butt was wagging hard, so he knows he did a good thing.

From there, we cruised the short drive to Lucy’s school to pick her up.

Lucy opens the car door, shrugs off her backpack, and flings it on the floorboard, and scoops Brody into her arms, who had previously been sitting like a good boy in the front seat. As much as Brody likes Ella and me, he goes batshit crazy when he sees Lucy. And Lucy is just as enamored. I’m fearful about what will happen when we need to return him for his long-term foster and training. I had not thought about the repercussions of us getting attached to him, particularly Lucy.

“Hey, Dad,” she says as she slides into the front seat, placing Brody on her lap. She shuts the door, then affixes her seatbelt.

“What’s up, Lucy Goosey?” I reply with a grin as I pull away from the curb. She gives me her standard eye roll, but there’s a fond smirk when she does so. “How was school?”

Her reprisal takes less than two minutes. Like usual, it was good and she did well. Lucy is incredibly smart, and she’s at the very top of her class.

“Want to help me do something?” I ask her, the sly tone in my voice getting her attention, so she looks across the console at me.

“Like what?”

I waggle my eyebrows before turning my attention back to the road. “Want to help me romance your mom tonight?”

That gets another eye roll, but she’s still curious. “How?”

“Well,” I drawl dramatically. “I was thinking of you helping me cook an extravagant meal, which we’ll serve to her by candlelight. I’ll have some flowers for her and a little gift. Just a token of my undying love and worship of her.”

Lucy snorts. “You’re laying it on thick.”

“Hey,” I say in defense of myself. “Your mom is a tough nut to crack sometimes and I’m pulling out everything in my arsenal.”

“You know you don’t have to do all this stuff to impress her, right?” Lucy advises. “She’d be happy sharing a takeout pizza with us tonight.”

I shoot Lucy my most dramatically horrified look. “Child… you know nothing about romance. Sit back and let me teach you, then make sure any boy who ever dates you in the future treats you this way.”

“But you didn’t do this for Mom before?” Lucy points out, but it’s done gently. Not in a way meant to rub my face in my failures.

“I know,” I murmur. “And I was wrong. But so what if I’m going a little overboard now? I just want her to see me working hard.”

Lucy scratches Brody’s head. “She knows.”

“Why? Did she say something?” I press like a middle-school boy wanting to know if sweet, pretty Ella likes me.