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We spot Troy’s car in the circular drive, so we know he’s home. I squeeze her hand. “Ready to put on the act again?”

She sighs, and I feel it deep in my own chest. “Nope.”

“Me either.” I lean my head back on the headrest then slide to the side to face her.

She stares out the windshield. “I keep thinking what if we just tell him? Why do we need to be so scared?”

“We’re not scared, Sunshine. We’re just playing it smart while we take our time developing whatever this is between us.”

“How do you think a conversation with him would even go?” she asks.

“I think he’d ground you for life and he’d bench me,” I say.

“He can’t ground me for life. I’m twenty-one.” She rolls her eyes.

“I know, but my point is he’d find ways to punish us both. He already said he doesn’t want you with a ballplayer.”

“A ballplayer seven years younger than you who is too old for me,” she adds.

I let out a little snort. “Exactly. He’ll have a fucking heart attack if he thinks I’m taking advantage of the baby girl who just came into his life when he’s the one who brought me here.”

She nods and presses her lips together. “Yeah. I know why we have to. It just sucks.”

“I’ll give you something to suck.”

Her head whips toward me, and I can’t help my laugh.

She purses her lips as if to scold me, and then I squeeze her leg.

“We can do this,” I say softly. “He’s probably going to head out soon anyway.”

She wrinkles her nose. “To his club?”

I lift a shoulder, and she shakes her head with a little disgust.

“Gross,” she murmurs.

We get out of the car and head inside, and Troy stands in the kitchen making himself a ham sandwich. He freezes when he sees us walking in together, and he narrows his eyes suspiciously at us as he holds a bottle of mustard in one hand. “Where have you two been?”

“Kaylee invited me to the Aces game, and I invited your daughter to shadow me,” I say smoothly.

“All part of the job,” Gabby adds, her voice just a little higher than it should be.

Troy studies her for a beat, and I can practically see her heart beating out of her chest. “You okay?”

She nods a little too quickly, and it’s not like I’m some great actor over here, but I’m going to have to coach her on how to school her behavior. “Just hungry. Can you make me a sandwich, too?”

“Ham okay?”

“Ham’s great. Be right back!” She practically runs upstairs, and I force myself not to laugh.

“You need one, too?” Troy asks me.

“Thanks, but I’m okay. Big buffet at the game and my boss is forcing me to get into shape.” I pat my stomach, and he nods knowingly.

“That boss of yours is a real tyrant.”

“Tell me about it.” I head toward the fridge and grab a beer, and I hold it up toward Troy. “Want one?”

He shakes his head. “No, and you shouldn’t, either, considering you need to get in shape.” He gives me a warning glance before he turns back to his sandwich. “I’ve got some business at the club tonight before my…free time.” He raises his brows which basically tells me he’ll be fucking Joanie in one of the rooms, and for a beat I wonder if he does it in the type of room where others can watch him.

Is he into that?

It doesn’t matter, but my curiosity is piqued. He’s just sitting there making a ham sandwich like he isn’t one of the richest men in baseball, like he isn’t about to get his freak on at a sex club, like he’s not the manager of a hot new expansion team.

My curiosity shouldn’t be piqued considering he’s my girlfriend’s father, but he’s also a good friend of mine—the kind of friend I would talk to about those types of things. The kind of friend I’d brag to about that little office I found not far from the owner’s suite this afternoon.

But I can’t, and it feels…strange.

“You got any plans for the night?” he asks.

I shrug. “I might take a look at some more film for the team prospects, but I’ll probably turn in early so I can get up for a nice early morning workout tomorrow at the stadium.” I slide into a chair at the table and chug down half my beer.

“Good plan.” He finishes making his sandwich along with Gabby’s, and he sets her plate on the table between him and me before he takes his seat across from me and starts to dig in. “Joanie said all the plans have been approved, so next week they’re working on finding the contractors who will make your kids fitness thing happen.”

“That’s great news,” I say.

“What’s great news?” Gabby asks as she reappears in the kitchen.

“Your sandwich is ready,” Troy says, and Gabby glances at it then sits in front of it. Her knee bumps mine when she sits, and neither of us moves.

What would Troy say if he could see our legs touching under the table? Would he think anything of it?

How long can we expect him to be oblivious to this when the connection between us is smoking hot?

“Troy was just telling me the plans for StrongFitKids have been approved,” I say. Come on, Noah. Think of a way to throw him off.

She takes a bite of her sandwich as she nods. “Oh, that is great. What’s the next step?”

“Finding contractors to start construction,” Troy says.

“What will our roles be once that starts?” Gabby asks.

“That’s a better question for Joanie, but she was telling me how impressed she is with your social media skills. This is on the down low for now, but our current social media manager, Zelda, wants to take on a smaller role since she’s having her first baby in a few months. It’ll be tough to keep up her current schedule with a newborn, so she wants to move out of management and into an assistant role. Joanie suggested a sort of contest between the interns if any of you are interested in the position.”

Gabby’s brows rise. “As in…one of us would have a full-time job as a social media manager for an MLB team right out of college?”

Troy nods. “Joanie and I are very impressed with the crop of interns this year, and there’s still that final spot she’s going to fill in the next few days. We both feel that giving the position to someone younger who understands all the different social networks would be beneficial to growing our brand.”

She raises her hand. “I want it.”

Troy chuckles. “Then prove you deserve it, baby girl. From what I hear, the other interns might be interested, too.”

Certainly she would have an edge given who her father is, but on the other hand…how would the other interns treat her if she got the job over them? How would they treat her if it was a competition the way Troy just presented it?

“Oh, and that final intern spot?” Gabby says. “I know one of the applicants. I can vouch he’s a good guy.”

I keep my gaze down on the table as I push down the feelings of envy that she’s vouching for some other guy. I don’t like it.

The complications keep swinging toward us, but I’m confident enough in what we have that we can overcome them.

I just hope I’m not overly confident the way I was three years ago when my cockiness took me out of the game.