4. Joshua
Chapter 4
Joshua
“ T his is bullshit.” Cole stands next to my car, headphones shoved behind his ear, and jeans too baggy for his own good.
He must enjoy tripping over his own pants.
“It is what it is, kid.”
“Why do you have to be such a dick? Dad would’ve let me drive his car, and it’s a thousand times better than this piece of shit.”
He has the audacity to kick my tire.
I will not wring this boy’s neck. I will not wring this boy’s neck. I will not—
I take a deep breath before straightening and slamming down the hood of my Mustang.
“Don’t. Ever. Do that again,” I grit out, before turning to look at him.
He shakes his head. “I hate you,” he spits out, turning on his heel and stomping down the driveway away from me.
“And just where do you think you’re going?” I call out after him.
“Anywhere but here!” he yells back, pulling the headphones back on over his ears.
“Because it’s just so fucking bad here, isn’t it?” I mutter to myself. “I give this kid more than he could ever imagine, and he’s still so fucking ungrateful. This is exactly why I don't want—”
“Is it a habit of yours to talk to yourself?” I still, before turning toward the gentle voice behind me.
The universe's newest fuck you to me is standing right behind me. It knows I don't behave myself around the female species and so it delivered, Cassidy- off-limits -Jones, on a silver platter. Delicious and tempting. And then it shut a lid over that platter and pushed it away from me.
Nanny's are a no-go, as I've learned the hard way.
Unfortunately, I'm still a man with desires and my body didn't get the memo.
“Well, good morning, Sid,” I straighten.
“You can just call me Cassidy,” she says, tugging on the bottom of her braid. “Maddie informed me that Sid is some goofy giant sloth in a kid’s movie she watches and can’t take me seriously.”
I laugh, because I thought the exact same thing when she introduced herself yesterday.
“How’d you sleep?” I ask her, leaning on the side of my car.
She looks down the street at Cole’s retreating figure. “Better than him, I think.” She bites her bottom lip in concern.
Shit. Don't do that to me.
“Yeah. I’m sorry about Cole. He’s just a hormonal punk that–”
“Just lost his dad?” she says, facing me again.
“I was going to say doesn’t appreciate anything, but… yeah. That too. I guess.”
She shrugs. “It’s ok. I’d probably be the same way if I ever lost my dad. He’s kind of my best friend.”
I wouldn’t know. The dad that Cole, Parker, and Maddie lost–isn’t the same dad to me that he was to them.
When I heard of James’ passing, I wasn’t necessarily saddened by the news, more like inconvenienced by what it entailed for me.
And that’s selfish. I know. But why should I mourn a man who didn’t even have the common decency of reaching out to a son? He had so many opportunities when he was alive, especially because of my career. It’s not like I was hiding from him.
And now… he’s just a dark spot in my life; somebody that could’ve been something.
“I should go after him,” I say, pushing off the car.
“Um... can I ask you a question?” she says softly.
I pause, turning to face her. “Of course.”
“Your other nannies… Maddie said they quit after you kissed them…”
I deflate. “For one, it was just one nanny. Not nannie s .” The others I had considered hiring were past conquests, but I didn't actually go through with hiring them. That was on Keelan's express suggestion.
“Oh… well, what exactly did she mean by that then?”
I sigh deeply. Wondering how I should say this.
“It means he slept with her, and she wanted more,” Keelan says, slowly walking down the front steps. “Isn’t that right, Hicks?”
I roll my eyes.
“Oh,” Cassidy says through a gulp.
“It’s a little more complicated than that,” I say, eyeing my teammate.
Keelan reaches me and throws an arm over my shoulders. “Basically, our boy Hicks here doesn’t do relationships. But every girl he meets seems to wish he did.”
I shrug out from under the weight of his arm. “Thanks for that, Lando. Always so insightful.” I glare at him, and he laughs.
“But lucky for you, Cassidy! He’s sworn off nannies,” he pats my shoulder twice. “So you’re safe from his charms.”
I watch her eyes widen when he says that, but she recovers quickly.
“Not because I don’t want to,” I say, so she understands it’s not that I don’t find her attractive.
She looks at me like I have something on my face.
“I just mean–”
She laughs nervously. “It’s ok. You don’t have to explain.”
“Right.” I glance at Keelan, who looks like he’s having way too much fun at my expense.
The toddler's cries break through the awkwardness, and Cassidy looks down at her phone, now doubling as a baby monitor. “Parker’s up. I should go–”
“Yeah! I’ll… go get Cole,” I hitch my thumb over my shoulder.
She nods and turns on her heel, disappearing behind the giant doors.
Keelan whistles, and I turn to see him leaning on the hood of my car. “Real smooth there, Daddy Hicks.”
“Shut up,” I mutter.
“No, seriously. I don’t think you actually know how not to flirt with a woman.”
“Oh, like you do?”
“Hey!” he puts his palms up. “I’m one year sober.”
“From?”
“Women. Sex. All of it.”
“Well, aren’t you just the poster child for sobriety, then?” I push past him to grab my stuff from the passenger’s seat in the car.
“It’s kind of nice, actually. No pressure. Just enjoying life.”
“And this… so-called sobriety. Is it by choice?”
He scrunches his brows. “Of course.”
“Why do I find that hard to believe?”
He pushes off the car, suddenly uncomfortable. “You want me to go after him?”
“You’re changing the subject.”
“No, I’m not.”
“Then what’s the story there, Lando?”
He crosses his arms. “The story is that I don’t want any distractions. Women equal distractions. As our dear teammates have clearly shown us this past year.”
This house used to be full of Heatwave teammates. Now, they’ve paired off and left. Leaving just me and Keelan. And since I’m supposed to be leaving soon, too… it’ll be just Keelan with absolutely no distractions.
He’ll be a nightmare next season. The man can’t be alone to save his life.
“I’m taking the car… maybe I can convince him to come back if I let him drive.”
Keelan cocks his head to the side. “You’re going to let a fourteen-year-old drive your baby?”
I shrug. “He’s almost fifteen.”
He kisses his fingers and then presses them to my Mustang. “It was nice knowing you girl.”
“You’re so weird.” I pull the driver’s door open, slide in, and slam it shut.
He meets me at the window and gestures for me to roll it down.
“What?”
Leaning on the car, he motions toward the house, “Be honest. You like her?”
I shake my head. “No. I need her. To watch the hooligans. Those are two very different things.”
He purses his lips in thought before saying, “Cool! I was hoping you'd say that."
“Why?” I eye him suspiciously.
“Because–I invited her out tomorrow.”
My grip involuntarily tightens on the steering wheel. “Why the hell would you do that?”
He smiles, “Because Rina’s bringing a date to Izzy’s baby shower. And I’m not going without someone.”
“I don’t get it… you literally just said you’re not dating.”
“I’m not. It’s not a date. She’s helping me like she’s helping you.”
I shake my head. “You can’t hire my nanny, Landry. What the hell?”
“Relax,” he squeezes my arm. “I’ll have her back before curfew. And you just said you didn’t like her. Now, go. Get the raging teenager before he makes it to Ryker’s house.”
Our goalie, Ryker Balinger, and Keelan’s sister, Izzy, live in the same neighborhood as us. The same sister who has a baby shower tomorrow that I’ve politely declined attending since I have babies of my own to worry about these days.
Granted, their not actual babies, but they all sure act like it.
I shift the car into reverse, “Whatever.”
Keelan steps back and waves enthusiastically. The ass. He knows what he’s doing. Rubbing it in my face that I now have responsibilities and he's free to do whatever he wants.
And why does he care so much that our PR manager is bringing a date? What’s it to him?
Those two have had a weird push and pull since Rina Lopez was hired full-time last year. Like they have a secret that nobody else is privy to. And I’m going to find out what it is.
The tires screech as I back out of the driveway and onto the main road. And as I do, I see the curtains move upstairs where Parker and Maddie’s room is.