Quitting the Quarterback (The Nash Brothers #4)

CHAPTER 28 Tanner Banks

Princess and Buddy

Around three, her normal time to head out, Cassie starts getting the kids ready to leave.

Lily gives me a huge hug before she goes. “I hope to see you again soon, Mr. Tanner,” she tells me. She’s got ice cream on her chin, and I swipe at it with my thumb.

“You too, princess.”

“Thanks for the footballs,” Luca says to me, and I give him a hug, too.

“Any time, buddy.”

I want to hug Cassie, but I’m not sure how she feels about affection in front of her kids, and besides, we’re just supposed to be PT and patient.

I wave from my front door as she pulls out of my driveway, and I head back to the family room. It’s quiet in here now—not that her kids were extra loud, but just having people around was nice. I’m not sure I like the quiet as much as I thought I would.

I’d planned to turn on the television the second they left to tune into today’s games, but a part of me doesn’t want to dampen the good mood I find myself in .

I do it anyway. I don’t know if I’ve ever missed watching football on Sundays. Even before I learned how to play, Mom always had the television tuned to a game on Sundays.

I realize now it was because she was watching the man who fathered her children. I don’t even know if Charles knew the truth about who our real dad was—he just knew it wasn’t him even though he’s on our birth certificates.

It’s something I haven’t really given my mom the chance to explain, but I’m suffering from a bit of an identity crisis. Not only was I struggling with who I am because I’d been lied to, but then football was taken away from me too, when I injured my knee.

But when I’m with Cassie, and even her kids, I feel like myself again.

It’s only been a week since my injury, and I’m already making progress. I don’t want to ruin that by getting too personal with Cassie, but it might be too late.

I shouldn’t have kissed her, but I couldn’t help it. It just felt natural after the sort of day we were having. She kept watching me with her kids, and I liked how it felt to have her eyes on me. She looked at me with approval and warmth, and it made me feel warm.

It made me realize that all it took was one night, and I fell.

Somehow, someway, I fell. It makes no sense, but it happened.

It’s why I was distracted. We can’t control who we develop feelings for, and to develop so quickly only to have her ripped away didn’t do me any favors.

I’m thinking about her as I watch my brother run into the end zone.

I’m thinking about her as I watch Ford Turner get sacked. It would’ve been me, but I would’ve seen him coming from a mile away .

I’m thinking about her as I study the defensive line on the other side of the ball, and I watch their formations as I think through our own defensive line.

I’m not concentrating the way I should, but after today, I have a pretty strong sense that I’ve found something to focus on.

My physical therapist.

It’s a terrible plan, and I know that. So I need to focus on something else, too. A hobby or a charity like Miller suggested.

Maybe video games with Luca. Maybe swimming with Lily.

Maybe sex with Cassie.

It keeps coming back to that. To her.

Maybe it’s because I’m horny as fuck. I haven’t slept with a woman since the night I was with her, and my hand just isn’t cutting it. It’s no replacement for the warmth of her feminine body, for the feel of her hard tits pressed up against my chest, for the way her cunt wrapped around my cock so perfectly.

Jesus.

I mute the television as it goes to commercial, and I yank my dick over the top of my shorts. I stroke myself as I picture Cassie in her swimsuit, and then I picture her out of that same swimsuit as I call up the image that lives rent-free in my brain of her naked writhing beneath me. I think of driving into her sweet cunt as I pick up the pace on my own dick, and I grunt as I feel myself pulling closer to a climax.

And as I come all over my hand a few moments later, the relief is far too short-lived. I need more, and I need it with her.

I get up to clean up the mess I just made, and I have a text waiting for me when I sit back down on the couch, this time with a beer. I unmute the game so it’s playing, but I’m more interested in reading the text on my phone.

Cassie: The kids had a blast. Thanks for being so welcoming to them. I’m so sorry I had to bring them along with me.

Me: I had a great time today. The three of you are welcome any time, even outside of our sessions.

Cassie: By the way, princess and buddy? That was adorable.

Me: I aim to please.

She sends me an LOL, and I can’t help but think how much I want to continue this conversation with her.

We just spent the last eight hours together, and it’s like I can’t get enough.

I never felt that way with Heather. I liked having my own shit so we could have some time apart. Maybe that should’ve told me from the start something deeper about our relationship, but it didn’t.

I decide to send her another text.

Me: What are you up to tonight?

Cassie: Movie night with the kids. I just ordered pizza, and then we’ll be getting ready for school.

Me: What movie?

Cassie: Some new SpongeBob one on Netflix. Luca got to pick tonight.

Me: What does getting ready for school entail?

Cassie: Packing snacks and lunches, making sure any forms are filled out. They don’t get weekend homework, but we’ll have that tomorrow when they get home from school.

Me: Homework? At that age?

Cassie: Yep. Lots of at-home practice. How’s your knee feeling?

Me: The swimming felt good. It feels the best it’s felt since the injury.

Cassie: I’ll get you on the doctors’ schedule for this week. I want them to take a look. You’re doing so well that Dr. Barlow may want to move the surgery sooner.

I like the idea of that. But I don’t like the idea that she’s shifting our personal conversation back to my knee.

Me: Question for you since you have kids. Is there much need around here for an after-school football program for elementary school kids ?

The thought comes out fairly unfiltered.

Cassie: I think Clayton Mack does one, but it’s only in the summer.

Me: Okay, thanks.

Cassie: Why?

Me: I’m thinking about organizing something.

Cassie: Why?

I chuckle at her repeated question.

Me: I ran a program in Arizona. And I had a great time with you and your kids today. I want something I can focus on for the next few months and thought this could be it.

Cassie: I’m sure there’s a lot of logistics to consider, but I think it’s a great idea. Would you like the info of our activity director at my kids’ school district?

Me: That would be great.

She sends over the info, and I draft an email to the contact from my phone.

When I glance up after I hit send , I realize the Storm game is over.

We won, and I didn’t even realize it.

I’m glad my team won, but it feels hollow that they won without me. I’m glad Ford is working out, but it should be me out there.

I didn’t even watch to see how much harder they had to work without me there. I was too focused on Cassie, and not just her but her kids, along with the idea I had about starting up a program here.

I’m not quite sure what’s happening to me, but it feels like something is changing.

And it feels like it all started the moment I stood next to Cassandra Fields at a bar in Vegas.