by Emma Hart
But, right now as it stood, Christopher had no right to poke his nose into my business.
He lost that chance when he poked himself into another woman.
“How’s he doing?” Sebastian sat next to me and leaned forward. “How did the first game go?”
“Hey!” I smiled at him and thanked God for the distraction. “They won, two-nil. Did you just get here?”
“Yeah, damn insurance company kept me on hold for two hours this morning. I called as soon as the lines opened, and Holley wonders why I hate talking on the phone.” He rolled his eyes, then turned to Christopher. “We haven’t met. You’re Leo’s dad, right? Sebastian Stone. I own the sports center.”
Christopher shook his hand. “Familiar with you,” he said with a slight smile. “Christopher. Good to meet you.”
“Yeah, and you. He’s playing—”
Leo saved a goal that looked like it was going in, and we all jumped out of our seats. My heart swelled when he looked over at me with a beaming grin on his face like he knew it was a good save.
It was.
It was a damn good one.
Ollie was on the other side of the soccer pitch and going as crazy as we were, and I had to fight back a smile at the sight of him.
He really did care about Leo.
“That was a bloody good save!”
I turned to see Dylan and Saylor, followed by everyone else, including Ivy and Kai. “Oh, my God. What are you doing here?”
“Obviously here to support our new favorite goalkeeper,” Kai said, holding his hands out to the side. “Also, Tony offered to babysit, and I didn’t have a choice.”
I cupped my hands over my face, laughing, and hugged everyone one by one. “I can’t believe you’re all here. He’s going to die when he realizes.”
Tori snorted. “Not before the tournament is done, I hope.”
“And I’m just here because I was told there would be food,” Josh offered, squeezing Kinsley’s shoulders. “Is there food?”
“There’s a barbeque for lunch,” Holley answered. “But you have to pay.”
“Aw, man.”
Kinsley laughed and walked over to me, leaning forward. “How’s he doing?”
“Just saved one hell of a damn goal,” Sebastian replied.
“That’s true.” Chris nodded.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Holley, Ivy, you already know Chris.” I motioned to him, and my cousins both greeted him half-heartedly.
Who could blame them? They were the ones who picked up the pieces of me.
“This is Chris, Leo’s dad.” I went through and introduced everyone one-by-one.
“So are we betting or what?” Colton asked, cracking his knuckles. “Clean sheet and a tournament win is my guess.”
Ivy frowned. “Way to pile the pressure on the kids.”
Seb pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Hey.” Colt held his hands up. “I have faith in them.”
“You only know one of them,” Tori said, jabbing him with her elbow.
“And?”
“They’ll get four clean sheets,” Holley interjected, winking at me.
I guessed the team and the sponsorship were still largely secret, even among our group.
I held my hands up. “I can’t bet with my son. You guys go ahead. But whoever wins has to give me ten percent since I’m the only one with a kid helping you win.”
Everyone laughed.
“I don’t think they’ll win, but they’ll make the final,” Saylor said objectively.
“You can’t steal mine! I said that this morning,” Dylan grumbled.
She grinned. “That’s what you get for leaving the toilet seat up.”
Chris touched my arm. “I’ll be right back.”
“Oh.” I watched as he walked off, something not feeling quite right about his exit. I turned to everyone. “Hey, I just need to go to the bathroom. If they get done and Leo comes over, can you tell him I’ll be right back?”
“Sure.” Holley smiled understandingly.
Of course she’d have seen Chris leave.
I quickly got up and followed in the direction he’d left, casting a glance behind me just in time to see the other team Leo was playing save a goal. Damn it.
I couldn’t find Chris, either, so I wandered around for a couple of minutes until I stumbled upon a smoking shelter.
Oh, no.
I walked round it. “Terrible habit, really.”
Chris looked up at me, fully ashamed, and shrugged. “I did quit, but Carrie drove me to it.” He paused. “I haven’t smoked around Leo, don’t worry.”
“I know you wouldn’t.” I leaned against the wall. “What’s up?”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re smoking. You’re never fine when you smoke.”
He sighed and put out the cigarette. “He’s happy here, isn’t he?”
“Leo?”
“Yeah.”
“Very much so,” I agreed. “He prefers it here to living in the city.”
He nodded slowly, looking out at the under-construction barn to the side of us. It was going to be the camp barn, and Seb was hoping to get it done by Halloween to run a Halloween camp.
“It’s a good place for him. And I’m so happy that he’s happy, but…” He sighed again. “I miss him.”
I looked at the ground.
“I know it was my decision to move, but I’ve really missed Montana. It’s still home, you know?”
“It’s why I couldn’t go to Miami for you. That, and your bitch of an ex.”
A smile flittered across his face. “I knew you didn’t like her.”
“Of course I didn’t. It just wasn’t my place to tell you that. As long as she wasn’t a danger to our son, I had no business dictating who you did and didn’t date.”
“You’re right. I’m sorry, by the way. For how I just acted about Oliver. I like him. He seems like a really good guy, and he seems to really like Leo. All he’s talked about all week is Ollie coming to his house and playing soccer in the backyard and slapping pizza butts.”
I snorted into my hand. “That’s a very long story.”
“I’m not sure I want to hear it.”
“Probably not.” I laughed. “I know it’s hard for you to be so far away from him, but it doesn’t have to be so distant. School gets out in a few weeks. Why don’t you fly up and take him back with you for a week? He’d love to go. You could even take him to Universal.”
Chris looked at me. “Really?”
“As long as you don’t take him to the Harry Potter bit without me, sure.”
He rubbed his hand down his face, laughing. “I’d like that a lot.”
“Chris, he’s your son.” I moved and sat down next to him. “You have the right to spend as much time with him as you like. All you have to do is ask me and as long as it works schedule-wise, there’s not a problem with it. You’re welcome to come here as much as you want.”
He looked over at me. “I think I’m going to ask my company for a transfer.”
“You’re what?”
“I took the Florida position because Carrie convinced me to. She’s from Miami.” He buried his head in his hands. “Shit. It was a stupid fucking thing to do.”
“Yes,” I said honestly. “It was.”
“I can always count on you to tell me the truth, can’t I?”
“Well, lying gets you nowhere.” I shrugged.
“I might not be able to get the Montana office, but maybe Idaho or one of the Dakotas. That’s better than Florida. Then I can be here for this stuff, too. All the time.”
I reached over and took his hand. “Chris, you made a mistake. We all make them. Making a mistake doesn’t make you a bad person. It makes you a good person who made a bad choice. The fact you want to change what you did says a lot about who you are.”
He looked up at me. “I made more than one mistake.”
“Well, I won’t argue with you on that one.” I grinned.
“How the fuck can you be so nice to me after what I did to you, London? After what I left you alone to deal with when I moved?”
“Because hating you doesn’t do any good for anyone. I told you this before. Is doing this parenting thing alone hard? Yeah, it is, and I do resent you a little bit for leaving me to do it all by myself. But you’re still my son’s father, and regardless of how many times I have fantasized about hitting you over the head with a very heavy object—”
He laughed.
“—You’re still his dad. It’s important that he sees that we can have a healthy relationship even if we aren’t together. The only person who gets hurt if we don’t get along is Leo.”
Chris squeezed my hand. “You’re right. You always are. We should get back before that game finishes, and he wonders where we are.”
“I agree.” I pulled my hand from his and got up. He did the same, and I hugged him. He hesitated for a second before he hugged me back, then I stepped away with a smile. “Whatever you do, do not let him talk you into pizza. He had it on Thursday.”
“Oops. We had takeout last night.”
I rolled my eyes. “Of course you did.”
Chris laughed, following me back toward the games. “London?”
“Yeah?”
“I really do hope your date goes well tonight.”
I smiled, my eyes drifting toward Ollie who was shouting instructions from the sidelines. “Me, too.”
***
I was nervous. Really nervous. It’d literally been years since I’d been on a proper date, and this was a proper date.
Italian food.
I knew the restaurant was dressy, but my dressy wardrobe was seriously lacking. Piper had video called me and we’d eventually decided on a simple black dress and heels, but I hadn’t even left the house yet and my feet already hurt.
Ugh.
I didn’t know what I was doing. I was sitting nervously by the window, waiting for Ollie to show up. The problem was that I didn’t know what his car was. I’d never seen his car, so for all I knew, a kidnapper could pull up and I’d think it was him.
My brain needed to shut off.
Oliver needed to arrive so I’d stop panicking and losing my mind.
In theory.
It was a good theory.
There was no sign of him yet, probably because there was fifteen minutes until he said he’d come, so I dragged my ass away from the window and to my laptop on the sofa.
I’d been quietly taking notes all day at the tournament as a special report for the paper. Chris had actually been the one to suggest it after our little heart-to-heart, and he’d helped me remember some of the goings on of the first match. Leo’s team had lost their semi-final match against a much more established team than they were, but they’d done what they needed to.
They had four matches with a clean sheet.
In a row.
I wondered if Ollie had told Leo the truth about the potential soccer team.
Probably not because six-year-old boys couldn’t keep secrets to save their lives, but I had to wonder.
I scrolled back to the top of the article I’d drafted and read through. Although I didn’t detail the final since our team wasn’t in it, I did include the team that had won and offered them a congratulations from everyone in White Peak.
Even Leo hadn’t been too upset that he’d let the winning goal in. He’d had such an amazing time that he was on cloud nine, and by the time he left with his dad, I knew in my heart that Christopher was going to do everything he could to move back here.
And you know what? That did make me happy. I wanted him and Leo to have a good relationship. It was so important to me that they got to spend time together more than once in a blue moon.
A car engine rumbled outside my house, and I hit CTRL-S on the laptop to save my document, then went to look. It was a black car I didn’t recognize, but I knew it was Ollie the moment the door opened.
The evening sun glinted off his dark auburn hair, and the light blue of his button-down shirt played off his pale skin perfectly.
I’d never dated a redhead.
He knocked at the door. I quickly put my phone in my purse, smoothed out my dress, and approached it to open it.
“Bloody hell,” he said in a low voice. “You look amazing.”
I blushed. Why was he always making me blush? “Thank you. You don’t look too bad yourself.”
“Thanks. I washed my hair.” He winked and held out his arm. “Shall we go?”
Laughing, I followed him out, pausing only to lock the door behind me and tuck my keys safely in my purse. Ollie opened the car door for me like the gentleman I already knew he was, and I slid in onto the smooth leather seats that my legs were absolutely going to be stuck to in five minutes.
Awesome.
Nothing like bare legs on leather to make your date think you were farting.
“Heads up,” I said when he sat down. “My legs are going to stick to this seat, so if you hear a fart-like noise, mind your own business.”
“Trying to decide if that’s genuine or if you need to do that and you’re making excuses,” he admitted.
“Well, if the second option happens, mind your own business there, too.”
He grinned over at me. “Noted. Ready to go?”
“I’m in the car, aren’t I?”
“Further than I thought I’d get you.” With a laugh, he started the engine and backed up.
“I’m not sure how I feel about being in a car with someone who’s used to driving on the wrong side of the road,” I mused as he pulled out onto the road. “What if you get in the wrong lane?”
“Scream and hope for the best.” He indicated off the street onto the main road and pulled away. “And you’re the ones who drive on the wrong side.”
“Wrong. We drive on the right. Because it’s the right side.”
“No.”
“Yes. It’s in the name.”
Ollie shook his head. “Is this my punishment for training those boys so well we get the sponsorship? Being dictated to about driving?”
“So you definitely got it?”
He couldn’t fight his smile. “We did. Mr. Chester came at the end of the day as one of his family member’s kids was playing in a team that made the final and spoke to us. He said four clean sheets, Leo got five.” He glanced over at me. “Seb just needs to begin the process of getting the teams set up and I have to split out the coaching sessions.”
“That’s going to be rough for the kids who don’t make the team.”
“True, but they have something to fight for now. Plus if the kids on the team aren’t playing well enough, they can be dropped. They all have an incentive.”
“Seems harsh for kids who are all seven and under.”
“The harsh thing will be moving up.” He flashed me another look. “When they have to go up to the under tens and the teams mix up. They’ll need to work harder to keep their places.”
I shuddered at the thought. I don’t know why I’d assumed that the team Leo played in now would always be his team if he kept his place. “That’s true. So what happens if they want to play in school teams? Can they do both? I know White Peak High has a soccer team.”
“Not a very good one,” Ollie muttered, making me laugh. “They can do both or they can choose one. It’s tough because the college scouts are big on high school games, but Seb has already said that if it goes well, he has the contacts to bring the games outside high school into some prominence. Not to mention the high school team could potentially play his team.”
“He’s turning into quite the sports magnate, isn’t he?”
“He’s got a lot of energy. I think he needs to channel it somewhere, and Holley’s vote of yoga was wholeheartedly chucked out the window.”
“Can’t imagine him doing yoga.”
“Dylan did try. It didn’t go well. But that was at the senior center, so that could be why.”
I winced. �
��Nobody needs to see them doing yoga. Trust me. I will never get over that.”
“I can’t imagine, and I don’t want to.” He pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant and looked over at me. “You’re not going to show me pictures, are you?”
“If I had photos of that, I’d have burned my phone by now.” I unclipped my belt and went to get out, but Ollie beat me to it. Our hands grasped the door handles on the respective sides at the same time, and I let mine fall away so he could open it. “You know, I can open a door by myself.”
“I know, but why should you if you don’t have to?” His eyes sparkled. “My mum raised a gentleman.”
“She did a pretty good job.” I half-smiled and held my clutch purse against my stomach. “Shall we go in?”
“Yes, I’m starving. There are only so many orange slices you can eat before you need real sustenance.”
I linked my arm through his and laughed. We went into the restaurant where he gave his name, and we were taken to our table tucked in the corner. Ollie got my chair for me before he sat opposite and handed me the drinks menu.
We decided on a bottle of wine to share, then turned to the food. By the time our drinks were brought over we’d both decided—the seafood linguine for him, the chicken parmesan for me.
“So the team is a go, then,” I said, lifting my glass.
“The team is a go,” he confirmed. “We’re going to try the under tens first and see how those kids get on with it. If we do well, we’ll expand into the preteens and teens.” He paused and looked over at me. “Do you really want to talk about this?”
“I don’t know what else to talk about,” I admitted. “It’s the only subject I can think of.”
“Okay, well you already know about me thanks to the interview. Tell me about you.”
I blinked at him. “Uh, okay. Well, I was born here. My mom is the black sheep in my grandma’s eyes because she didn’t follow the whole flower-naming thing she’d started and instead went for a place.”
His eyes twinkled.
“I graduated high school here, went to college to get my degree, and stayed in the city with Chris because I was pregnant. We got engaged, and about four years ago I caught him cheating on me, but I think I already told you that.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. Blessing in disguise.” I waved my hand dismissively. “Either way, I moved back here a few months ago when he transferred to Miami. But he told me today he misses Montana and Leo, so he’s going to try to transfer back closer to home.”
