Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
TRICK
“That’s it, baby! You got this, now shoot!”
The instant Tristan sent the ball flying past the goalie, Nona shot from her chair. Throwing her arms up, she let out a loud whoop of excitement. “Yes! Go, Tris!”
My lips twitched in a small grin as I watched her cheer her son on, not holding anything back. I fucking loved that about her. She didn’t care what other people thought. She was damn proud of her kid, and she wanted him to know just how much.
Spinning around, Nona launched herself into my arms to share in the joy. “Did you see that?” she asked animatedly, those Caribbean blue eyes shining like crazy.
Smiling big, I wrapped my arms around her and held her against me. “I saw, sweetheart.”
“My kid’s a rock star!”
“He’s goin’ pro, no doubt about it,” I teased.
She beamed up at me, and it was so beautiful my stomach clenched. Looking down at her just then, I had to fight against getting hard.
As if sensing the desire coursing through me, Nona’s smile slowly fell and her chest trembled with a shaky inhale.
Her eyes grew hazy as they drifted toward my lips, and the need to kiss her at that very moment was nearly all-consuming.
However, before I could act on that desire in front of everybody, Nona seemed to jolt out of the trance.
Clearing her throat, she put pressure on my hold as her gaze darted around.
The last thing I wanted to do was let her go, but now wasn’t the time or the place to push my luck, so I let my arms fall.
The moment she was free, she took two big steps back, running a trembling hand through her hair.
She turned back to the game, and I knew she was instituting another freeze-out, but I’d be damned if I was going to let that happen.
The past few days had been eye-opening for me.
I’d been struggling to find a way to repair what I’d damaged so I could get us back to where we used to be.
But everything had changed. Getting back the friendship we used to have was no longer the goal.
Now I needed to find a way to fix us so I could finally make Nona mine.
I knew I was going to be fighting an uphill battle, but there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that the reward would be worth it once I finally won.
The feeling of being watched made my skin prick, and when I turned to investigate, I found my ex staring daggers in my direction.
As usual, she was perched in the middle of her circle of friends—if that was what they could be called.
Honestly, one of the things I didn’t miss when we divorced was having to deal with the bullshit that came with the women Emma associated with.
They were nothing but catty, backstabbing bitches, and on the occasions Emma would have a few of them over, they’d do nothing but sit back, drink wine, and talk shit about the ones not there.
They were a bunch of women teetering on forty who acted like high school kids.
I could say with 100 percent honesty that I didn’t like a single one of Emma’s friends, and when she was around them, my sweet wife disappeared, turning into someone just as nasty and vile as the rest of them.
I’d tried to talk to her about the change in her behavior a few times.
Hannah had reached the age where she was looking to her mother on most things, from fashion to how to behave, and I worried about the kind of example Emma was setting.
But she wouldn’t hear any of it, and I was beginning to see now that I’d made a huge fucking mistake in letting that shit slide, because I had a feeling what I’d found out during dinner at Nona’s the other night was just the tip of the iceberg.
“Trick! Oh my god, look!” Nona was suddenly at my side, grabbing hold of my bicep and giving it a shake as she pointed toward the field.
Ripping my eyes off my ex, I followed where she was pointing just in time to see another teammate pass the ball to Shawn.
My boy lined it up, took his shot, and sent the ball sailing over the goalie’s head.
“Yes! That’s my boy!” I shouted just as Nona yelled, “Way to go, Shawn! You boys rock!”
Shawn chanced a quick peek our way, casting a shy, red-cheeked smile at Nona. My boy was my boy, and even at twelve he appreciated a pretty girl, and Nona was most definitely that, so I knew he was currently on cloud nine at having received her praise.
I’d been hoping her excitement would lead to another embrace, but after that first, she wasn’t letting her guard down. Instead she lifted her hand for me to high-five.
It would have to be enough for now, but eventually I was determined to have more. So much more. She just didn’t know it yet.
Blythe eventually sauntered over at halftime. Nona greeted her with a big hug and an affectionate “Hey, honey pie.”
“Hey, Mom. Those your cupcake trays over by the team’s bench?”
“Yeah, sweetie. But don’t worry. There’s plenty left over at home when you get back from your dad’s tomorrow.”
Blythe gave her mom a funny look I couldn’t quite read before asking, “You stress baked again?”
Nona’s eyes went wide as she stumbled over her words. “I—no. I wasn’t…. You know, I really wish you and your brother would stop saying that,” she ended on a bland mumble.
Blythe got the same fiercely determined look on her face that I’d seen on Nona’s several times, and I couldn’t help but think, Like mother, like daughter. “Well, if you’d talk about what’s bugging you instead of bottling it all up, we would.”
My stomach twisted and my skin began to itch as Nona insisted, “There’s nothing bugging me.
” But I caught the small tremor in her voice and the way her eyes cut to the side—my side—before she looked back to her daughter.
Guilt and regret clawed at my insides like poisonous talons, and I fucking hated myself for hurting her.
“Weren’t you hanging with Hannah? Why don’t you go back to doing that instead of being a pain in my butt? ”
Blythe suddenly let out a high-pitched squeak and leaned into Nona, whispering like the two were in on a secret. “I can’t. Heath showed, so we’re giving them a moment. His little brother plays on another team, and he spotted her like the minute his mom parked and came rushing over.”
My head jerked toward the refreshment stand, where my baby girl was currently standing with some punk-ass kid who was about a foot too close for my liking.
“Oh wow. He is cute. Go Hannah,” I heard Nona gush quietly past the rushing of blood in my ears.
An uncontrollable growl rattled through my chest as that little shit reached out and caressed my Hannah’s arm.
I hadn’t realized I was on the move until I heard Nona’s panicked whisper of “Wait!” and felt her fingers wrap around mine in order to pull me to a stop.
“You cannot go over there right now, Trick.”
I looked from her back to my girl as Heath took a step closer. “Like hell I can’t.” I started to move again, but she yanked even harder, now holding my hand in both of hers.
“Trick, please. Just listen to me.” When I stopped resisting, she loosened her grip, but didn’t let go. “Look at her, honey,” she said softly, her eyes gentle with understanding of my dilemma. “She’s on cloud nine right now.”
Her delicate fingers wrapped around mine and that soft-spoken honey worked wonders in calming the fire raging inside of me. I hesitated a few beats before turning my head to look back at Hannah.
Sure enough, Nona was right. Her cheeks had a pink blush to them that I could see all the way from here.
Her head was lowered, looking up at the kid through her lashes as he talked.
Speaking as a male, when a girl as beautiful as my Hannah went all bashful, it made a guy’s protective instincts come out.
That look screamed that the beauty on the surface was only half as amazing as what lay inside, that what was at the center was so sweet you’d get a toothache that was well worth the pain.
A man who was any man at all took one glance at that look and needed to hold onto the girl giving it to him so he could keep her safe. And from the expression on that Heath kid’s face, that was exactly what he was wanting to do as he looked at my baby.
I was going to be sick.
“I know she’s your little girl,” Nona continued, “but as hard as it is, our babies are growing up and we have to let them.”
“Or I could just lock her in her bedroom, cuff her to her bed, and nail the windows shut.”
She chuckled under her breath and shook her head as her hand gripped mine tighter. Those walls she’d had up for almost two months now had slipped, and I was getting the Nona I had before I fucked everything up. Christ, I’d missed that. “Afraid that’s not gonna work, handsome.”
Closing my eyes, I pulled in a deep, agonizing breath before looking back into Nona’s warm gaze. “Fuckin’ hate this,” I mumbled under my breath.
Her expression morphed into one of sympathy, and her fingers squeezed mine. “I know it sucks, but it’s not like she’s sneaking off to talk to him. They’re right there, out in the open where you and everyone can see. And look at his face, Trick.”
I didn’t want to. Fuck, I didn’t want to, but when I looked at the kid, my gut began to settle.
“He’s totally into her,” Nona said, solidifying what I already knew from watching him with my daughter. It wasn’t about thinking she was hot or wanting to get in her pants. He was into her.
“And he’s digging her sweet brand of shy really hard,” she continued, again saying something I already knew.
“It’s true, Mr. Wanderly,” Blythe chimed in. “Heath’s popular, but he’s a super-nice guy. You don’t have anything to worry about.”
She was wrong about that. I was a father. I’d worry about my kids until my last breath, but Nona had a point. I didn’t have to let go, but I needed to step back. As much as I hated it, my baby girl was growing up.