Page 44

TOM

F uck, she smelled good. Crew and Callie in my arms, how quickly I forgot the loneliness from when they were gone.

“Are you sniffing me?” I asked.

Callie looked up, her eyes watery and emotion written all over her face. “Yes, that okay with you?”

“Yeah,” I said, our eyes locking. Fuck, I wanted to kiss her, but I’d be damned if our first kiss was in a crowded airport with Crew between us.

I pressed my lips to her forehead. She sighed and pulled away.

I reached for her hand and interlaced our fingers together as we walked to the carousel to collect their luggage.

We switched off holding Crew, and I pushed the bags through the airport. We then headed to where I had parked. I tossed the bags in the bed of my truck while Callie strapped Crew into his seat.

When she slid into the passenger seat, I crooked my finger, sliding towards her; her eyes went wide when she realized what I planned to do, and she briefly looked towards the back seat where Crew was happily facing the opposite direction.

I took her chin and rubbed my thumb across her plump bottom lip.

Her lips parted, gaze dropping to my mouth, my heartbeat beating so loud, I’m sure she could hear it.

I pressed my lips to hers, gently at first, her sharp intake of breath causing her lips to part and tongue to dart out tentatively.

I groaned, our kiss deepening as her fingers threaded in my hair.

Our kiss moved from gentle to frantic, forgetting where we were.

“Let’s go!” Crew yelled from the backseat, snapping us out of it. If only he knew.

I pulled away, unable to wipe the smile from my face. “Still worried about that chemistry?” I asked coyly.

“Go, let’s get home. We’re starving,” she said, letting her hand rest on the console, palm up, ready for me to hold it once I pulled out into traffic and had a free hand.

“Ice cream?” Crew asked from the backseat.

“No, not yet, buddy. Maybe after dinner,” I said to him and then turned my attention to Callie. “What did he eat today?”

“Oh, if you’re looking for me to tell you he’s had nutrients today, I can’t. I gave him anything he asked for to comply. Crackers, animal cookies, some fruit squeezes, that’s it.”

I nodded. Indulgence and airplane travel went hand in hand with a toddler. As much as I wanted consistency and order for him, I wasn’t rigid enough to put Callie in the position to enforce behavior with the travel stressors.

“I figured. Should we just say fuck it and bring him out for pizza?”

“Fuck it! Pizza!” Crew yelled, and Callie covered her mouth, attempting to cover up a giggle.

“Sure, it’s always funny when someone else’s kid swears,” I said, doing my best not to make a big deal out of the fact that Crew swore, hoping not to reinforce bad behavior.

“Well, I guess we’re having pizza for dinner. It might be the only way to distract him from the new vocabulary word you just taught him.”

“I guess I’ll have to warn Kelsey,” I said.

“Don’t worry, it’s not the first time today he said the word. The first time was after Kelsey jammed her finger in the car door. Granted, she tore her fingernail pretty badly, and it wasn’t in normal conversation. But no need to feel bad and apologize.”

Callie’s gaze rested on my face as she studied me. The tension in my jaw likely gave me away, but I constantly felt like a fuck-up. I mean, most of the time I spent battling with Crew to get him to eat basic foods, and then I go and swear in front of him.

“I guess I just need the reminder that I’m not surrounded by hockey players.”

My hand had gone back to the steering wheel, and I was gripping it tightly. Callie tugged at my arm, and when I relaxed and dropped my hand, she took it in hers, gently stroking the top of my hand with her thumb.

“Stop beating yourself up. No parent is perfect, and you just did something ninety-nine percent of parents do. You’re a good dad, Tom. Has anyone ever told you that?”

Fuck. No. I’ve never been told that not even by my mother. Hearing the words as Callie spoke, I only then recognized how much I needed them.

“No,” I said, quickly looking away from the road and briefly making eye contact before concentrating on it again. “Thank you,” my voice was hoarse with emotion, as that increasingly familiar tension in my chest made it difficult to utter the words.

Was it normal for someone I’d known for such a short period to be able to be so important to me this quickly?

Yeah, she was responsible for my son, but so much more was brewing here.

Even when she made relatively minor statements, her words had the potential to wound me or heal me.

Fuck, I hope I never did anything that would make her want to hurt me because she’d destroy me.

Pulling into the parking lot of the local pizza place, I noticed Mariana and Alex’s car.

“Looks like we have company,” I said, pointing through the glass at my teammate and his wife. “Okay with you if we sit with them?”

“Sure. I’ve kept in touch with Mariana while I was in Boston. She and I have been planning what we’re all going to do after the first pre-season game.”

“Really?” I asked. I hadn’t thought about the demand our fake dating sham would have on her. But the WAGs were a tight-knit group; at least Mariana did her best to make it that way. It shouldn’t surprise me that Callie would be responsible for contributing to the plans.

“Yeah. Also, sad news about Kayleigh and Damon. I heard she took off back home when she saw Damon signing a woman’s shirt.”

“Yep,” I said, frustrated to watch my friend and his girl deal with the same stupidity.

Kayleigh was a great girl in so many ways.

She couldn’t keep her jealousy in check.

That wouldn’t work for them long-term. And it wasn’t reasonable for her to expect Damon never to talk to female fans; I was there, and he wasn’t doing anything that should have raised red flags.

I signed hats, jerseys, and photos all the time, and talking to female fans didn’t mean I was attracted to them or wanted to date or fuck them.

“Is he okay?” She asked as she got out of the car and went to get Crew out of his seat.

“He will need to be. After this past summer, I think he thought they would make it, but it sounds like they didn’t work on the real issues.”

Callie stood with Crew on her hip. She’d already unhooked him from his seat.

“What are we telling Alex and Mariana?” she asked me as I walked over to her to take Crew and carry him inside. I liked how seamlessly we handled the everyday work of managing a toddler.

“Well, since they both know about the fake dating, I think we could let them know that we are seeing where things go, okay?”

I kept to myself that I’d already shared it with Alex, which would lead me to let her know we discussed pre-gaming.

She nodded as she held the door open, all three of us walking into the restaurant at the same time.

“Hey, look who’s here,” Mariana said, Lucy and AJ perking up when they saw Crew. I set him on the floor, and he ran to see his friends.

Alex stood and pulled over a second table, flagging the waitress and signaling for another highchair for Crew.

Callie gave Mariana a quick hug before taking her seat and making small talk about her flight.

When the high chair arrived, I picked Crew up and placed him in it before sitting next to Callie.

I squeezed her thigh, and she sent me a long lingering look, something not missed by Alex.

He lifted his chin and crooked his head, and then smiled.

I leaned over, pressing a kiss to Callie’s temple. Alex’s eyes widened in understanding when she leaned into me without changing the subject. Mariana continued to talk with Callie, though her smile was noticeably brighter.

We ordered a cheese pizza for Crew the next time the waitress came back around. Pizza was one of the few things he would eat without an argument. It didn’t even have to be good pizza; I could toss tomato sauce and cheese on an English muffin, and he’d eat it.