Chapter 29
Twenty-Nine
Off to cause a kerfuffle.
—Nettie to Boone
Boone
I was nervous.
Really nervous.
I felt like I was about to puke, and if I wasn’t careful, I’d drop my own kid.
“My god, man,” Denver said. “Get it together.”
I looked over at Denver and sighed. “I can’t help it.”
“He’s like this at every one of her games,” Weaver supplied helpfully from the row in front of us. “I swear, it’s like the two of them share a brain. Look at her out there.”
Weaver would know. Every game that he was able to get to of Eddy’s, he went. It just so happened that fifty percent of those games coincided with my wife’s now.
It was her first official game back, and I was nervous for her.
Margie stirred from sleep against my chest and sat up, her face covered in wrinkle lines from my tee.
She blinked and looked around, surprise to find herself out in the open air.
She yawned, making the cutest sound.
Then she spotted the man beside her and leaned over to him.
Sawyer, her grandpa, spoiled the absolute fuck out of her.
The two were disgustingly cute together.
Sawyer took her out of my hands and cuddled her close, wrapping the blanket around her to keep her from getting cold.
It was the first of March, but a small dusting of snow had covered the ground overnight, and the temperature was still a brisk thirty-five.
My girl was bundled up like an Eskimo, and the only thing you could really see were her cheeks, nose, and eyes.
She also had the blanket that she could never sleep without to keep her warm, as well as the body heat of Dad’s chest as he unzipped his coat and tucked her inside before covering them both up.
“I’ll be back,” I said.
Denver stood up to let me by, and I jerked my chin up at the rest of the Dixie Wardens that were able to make it that day.
It wasn’t often that they could drop what they were doing during the middle of the day to catch a game. But they did when they could.
“Tell her if she scores a goal, she can pick where we go to eat tonight,” Mable, Romeo’s wife, tittered as I passed.
“She’ll be ravenous after the game, so that might very well motivate her,” I teased.
I climbed down the rest of the stairs toward the Cowgirls bench where I could see my girl standing on the sidelines juggling the ball, looking cool as a cucumber but knowing she was anything but.
She didn’t see me coming until I was directly behind her at the bottom of the stairs.
The sound of her juggling the ball got louder and louder the closer I got.
“Net,” I called when she’d lost control of the ball.
She whirled and turned, and the grin that crossed over her face was nothing short of magnificent.
Jesus, she was so beautiful.
“Hey,” she breathed, abandoning the ball and heading my way.
She stepped up onto the bench, her cleats making a loud clattering noise, and stretched up onto her tippy toes to offer me her lips.
The trainer and another girl that were working with each other just a bit down the bench said, “Awwww.”
The team dynamics had changed considerably since Nettie and Magnolia had arrived.
They weren’t a cohesive unit yet since they hadn’t really played many full games together, but they were getting there. Much better than what they’d been only a few months ago.
The teammate that was on the bench had been one of the least likable not too long ago. But it was obvious that her and Nettie had bonded.
“Oh, stuff it.” Nettie stuck out her tongue to the woman. “Didn’t I see you making out with your husband before we came out here?”
The woman blushed. “Shut up.”
Chuckling, I caught my wife’s throat and brought her attention back to me.
“Pay attention to me, woman,” I ordered her.
She inhaled swiftly and her pupils dilated.
“Yes, Daddy,” she teased.
My cock went hard in an instant.
“Play well,” I continued with my orders.
“I’ll try.”
“You’ll do,” I countered and let her go.
She smiled at me as she stepped off the bench.
“Love you, Bart.”
I winked. “Love you, too, Net.”
She joined the rest of the women on the field when Eddy called them out, and they started going through drills as the other team did the same.
I climbed back up the stairs, passing a photographer as I did.
“I’ll send this one to you,” the man said.
I looked over at the screen he’d turned my way as I’d passed him and grinned. “Thanks, Marc.”
Marc was the team photographer and social media manager.
I didn’t know him all that well, but Nettie did, and talked about him a lot.
“It’s a good one.” Marc sighed. “One day I want that.”
I stared at the photo of the two of us, me bent over the railing reaching down with one arm with my fingers wrapped around Nettie’s throat. Nettie stretched up to the tips of her toes with one cleat cocked in the air, her fingers clutching onto my shirt.
“She’s out there, man.”
Marc sighed again. “I sure the hell hope so.”
Back in my chair a minute later, the ref blew the whistle, and everyone scattered off the field.
The nerves were back, and I clenched my hands into fists.
Nettie touched the field as she got into position, then the whistle blew.
“You wouldn’t think she just had a baby seven and a half months ago,” Weaver murmured.
She didn’t look it. Though she’d never looked super pregnant, either, not even at the end.
The day she’d given birth to Margie, her six-pack had come back. Though, definitely behind a bloated wall of belly, but still she had a damn six-pack.
With her tear, she hadn’t been able to go right into working out for a while, and she was a little further behind than she’d have liked to be when she started back into training.
She’d had to work her ass off to get that starting position.
And I was glad to see that she’d accomplished her goal.
“Worked her ass off for that,” I found myself saying.
“Oh, I know it,” Weaver murmured. “Eddy’s proud as fuck of her.”
A few minutes in, Magnolia lobbed a ball from the back of the field, over everyone’s head, and landed it right at Nettie’s sprinting feet.
I sat forward, waiting and ready.
Nettie attacked, but never once lost sight of the two wingers on either side of her.
As the defensive middle back challenged Nettie directly, Nettie passed to her left winger who crossed the ball beautifully.
The right winger was there in perfect position and shot.
The goalie blocked the ball by hitting it out with her fists, but Nettie was ready for that and launched herself into the air. The ball hit her head and sailed into the goal opposite of where the goalie was standing.
“That’s why you always catch the ball,” I murmured, excited.
The crowd went wild.
Margie screamed loudest of all, though she had no idea why she was screaming.
In the end, the team came up with only a one-to-zero win, but a win nonetheless.
My girl was in my arms as we waited at the bottom of the stairs for Nettie to notice us.
When she turned and saw us, her entire face went soft.
She jogged over to us and climbed onto the bench again, reaching for our girl.
I offered her a kiss first, leaning over the railing like earlier, and Margie giggled at the weird position.
When Nettie’s lips left mine, she reached for Margie again and pulled her into her arms.
“Mamamama!”
“Oh, Margie girl.” Nettie showered her with kisses. “I love you.”
Nettie had Margie all of two seconds before Magnolia arrived and stole her out of Nettie’s arms.
She walked away with her, heading toward her own daughter who was on the field.
“Well then.” Nettie laughed.
I crouched down so we were eye to eye. “You did great, baby.”
Nettie’s cheeks heated. “Thanks, Boone.”
I winked. “Go celebrate. I’ll be here when you’re done.”
“Meet us at the car?” she asked.
“I’ll be there.”
Always.
I was her biggest fan.
Where else would I be?