Present Day
Jace Bennett
SCARLETT WAS MY kryptonite.
She was also a little girl with a big attitude. In her Bears t-shirt and jeans, she stood beside Jonah, who was wearing another one of her Bears t-shirts, and put her tiny hands on her hips.
“Okay, listen,” she said, looking toward Jonah. “A football team has eleven players. The team who has the ball, that’s a football in case you didn’t know, is the team trying to score. They are called ofsent.”
“Offense,” I corrected, sucking in a breath to keep from laughing.
She eyed me. “Offense, that’s what I said. Anyway, the other team that has to try to stop the ofsent is called defent.”
“Defense,” I muttered.
Scarlett drew in a breath, and ignored me. “The ofsent tries to score by running or passing the ball to someone as they run down the field.”
I kept my mouth shut that time. She had the gist of it. And I think Jonah did too.
“Wanta try?” she asked him.
Jonah nodded.
“Okay,” Scarlett said. “I’ll be the qwartback and throw you the ball. You catch it and run as far as you can before my daddy tackles you.”
Wait?
What?
I have to be the entire other team?
“Got it?” she asked, looking up at me.
I bent down and put my hands on my jeans. “I got it.”
“Jonah, you stand over there,” she pointed a bit away.
Picking up the ball, Scarlett looked at me, and then at Jonah before taking her stance. “Red 24! Red 24! Hut! Hut! Hike!”
I burst out laughing. She’d been to some games where I played with the guys, and watched just as much football on television as I did, but I had no idea she knew any of the lingo. And where the hell had she picked up the Red 24 thing?
Lucky for me, she didn’t catch my outburst.
Jonah caught the ball and started to run—the wrong way.
“Time out!” Scarlett yelled, but Jonah kept going.
I did nothing.
When she glared at me, I shrugged. “Touchdown?”
Those hands went to those little hips again. “That is not a touchdown, Daddy. He went the wrong way!”
I shrugged. “Okay, try again, but this time how about you tell him what direction to run in.”
Jonah stopped where I’d made the goal line and shouted, “Homerun.”
Scarlett fluttered her lips and blew her hair from her eyes. “Oh, brother, do we have a lot of things to teach him.”
Together, Scarlett and I spent the next two hours teaching Jonah a very basic understanding of the game. At least I was fairly certain he understood it wasn’t baseball or basketball by the time we were done.
Indian summer was a stroke of luck, and the warmer temperatures allowed us to stay in the park longer than if it were cold.
It was close to eight when we got back in the car after an ice cream stop, and while I let them watch a movie on Scarlett’s iPad, I texted Hannah. She had sent her number home with Mrs. Sherman, and before I left the house, I plugged it into my contacts. Just in case I needed it. For Jonah. Not me.
Me: On our way. I should be there in ten minutes.
Hannah: Did everyone have fun?
Me: A blast. I’m sure Jonah will tell you all about it. They already made me promise to bring them back next Friday.
Hannah: Oh, that’s great. Thank you. Do you want to bring Scarlett in? I made chocolate chip cookies.
Me: I think it’s best if we don’t see each other again.
Hannah: I understand.
I wasn’t sure she did. She thought I was harboring resentment from the past, when let’s face it, we were both to blame, and the past wasn’t my issue at all. The fact I was feeling something for Hannah after all these years, after Tricia, that was my issue. And it wasn’t something I was going to get over.
Another text pinged, and I looked down.
Hannah: I think you were right about the other night. It was a mistake. We moved way too fast. Maybe though we could be friends?
Friends. No, I didn’t see that happening, and I didn’t respond. Instead, I put my phone down. With the kids caught up in their movie, I turned on the music and scrolled to find some hard rock. It helped me forget what was on my mind. As I tapped my fingers to the beat, I mouthed the lyrics.
When I stopped at a light, I looked in my rearview, and my heart jumped a little at the sight. Scarlett was pointing to the screen and explaining to Jonah who Mulan was.
Scarlett was having so much fun. She begged me for a brother or sister on a weekly basis, and besides her mother, that was the one thing I couldn’t give her. Sure, she had Max, Nicky, and Sophie, but I knew it wasn’t the same.
“She wants to be a warrior, like me,” Scarlett told Jonah.
He stared at her in awe. “You’re a warrior?”
I raised a brow when she glanced up and noticed my stare. “Well, not yet, but someday I will be. My daddy is teaching me.”
“I want to be one too,” he said. “Can you teach me?”
“Well,” she said, “you have to eat all your vegetables.”
I might have thrown that in there.
“And listen to your parent.”
And yeah, I might have thrown that in there too.
“And then you have to learn right from wrong.”
The light turned green and I had to redirect my gaze, but I listened to her with a pride that made me feel like maybe I didn’t suck at being a single parent.
Scarlett redirected her attention to the movie and started to tell Jonah all about Mulan. Poor kid, he was going to know everything about that Disney princess whether he wanted to or not if she had anything to say about it.
When I pulled up in front of Hannah’s house, I thought about asking Jonah if the SOLD sign meant they were moving in or out, but I thought it best I not know.
Just as I got out to open the car door, the front door swung open wide and Hannah stepped out on the porch. Her sleek dirty blonde hair fell over her shoulders like a waterfall and her tight little tank top caused my cock to twitch.
Down boy.
No more of that.
Hannah stopped at the top step and I stared at her for a moment. At her eyes that were so blue. At her full lips that were so soft. At her smile that was so full of white teeth. And then there was that body. It had changed a little, but only gotten better, more defined. Sexier, if that was possible.
She was still so fucking beautiful, and the thing was that beauty was inside and out. It always had been.
Ripping my gaze from her, I turned to open the door. As soon as I did, Jonah jumped out in excitement. “Mommy, I played football.”
Hannah clapped her hands together in excitement. “That’s great. Maybe you can teach me.”
“I still have a lot to learn,” he said, repeating what Scarlett had told him.
Scarlett was still watching her movie, so I closed the door and leaned against it, waiting for Jonah to reach his mother.
Jonah stopped just before hitting the bottom step and then came charging back at me. Wrapping his arms around my legs and looking up, he said, “Thank you, sir.”
I grinned down at him. He did have a kind disposition just like his mother had said, then again he was Hannah’s son. “You’re more than welcome, champ.” I bristled my hand over his soft, blonde hair. “And how about you call me Jace?” I wanted to say call me anything but sir or Mr. Big Shot, but I refrained.
“Okay, Jace,” he smiled. “And next Friday you’ll teach me how to pass?”
“Yeah, champ, I’ll teach you how to pass.”
He let go of his hold on me. “You think I’ll ever get to be a qwartback like Scarlett?”
I should have corrected him, but it was too God damn cute. “Absolutely,” I said.
At that he went flying back toward his mother, who was staring at us with a smile on her own face that did something to me.
As Jonah hugged her and started to tell her all about his night, she waved to me and mouthed, thank you.
I gave her a slight wave back and strode around the front of my car, getting in, and driving away without daring to look back.
“He’s nice, Daddy,” Scarlett said.
“He is.”
“And so is Hannah. And she’s really pretty.”
I found her gaze in the rearview. “You know his mother?”
“Yes, Daddy, she brings him to school every morning and always says hello to me.”
I scratched my head. “I didn’t see her when I brought you.”
She shrugged. “Maybe she didn’t walk him that day, but she usually does. A lot of parents do.”
The next question I asked wasn’t exactly because I was thinking with the right head. “Do you want me to walk you in sometimes? I can’t do it every day, you know some days I have meetings, but I can try to take you a couple days a week.”
Those little palms clapped together so quick, I thought she was going to do a cheer. “Oh, that would be wonderful.”
Wonderful.
Yep.
That’s the word I would use.
It’s not like I wouldn’t have done anything to make her happy, but this wasn’t only for her.
Even though I refused to admit otherwise.