Page 29

“What? I told you I was catching an early flight out of Florida and Chicago is an hour behind. This is quite late for you to be getting up on a game day, don’t you think?

” I tried my best to sink as far into the bed as I could, mortified that the first time I’d meet Jamil’s mother would be in his bed while wearing his clothes.

“Why are you still in dress clothes? Are you hungover?” His mother took his chin in her hands to turn it both ways as she inspected him.

“Mom, I’ll meet you outside in the kitchen in a second.” Jamil was gently trying to push his mother back out of his bedroom, but his efforts were fruitless.

Her gaze caught me attempting to disappear entirely from this moment. “And who is this, Jamil?” she asked her son as she studied me with one eyebrow raised.

Jamil let out an awkward cough as he glanced back at me over his shoulder. “This is Harper. Harper, this is my mother, Denise.”

Denise reached out to smack her son on the back of the head. “You should have told me you had company, or I would have made more smoothie. Here, you two have these. I’ll go make one for myself.” She shoved both glasses into Jamil’s hands before turning on her heel back toward the kitchen.

“That was not how I pictured meeting your mother. You didn’t mention she was coming.” I pulled the covers over my head and let out a groan. Jamil’s smile was wolfish as he pulled the covers back.

“She called yesterday and wanted to come up, the tequila fog made me forget. When you meet everybody else, you’ll understand that this went much better than expected. Come on, I’m sure she’s cooking up a proper breakfast now that she knows you’re here.”

Jamil disappeared into his bathroom to change out of his clothes from last night, leaving the smoothies on his dresser.

Realizing I had no other clothes to change into except for my dress from the gala, I picked up the smoothies from the dresser and bit back my embarrassment as I walked out into the kitchen.

The island was cluttered with eggs, milk, cheese, and various other breakfast items as Denise worked over a pan on the stove.

“Thank you for the smoothies.” I started off cautious because who knew how his mother truly felt about finding a woman in her son’s bed?

My mother would have never let me hear the end of it and probably would have given me a lecture about how Nelsons are supposed to act.

“I’m sorry we weren’t up when you arrived. Jamil didn’t mention you were coming.”

Denise turned around with a wide smile on her face and the deepest warmth in her eyes.

It was the opposite of what I’d expected.

Her presence reminded me of Jamil’s—laidback and good-hearted.

I felt as relaxed with her as I did with her son, and I forgot for a moment that I was standing in front of her with bedhead and wearing Jamil’s clothes.

“If Jamil didn’t have Nico as his agent, that boy wouldn’t know up from down when it comes to plans.” Denise motioned to one of the empty barstools at the island. “Take a seat and tell me a little bit about yourself.”

“Oh, sure,” I told her as I glanced back toward Jamil’s bedroom door where there wasn’t a sign of him yet. “I’m a field reporter for the Chicago Cougars.”

Denise laughed and the melodious sound reminded me of Jamil’s. “I’m not surprised. I’m sure Jamil was struck by you the moment he first saw you at the stadium.”

I could already feel the heat rushing to my cheeks. “Oh, no. That’s not .?.?. That wasn’t .?.?. He didn’t .?.?.”

“Please”—Denise waved me off—“I know my son is a flirt. He gets that from his father. That man had talked me in circles all the way to a first date before I even knew what was happening. Jamil is much of the same.”

Before Denise could catch me with my mouth hanging ajar, I grabbed the smoothie off the counter in front of me and downed half of it. “We actually met in Florida,” I told her.

“During spring training?” She turned around with a spatula in her hand, both eyes wide.

“Yes, actually. We didn’t think we’d see each other again after that.” Denise stared at me for a moment longer, connecting the dots in her head about our journey thus far before she turned back to the stove and flipped two omelets onto separate plates.

“Life has a peculiar way of grabbing your attention. It makes it known when it wants you to notice something it’s putting in your path.” She turned around and deposited one of the omelets in front of me and the other in the empty seat next to me.

Jamil emerged from his room freshly showered and looking much less hungover than he had earlier. “Omelets? Mom, this is too much.” Despite his protests, he slid into the chair next to me and dove into his food without anything further.

“I always made you omelets on game days. Today is no different.” Denise swiped Jamil’s smoothie away from him with a wink before taking a sip. “If I had known you had a guest, I would have maybe done something a little fancier.”

He sighed. “I’ll never hear the end of this, will I?”

Denise shook her head with a wry smile on her face. “Never. Harper, I’m guessing you’re quite busy during the game for me to sit with you today?”

I glanced between Denise and Jamil. “Wait, you’d want to sit with me?”

Jamil’s hand slipped onto my thigh and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

“Of course, sweetie. I’d love to spend time with you while I’m here this week.” Denise reached out to squeeze my arm. “Both of you. And Jordan of course.”

Jordan?

Next to me, Jamil’s back went nearly ramrod straight. “When are you going to see him?” His words were short and clipped as he went back to staring at his plate.

“I think later today.”

If Jordan was, in fact, still in Chicago, why hadn’t Jamil talked much about him yet? Where was he? And why were they talking like he was in some kind of care?