by Violet Paige
I barged through the door to the field and waited outside. This conversation wasn’t over. Far from it.
I knew what Hunter needed. And I had the resources to give it to him. If he needed tutors or a swim coach. If he wanted to take fucking piano lessons or hell, give soccer a try. I could do all of that and a lot more.
The kid needed stability and I wasn’t the poster child for that, but I was getting ready to be. I’d be the best damn father on the planet.
I hadn’t filled out the first application yet, but I had never been more certain. More resolute.
What did shake me was Julie’s reaction.
I sat on the bench and thought about yesterday. The whole damn time I’d been at this school. Didn’t she know I was in this? Who helped her when the kid went missing? Who made sure he was included in club every day? Who gave him the Sharks winning game ball?
I did. Because I was ready to move mountains for him.
I looked up and saw the back of her sweater through the window. She was far away, but I could see her writing on the dry erase board. A second later, the bell rang and the kids darted from the class and ran outside.
Fuck. I forgot about recess.
It might be my chance to talk to her. I dodged the little minions and raced to her room.
She was sitting at her desk, her head buried in her hands.
“Jules.”
She looked up.
“How could you?” she choked. “How could you do this?”
I closed the door. “What is it you think I’ve done?”
“Adopt Hunter.”
“And that’s bad because …”
Her hands flew in the air. “You’re such an asshole.” She pushed off the desk and walked around to face me. “I told you I’ve tried to adopt him. I’ve told you I tried to foster him. I’ve told you so many personal and private things. You know what he means to me. How much I love him. How I’d do anything to be his mother. And this is what you do? You take him?”
And then I felt the punch to the gut. The swinging uppercut of what she thought I’d done. Double fuck.
“I’m not taking him from you.” I put my hands up in a defensive position. “I’m adopting him—if that’s how this goes—for you. For me. For him. It’s for all of us.”
“What?” Her crystal blue eyes filled with tears.
“I thought the three of us made a pretty damn good team.”
“We do,” she whispered.
“And I know what he’s going through. He needs a home. I’ve got the money to make this happen. I can do it. I know it sucks that it’s because I’m a celebrity. It’s fucking unfair, but let me use that to our benefit. Let me cut through the red tape for you.”
“For me?” She looked completely bewildered.
“I’m not doing this alone.” I dared to step forward and snag her into my arms.
“You want me too?”
I nodded. “Somebody has to do all that bedtime story shit.” I laughed.
“I’m not the nanny.” She pressed her lips together.
I waggled my eyebrows. “Now that is kind of hot.”
“Hawk!”
“Sorry, serious conversation. It’s just I touch you, and my brain goes right to where my cock wants to go.”
“You are in a school,” she admonished me.
“Sorry. The point is. He needs us. Both of us. And I want this. Both of you.”
She shook her head. “I can’t believe this is happening.”
“We have a long way to go. I think we should hold off on telling him. But Savannah has my attorneys on it. She’s working to get it cleared so I can be his guardian while the adoption paper work begins. It could take at least a year.”
“I know. I’ve researched all of it. It’s a miserable process.”
“Whatever it takes, right?”
She nodded. “Whatever it takes.”
“You forgive me for not telling you?”
She bit her lip. “I do.”
I slapped her on the ass. “Good. Then I’ll see you after clubs tonight.”
“Oh, do we have plans or something?”
I paused in the doorway. “Did I forget to tell you we’re going out with the team?”
“What?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Wear something very slutty. Very revealing, and something you can be fucked in very easily.”
“Hawk.”
“Oh, yeah, sorry. See you later, baby.”
28
Julie
“Joe, Aaron, Donnie, meet Julie. Julie meet Joe and Aaron and Donnie.” Hawk introduced me to a huge table of people, pointing them each out.
“Nice to meet you all,” I responded, wishing they all had nametags. How would I ever keep them all straight?
I was glad he had opted for another club other than Catch. I knew it was the Sharks’ favorite watering hole, but I didn’t think I could hold my head up there.
Hawk pulled out a chair for me and lowered to my ear.
“Love the dress, by the way.” His voice sent chills down my spine. “Think they have a storage room here?”
I coughed to cover up a squeal. The thing was, I knew he wasn’t joking. He would haul me away from this entire group of people and find a place to have his way with this little black dress. It was tight and short, and most of my breasts could be seen from the plunging V-line. I did what Hawk asked me. I wanted to make him happy. I wanted him to know I cared. And more than anything, I wanted him to know this sexual relationship between us was epic. I’d do what I needed to keep the fire and spice going.
Hawk ordered a cosmo for me and a round of beers for his friends.
There was mostly football talk. I couldn’t blame them. They were excited. The playoffs were a huge deal.
I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw two girls walk toward us.
“Savannah! Amelia!”
The guys got up to greet them. I had tried to talk field goals and pass rushes, but I was failing miserably. Maybe these girls spoke my language of books and Netflix.
Savannah sat next to me. “You’re his agent?” I asked.
“The one and only,” she smiled.
“It’s nice to finally meet you. And thank you,” I whispered.
“Thank me?”
Everyone else was talking. They weren’t paying attention to our conversation. Hawk was arguing about a play.
“Hawk told me about what you’re doing to help get the paperwork going for Hunter. I don’t know what to say. I’ve been trying to adopt that little boy since I met him.”
Her eyes softened. “I get it. Totally. I have an adopted niece and nephew. What I don’t get is how this asshole got roped into it.” She laughed at Hawk. But I knew my eyes lit with something else.
“I think when you meet Hunter, you’ll get it too.”
“Probably.” She took a beer from the pile on the table. The guys liked to order several rounds at once.
“What’s the first step?” I asked.
She took a swig. “I haven’t had a chance to talk to Hawk about it, but he has a hearing at the end of the week. It’s with Judge Bristow.”
I choked on my drink. “Judge Bristow?”
“Yeah, do you know him or something?”
I nodded. “You could say that.”
“Spill it. Any advantage we could get would be welcome. I know how important this is to Hawk.”
“Judge Bristow is my dad.”
She blinked. “Wow. That is something.”
“Yeah, he’s in family court. What are the chances?” I hadn’t even begun to broach the topic of Kane Hawkins with Daddy. He loved the Sharks. He loved the players. But his daughter playing house with the QB was a different story. I hadn’t figured out how to break the news to him yet.
“Then you have to talk to him.”
I bit my lower lip. “If he could have helped me before, he would have. I could never get through the damn red tape.”
Savannah took a sip of beer. I tri
ed to ignore the fact that she was gorgeous and sophisticated, and could probably talk circles around me when it came to the AFA.
“This is different. Hawk has a hearing. Can’t you at least mention it to your dad?”
I had to try. I couldn’t let Hunter slip away again.
I nodded. “I will. I’ll talk to him tomorrow. I’ll do whatever I can.”
“Good. And we need you at the hearing.”
“What?”
Hawk turned his head toward me. “What’s going on?”
Savannah grinned. “You’ve got a hearing this week and I think we just found out how all of this is going to happen. I asked Julie to be there.”
He winked at me. “You want to do that?”
“Of course.” I would have to tell him later about my dad. I had no way of knowing this would happen. My dad heard a hundred cases a week. How did the stars align like this? “It’s one of the rules, right?” I teased.
“Yeah. It is.” He reached under the table and squeezed my knee, but he didn’t stop there. His hand slid between my thighs and I jumped, almost spilling my drink.
“I’ll be right back,” Savannah announced. “I see another client.”
Hawk leaned over. “All it would take is a hard pull and this dress would rip right off of you.”
“Isn’t that what you wanted?” I asked, coyly.
“That’s why I like being with a good girl.” I seized when I felt his finger breach the edge of my panties. “You follow all the rules.”
I bit my lip and gyrated my hips, causing him to groan deep in his throat.
“Damn woman, you better quit that or I'm gonna lose it right here.”
I shook my head and continued to squirm. His arm tensed against my waist, pulling me closer against his chest.
“If you don’t stop making all these sweet sounds I’m going to have to take you out back.” he whispered in my ear, and I shivered.
“So if I were to say …whimper, then you would take me right here? Right now?” I asked, and then whimpered just loud enough that he could hear me.
“Yep. Let’s go.”
I laughed as he dragged me through the sea of bodies in the bar and toward an entrance marked private.
“This is someone’s office,” I argued.
He locked the door behind him.
“I don’t give a fuck,” he growled.
He pushed me against the wall, kissing me deeply. His fingers dug into my thighs as he rolled the hem of my dress up to my hips. I heard the quick rattle of his belt buckle as he shoved his jeans out of the way and freed his cock.
“You drive me so crazy, Jules. So fucking crazy.” He hitched my leg around his waist, tilting me toward him.
I nodded in agreement. I was insane to be doing this. And then he pushed inside me and I knew why I did it.
“Ohh,” I moaned.
He pumped inside me and I clung to him.
His lips found mine in a frenzy of fire and heat. Biting. Licking. Sucking. As he thrust harder and faster.
His body tensed and then he murmured in my ear as his release exploded inside me, “I love fucking you, baby.”
The words soared through me. Because I loved it too.
Hawk kissed me quickly and then pulled out. I felt hollowness where he had filled me.
“I’ll make sure you get yours when we get home.” He winked.
I felt his cum soak my panties. I leaned into the wall, trying to steady myself. Hawk wriggled my dress back into place. My eyes opened and as I looked at him, I knew I had never felt so whole. So loved. So possessed by such a powerful and strong man.
“Need a minute?” he asked.
“I’m going to run to the ladies’ room and then I’ll meet you back at the table.” I smiled.
He slapped my ass as we walked out of the manager’s office. “Don’t be long.”
My chest heaved with heavy breaths. That was the thing. I didn’t think I could bear to be away from him for more than a few minutes either. I had fallen harder than I knew was possible.
“I won’t.”
29
Kane
“Great job, guys. You’re doing really well,” I yelled at the boys playing on the field.
It was cold today. They were bundled from head to toe in hats and scarves. They looked like mini marshmallows running around the field. Hey, it was an alternative to pads and gear.
Today was the last day of my volunteer service. The timing couldn’t have been better. I had the guardianship hearing tomorrow, and with playoffs underway, I didn’t have time to be here.
Truth was, I’d come to enjoy these little fuckers. I looked forward to coaching. To teaching. To helping them work on their game. I’d miss it.
Maybe we could work something out when the season was over. I needed that Super Bowl ring before I could get back to these kids.
I didn’t realize how often I was looking for her until she appeared in my line of vision. It was like seeing the sun appear from behind a blanket of clouds after a storm. That ray broke through, and even if it only lasted for a minute, it brought light and sometimes a rainbow.
“Hey baby,” I greeted Julie as she crossed the field in a pair of knee-high boots.
“Hey. I thought I’d take Hunter home early and get him ready for tomorrow.”
He was in the QB position on the blue team. I didn’t want to pull him from the team. He was having a great day.
“Look at him out there.” I pointed to him and Julie followed the direction of my finger.
She shook her head. “You have no idea what a different child he is now.”
“That’s football.”
She leaned into me. “Can’t you take some of the credit? I get the sports thing. Men can only communicate through sports—whatever that archaic thing is, but you reached him. It doesn’t matter how. It only matters that you did.”
“That kid has been hurt.” I saw it every time I looked at him.
“That’s his past,” she whispered. “This is going to be his future.”
“I sure as hell hope so.”
I hadn’t told her about the pit in my stomach every time I thought about the hearing. The last time I stood in front of a judge, it had been to defend myself for getting in a bar brawl. I still reeked of beer and my knuckles had been cut and bloody.
Tomorrow was about as far from that as possible.
Tomorrow, everything was going to change.
I didn’t know what the fuck I expected. A big courtroom with a row of juror seats and a crowd of people in the galley. But family court wasn’t anything like that.
We were ushered into a room. Julie was on one side of me. Savannah sat outside the door with Hunter. My attorney told us the judge would want to speak to the kid separately.
I also realized as I walked into the room I wasn’t only facing a judge, I was facing the man who raised the woman I had claimed as my own. Fuck.
She squeezed my arm. “It’s going to be fine. My father is fair.”
I nodded, puffing out my chest.
The bailiff announced for us to rise and Judge Bristow walked into the small room.
He smiled at Julie and we sat at one end of the table.
“All right, so what do we have here today?” He pulled a pair of glasses from his pocket and brought them to the tip of his nose.
My attorney had advised me not to utter a word until he gave me the signal.
“Your honor. We would like the court to award temporary guardianship of Hunter Evans to Kane Hawkins while he applies for full custody.”
“I see.” He read the file in front of him. “Mr. Hawkins, is that your intent?”
I cleared my throat. “Yes, sir, that is correct.”
“And you.” He pulled the glasses all the way to the point on his angular nose, addressing Julie. “You think Mr. Hawkins should have guardianship of Hunter?”
“Daddy—I-I, mean yes, your honor. I do. He has been able to provide a stable environment for
him and nurtured his love of football.”
“I see.”
I looked at Julie to see if I could read her expression. Her father was a thin, wiry man. Not someone I’d meet on the street and call intimidating, but in here, he was one scary hell of a man.
He looked up from the paperwork. “I admire what you are doing with this, young man. I truly do. After reading your file, I think I can even understand why you are doing it, but I need to hear it from you. I need to hear you tell me that this is not going to be one of those things that sounds like a good idea, but then becomes too hard so you quit. Because I can tell you now that kid is going to be a hard shell to break. It’s not all going to be easy. Julie has been working with him for over a year, and half the time he still won’t even speak to her. He needs someone to go the extra distance with him, not bail halfway through.”
Judge Bristow waited for my response.
“I understand, your honor, and I won’t fail him. I know what he needs. I get this kid. I know what it is going to take and I am more than willing to go the extra mile.”
Julie’s father leaned back in his chair.
He spoke slowly and deliberately. “I’m glad you said that, because you won’t just get to take him home. There will be parenting classes to take and you will have a mediator that will need to be present especially at the beginning to oversee the transition for Hunter. He has been in foster care now for three years, so this is going to be a big change for him.”
I felt my pulse race. Shit. This was happening. “That is not a problem, sir. I have extra rooms at my home. I am more than happy to even open it and allow someone to stay there for a time while we all adjust if need be.” That would screw with my relationship with Julie for a while, but we’d make it worth it. Right now, we needed to make sure we could get Hunter out of the system.
“Julie?”
“Yes, your honor?” She sat tall in her seat. I noticed how conservatively she had dressed this morning.
“Would you be willing to take on the mediator role while Hunter continues to adjust?”
Her face broke into a smile. “Yes. Absolutely yes, sir.”
