Cedar continued to rub the little boy’s back as she made her way around the room. She passed the water station and heard Darrin snigger. Really, who above the age of nine sniggered? The man was a tool. Their breakup kept her up at night; mostly because Darrin filled her evenings with fun, and going to bed at 9:30—while great for her skin tone and energy level—wasn’t exactly thrilling.

Akoni sighed against her, and her maternal instincts did a little happy dance.

Forget Darrin. He could be trampled by the Titans’ entire defensive line for all she cared. Lifting her nose in the air, she continued past the drink station, intent on checking in with the press gathered off to the side. She waved at Cassidy Stone. They’d exchanged emails and even met for lunch a couple weeks ago in preparation for Cassidy’s interviews with the players today. Hopefully the extra time would pay off in a great article about the camp. All the reporters would have a chance to interview a few select players later in the day. She’d hoped to see cameras flashing away, but the group lounged against the wall or in seats, waiting for the opportunity to get an exclusive quote. Cedar would be more than happy to provide sound bites and tidbits to fill their stories. She also wanted to rush over because it looked like Cassidy and Anthony Kincaid were in some sort of stand-off. That just wouldn’t do.

As she lengthened her stride, the clipboard slipped out from her arm and she spun to try and catch it, only to see Darrin leafing through her carefully compiled lists. She snatched it away from him. “What do you think you’re doing?”

His eyes widened, feigning innocence. “You’re the one who wanted to be tied to a kid. I thought I’d take over the real job and let you sing lullabies.”

Cedar turned slightly to mitigate Akoni’s exposure to all things Darrin. “Is this who you really are? I thought so much better of you before we broke up, Darrin. I thought you were one of the good guys.” Cedar bit the inside of her cheek to stop herself from spilling her guts.

Darrin paused as if her words had hit something soft inside of him. “You did?”

“Yeah,” she barely whispered.

He tipped his head to the side, considering her. “Let me be that man for you today.” He reached for the clipboard. “We’ve worked too hard on this camp to let a baby ruin it.”

Cedar twisted out of his reach, just like her heart twisted at his words. “Let’s get two things straight. Number one, I organized, planned, and created this camp—you did nothing but drool when the cheerleaders practiced.”

His innocence faltered. “How did you—”

Cedar tossed her head, cutting him off. “Number two, babies don’t ruin anything. I can run this camp better than you ever could, and I can do it with a baby on my hip.”

Without waiting for his reply, Cedar stomped off. After two stomps she realized she looked like Darrin had gotten to her and she didn’t want to give him the satisfaction, so she slowed down and softened her steps. Akoni’s fingers gripped her shirt so tight he was going to leave behind permanent wrinkles. “Don’t worry, sweetie,” she cooed as she set the diaper bag on a chair. There was no sense carrying the thing around. “I’ve got you and I’m not letting you go.”

Whatever had happened between Cassidy and Anthony had run its course by the time Cedar made it to the press area. She made quick work of orienting the press before circling the room again to check on the workers over each station. Somewhere along the way, Akoni sighed and went limp in her arms. His breathing evened out, and Cedar wished she had a blankie and a rocker and ten minutes to enjoy his baby shampoo smell. It wasn’t his fault his daddy was a jerk. Sure, a nanny gone missing was an unfortunate situation, but Teo needed to take some responsibility for his son instead of dropping Akoni into the first pair of arms he could find. For all he knew, Cedar would lock Akoni in a closet or hand him off to the homeless man who lived in the alley behind the facility.

Throughout the course of the morning, Cedar had little downtime, but the time she did have was spent arguing with herself over who she was more upset with: Darrin for thinking babies were problems or Teo for thinking all women were at his beck and call. Like she didn’t have a day full of potential fires to monitor. She’d already put Darrin in his place. After the camp was over, she’d give Teo Parata a piece of her mind.

Cedar cursed her wedged sandals as she hurried to the cafeteria to check on lunch. Her feet were sore, and carrying around an extra fifty pounds of toddler wasn’t helping.

The lunch staff was behind, so she ended up adding applesauce cups to brown paper sacks while rocking Akoni back and forth. He was warm against her, and oddly enough, he calmed her indignation enough that she could focus on her job.

Trudy rushed in just after she’d finished the lunches. “I need emergency contact information for a parent. We had a boy injure his knee.”

Cedar shifted Akoni. “There’s a file box under the table by Hailey’s station.” Hailey Knight was a team trainer and had agreed to come in and be the medical personnel for the camp. Cedar had paused to listen in as Hailey talked about post-game recovery with a group of twelve-year-olds. She was so beautiful, even in her Titans T-shirt and workout pants, that the little boys stared at her as if she were a princess.

Cedar looked down at Akoni, debating handing him over to Trudy so she could take care of the situation. Her feet ached, her lower back hurt, and she was sure that hauling this chunk of adorableness around was tweaking her spine out of alignment. He’d hardly made a peep all day, except when he needed a diaper change, and even then it was more of a squirm and a grunt. He hadn’t even cried when Teo left. He would probably be fine with Trudy … except Cedar was growing attached to the kid. He was seriously calm. His big brown eyes took in the world and accepted it and he was just chill. She needed chill today. Between making sure Darrin didn’t take credit for her work and putting out fires, she would be a mountain of nerves if his chubby fist wasn’t clutching her shirt.

So, instead of handing Akoni off to someone else, she cursed her wedges and headed off to the first aid station to find the paperwork with him tucked into her side. When the day was over, she planned to soak her feet and tell Teo to get his life in order.