Page 7

N ASH

I’m going to Hell. I’m fucking going to Hell. I’ve done nothing but obsess over my behavior since picking up Paisley. Now that she’s in bed and I’m trying like fuck to unwind, this afternoon’s bombshell and the way I handled it keeps playing over and over in my head.

What the everloving fuck was I thinking talking to Kendall that way? Despite what she thinks, I’m not an asshole. Okay. Fine. I was an asshole to her.

I can blame my behavior on my shock of learning she was the infamous Miss Wentworth, whom my daughter and parents have raved about since the start of school. According to them, she’s funny, smart, kind, pretty, and good with kids.

I can agree on one: she’s gorgeous. I’d find her more humorous if I wasn’t always the butt of her jokes. In the few times I’ve been around her, she’s flirted with me and every other man in the vicinity.

We met once in January after a game. I watched her from afar until she came up to me and tried making conversation. When I grunted my responses, she called me Nash Potato and teased me about my glowing personality, then sauntered off to dance with the next willing and able man.

And she had her pick of them.

The next time I saw her was at Walker and Riley’s wedding. The self-destructive side of me couldn’t stop watching her dance—dirty dance—with Miles. I wanted to be the man plastered against her ass, rubbing his cock against her curves. Feeling her hands around my neck. Her lips around my cock.

When she and Miles snuck off the dance floor giggling like the drunk fools they were, I immediately put her on the Do Not Go There list. I don’t share. I don’t fuck around.

Not anymore.

If that’s where she is in life, good for her, but that’s not for me. Not that I’ve been looking for a woman to settle down with. Hell, I haven’t even been dating. Since I became a single father, my sole focus has been Paisley.

The other two times I’ve seen Kendall have been at post game get-togethers. She’s the life of the party wherever she goes, and she has an obvious connection with Miles. Do I think they’re dating? Hell no. He’s not into serious commitments, and by the look of it, neither is she.

But I don’t mess with women who’ve been with my teammates. Again, been there, done that. Not that I want to mess with Kendall. Well, my body does, and that pisses me the hell off.

What’s pissing me off even more is how out of line I was this afternoon.

It was my fight or flight response, which makes no sense.

One moment I’m eye fucking her ass and tits, and the next I’m accusing her of sleeping with the team and teaching kids to swear, when my intent was to introduce myself to Miss Wentworth and beg her to watch Paisley for me tomorrow.

Begging won’t work, even if I were to get down on my hands and knees and grovel. The image of me on my knees with her skirt flipped up and my head between her legs has my cock stirring under the covers.

“Fuck.” I pound my pillow and toss around until I’m settled on my side. I stare at the dark wall in front of me and run through all my possibilities.

I could risk Paisley catching bronchitis, but that wouldn’t be fair of me to ask Mom to pick her up and tend to her on top of my dad. Paisley is an easy kid, but she’s full of energy and doesn’t like to sit still for too long.

There are plenty of guys on the team who have families. I could ask one of them for babysitter references. But there’s no time for me to meet anyone, vet them, show them what Paisley likes and doesn’t like.

Maybe one of the wives wouldn’t mind coming over and watching her, but that’s a lot to ask of a stranger as well. And I’d have to go through the paperwork process at Revere to approve another individual to pick up Paisley.

Since I gave my parents full access to Paisley’s records and permission to make decisions on my behalf, it wasn’t a big deal to send my kid off with her teacher.

Lucky me.

Shit. It is lucky me. Kendall did my parents a solid yesterday, and I somehow need to convince her to do it again tomorrow. If I hadn’t royally fucked things up, she probably would have willingly said yes. Now? I’m not so sure.

I toss and turn all night and am no closer to a solution when my alarm goes off in the morning. I have to be at the field today from eleven to at least six, which gives me a few hours to strategize after I drop off Paisley.

Doing the only thing I can think of, I pick up my cell and make a call to Kendall’s administrator.