Dare to Play (Dare Nation 3)

She grinned. “Not ready to give up the bachelor lifestyle?” Her half smile made him chuckle.

“Not in this lifetime.”

She swirled the ice in her glass with the straw. “You know, getting married would help me, too. Hannah’s mother has got a lot of strikes against her, but she’s still her biological parent, while my current reputation has me branded as a groupie. But if I could offer her a stable home with two parents, the judge would look at me a lot more favorably.” She took a sip of her drink, eyeing him over the top of the glass.

“Jesus. I am so sorry for causing you problems,” he said, well aware she wasn’t teasing nor was she hinting.

She shrugged. “It’s not your fault paparazzi follow you around. It just sucks for both of us.”

He didn’t sense any guile. Just an honest statement in response to his mention of marriage as a solution. But the wheels in his brain began to turn.

“No prospective male friend in your life willing to step up?” he asked, unsure if he wanted her to say yes or no.

“Nope.” Her shoulders dropped dejectedly.

He studied her delicate profile, and something twisted in his chest as he felt a shift inside him. Not that he wanted to get married. He didn’t. He valued his independence and the life he lived, but the fact was that he’d helped cause her dilemma with Hannah. True, her stepmother had been making custody threats before they’d been caught making out on his driveway, but she certainly looked a lot less parental thanks to him.

And there were even more reasons the action made sense. She stood to lose custody of her sister. He stood to lose, well, everything. Austin had made it clear his lifestyle and behavior jeopardized how he went out at the end of his career. And he’d worked too damned hard to get where he was in the majors to blow it over juvenile stupidity now.

Marriage to Macy was a radical, crazy idea. They didn’t know each other well, but they sure as hell were sexually compatible. More than any woman he’d been with before.

He took a sip of his beer. “If there were a willing man, would you consider getting married?” he asked, wondering where she stood on the matter.

She paused from drinking her soda and met his gaze. “I don’t know. I never had a reason to give it a thought.” She visibly swallowed hard. “Why are you asking?”

Was it hope he saw in her beautiful brown eyes?

A mixture of panic along with a sort of resolution rose up in his throat. “I don’t know why I’m asking, really. There’s a part of me that thinks we could solve each other’s problems and another part of me that wants to hurl at the very idea,” he said honestly.

She burst out laughing. “You’ve got to be kidding. Bad boy Jaxon Prescott is considering getting married?”

“I wasn’t.” Until he’d spoken to her. He curled his fingers tighter around the bottle.

“Yeah. Not in this lifetime is what I believe you just said.”

He glanced at her, really considering. They needed the same thing. A settled, family appearance. A way for her to keep her sister and for him to calm his team management so he didn’t end his career in humiliation. But such a sudden notion had him feeling queasy after he’d been refusing his brother’s mere mention of the idea.

Still, there was something about the notion he couldn’t dismiss. “Your problems are as big if not bigger than mine. You’re Bri’s friend, a good person, and the more I let it sink in, I think marriage could help us both.” His pulse jumped and his heart rate sped up as he began to more seriously consider it.

“Jaxon–”

“Why don’t we order and we can talk?”

She stared at him, her mouth open. “You’re serious?”

He nodded.

As if in slow motion, she picked up a bar menu, took a look, and gestured for Beckett. “A plain burger and fries. Medium well, please.”

Jaxon grinned. “So we have the same taste in food. One more thing in common.” He didn’t mention their compatibility in bed. That was a given.

He glanced at the bartender. “I’ll have the same thing.”

Beckett walked over to the pass-through to the kitchen and called in the order before getting back to work doing inventory behind the bar.

To ease the tension with Macy, Jaxon began talking about his upcoming season and recent trades to his team, sidestepping their problems and his marriage idea for the moment. But the longer he sat making easy conversation, the more he realized he could be with Macy and not feel suffocated. A fifteen-year-old girl in his house? That he wasn’t so sure about, but her half sister would be part of the deal.

“What do you do for a living? When you’re not corralling a teenager, that is?” he asked.