Page 65 of My Three Hometown Hard Hats

“But there are three of us and only two of you,” Conrad says, popping open the second collapsible soccer goal we have in the garage for when Evelyn wants to play.

“Nova can be on our team, too.” She points to the dog, who is lying on the deck watching all of us. Hearing her name, she lifts one ear, but makes no other move.

Uh-huh, sure she is.

Evelyn must come to the same realization. “Well, we don’t need her anyway. Girls are awesome.”

“Girlsareawesome,” I tell her. “If that’s what you want to do, then we’ll do it.”

She smiles at me and turns to Hadley. “Come on. We need to have a game plan.”

I’m pretty sure their game plan was to have Evelyn run circles around all of us until we were dizzy, and for Hadley to look so stunning that we can’t take our eyes off her.

Hadley runs behind me, her hand running over the small of my back where my shirt has ridden up. She tries to dart away, but I grab her hand.

Glancing up, I see that Con and Austin have Evelyn fully distracted. Con’s trying to get the ball from her, while her dad’s tickling her.

I pull Hadley into my chest, so my frame is blocking Evelyn’s view of Hadley if she does look this way. She squirms for a second, trying to get free, but quickly calms down, her hands settling on my chest.

Fuck, I want to kiss her right now.

A quick glance over my shoulder shows the other three still occupied, so I frame my hands on either side of Hadley’s face and kiss her.

I don’t have time to kiss her the way I want to, but it makes up for all the moments since she stepped outside of her mom’s house earlier that I’ve wanted to press my lips to her very kissable ones.

Hadley nips at my bottom lip, then ducks under my arms and runs toward Evelyn. They work together to get the ball away from the guys. Hadley passes it to Evelyn, who scores.

Giggling and dancing ensues, just like it has after all their goals.

“They’re cute together,” Con says as he and Austin walk toward me.

A smile crosses Austin’s face. “Yeah, they are.”

The girls score one more goal before Evelyn flops down on the grass, dramatically clutching her stomach and acting like a starved lion.

Luckily, Austin picked up sandwiches from the deli in town earlier, so we don’t have to cook.

We all grab our sandwiches and sit down in the living room to watch a princess movie Evelyn has been going on and on about for days.

“Hadley needs to be here more often. We never get to eat in the living room unless she’s here.”

I agree with you there, kid, just maybe not for the same reasons.

One movie and five sandwiches later, Evelyn is half asleep with her head on Hadley’s shoulder, where she kept her all to herself on the corner of the sectional for the whole damn movie.

You can’t be mad at a five-year-old. You can’t be mad at a five-year-old.

Evelyn insists on Hadley putting her to bed tonight, so that leaves the three of us to clean up the living room together.

“Evelyn was being a real Hadley hog all night,” I growl, stuffing all the sandwich wrappers in the trash.

“I know,” Austin groans. “She wouldn’t let her go. I know that should make me happy, but damn.”

“Let’s hope Evelyn goes to sleep quickly tonight,” Con says, folding blankets and setting them in the basket in the corner of the living room.

We all stop what we’re doing, a knowing look passing between us. We need some time with our girl. Some alone time.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN