Chapter 22
My eyes are locked on Sadie, just as they have been for the past fifteen minutes. She’s like some rare wonder of the world I can’t look away from.
She smiles at my daughter’s comment, causing my heart to trip over itself in my chest.
“You’re right, Sophia. I do like it. No, wait. I love it.”
Sophia squeals next to me, nearly blowing out my eardrum. She takes off toward Sadie before I can tell her to use her walking feet. She grabs Sadie’s hand again and leads her into the ensuite bathroom.
I follow them in, Sadie freezing the moment her eyes land on the claw-foot tub underneath the window. Slowly, she turns to look back at me, her mouth agape and her eyes lit up with sheer amazement.
“Niko. A claw-foot tub with a shower? This space is incredible!”
Neither of us miss the way Sophia claps her hands next to us, overly excited with the prospect of her new favorite person moving in with us.
“You can thank my mom for that. I think I mentioned she’s an interior designer. She designed my house and the apartment too.”
Sadie shakes her head in disbelief. “I will most definitely be thanking her. But before we do that, let’s talk about cost.”
This woman.
“Sophia, can you wait for us out in the living room?”
My overly-dramatic daughter huffs out a very unpleasant, “fine!” and then literally stomps her feet all the way into the living room.
Sadie laughs at Sophia’s retreating body and I lean against the wall near the door. “Sadie, you’re not paying to stay here.”
Her hands immediately find her hips, and I try like hell not to laugh at how similar she looks to my daughter a moment ago.
“I absolutely am paying to stay here, Niko. I’m no freeloader.”
Pushing off from the wall, I take a couple steps with this damn crutch until I’m inches from Sadie.
We’re so close I can see her chest heaving up and down as she struggles to stay calm.
I inhale, breathing in her intoxicating lavender scent, and, before I can stop myself, I’m reaching out to tuck one of the purple strands of hair that has come loose from her ponytail behind her ear.
She sucks in a sharp breath but I don’t retreat. I hold my ground and stare.
“Sadie. You’ll be caring for my daughter. The most important, precious person on this earth. There’s no way in hell I’m taking a dime from you. What you’ll be doing for me is invaluable. The least I can do is offer you a place to stay. For free.”
We stay locked in the moment, neither of us daring to look away, until finally she throws her hands up in defeat.
“Fine! But you’re not paying me.”
Like hell I’m not.
I open my mouth to argue with her again, but she holds her hand up in my face. “Nope. Don’t even try, Niko. I didn’t offer to help you so I could get another paycheck. If you try to pay me, I’ll hide the money in your shoes or something.”
Her defiance has me flaring my nostrils, fighting the urge to bend her over my knee and let her know exactly who’s in charge here. Stunned by the inappropriate thought, I take a step back, creating some much needed distance.
This woman has me all out of sorts. Why the hell am I imagining myself spanking her? I’ve never even done that with a woman before. But my god, I can’t think straight around her. Sadie does something to me. I’ve never felt anything like this.
Instead of flashing lights, warning me away from the danger that is Sadie, I feel the opposite. I’m excited. I’m turned on. And I want to do things with her, to her, that I never even dreamed of doing before.
Sadie’s eyes shoot down to where my excitement is clearly visible for all to see.
Motherfucker.
I turn around abruptly, running my hand down my face. “We’ll discuss everything later. I need to get to the arena to meet the trainers.” I awkwardly adjust myself, but it’s no use. There’s no hiding what she does to me. Not in these pants.
“Fine,” she says. It’s less defiant than two minutes ago, but I still detect sass in her tone.
Before I make a bigger fool of myself, I turn slightly, shielding my front but looking at her. “Sophia’s schedule is on the fridge in the main house. I’ll have my phone on me so text if you need anything. I shouldn’t be gone more than a few hours.”
Sadie nods, and I take that as my okay to leave.
Sophia is making shadows on the wall in the living room. I use the crutch as support and lean down to give her a kiss on the top of the head. “Be good for Miss Sadie. I love you.”
“Bye, Daddy. Love you.”
I make my way to the door that leads to the garage, berating myself for acting like an ass in front of Sadie.
Not only does she work for the team, but now she works for me.
There’s no way in hell I’m not paying her for being here.
I’m going to have to figure out how to get her to agree to that.
I also need to figure out how to keep it in my goddamn pants and not let something like that happen again.
Just as I’m closing the door behind me, I hear her voice.
“Ready, sweetheart?”
The adoration in her voice when she speaks to my daughter has my heart picking up speed yet again. My body’s reaction to Sadie is starting to really piss me off. I’ve just agreed to have her take care of my daughter. I can’t be having these thoughts.
I slam the door of my SUV shut and back out of the garage with only one thought on my mind.
I am so fucking screwed.
“All right, Niko. Last thing we’re going to do on the table is a round of stim.
” Sloane cleans off my knee then attaches the pads so they’re surrounding the area where my pain is the worst. “This is going to send electrical impulses to stimulate your nerves and hopefully block or help with the pain.”
I put my hands behind my head and close my eyes. “This isn’t my first rodeo, Doc.”
Sloane smacks my arm. “I forgot you’re getting old and need this like once a month.”
“Ooh, burn!” Connor’s voice floats through the air, but I don’t bother chirping back.
I hear him take a seat on the training table next to me but keep my eyes closed.
If I don’t look at him, maybe he won’t interrogate me about the whole Sadie situation.
God knows I’m not ready to talk about that just yet. Not after what happened this morning.
Sloane adjusts the intensity of the machine, waiting for me to signal it’s at a good enough level for my tolerance.
“That’s good,” I say, keeping my eyes closed and voice low.
She walks away from the table and tells Connor she’ll be back in a few minutes. Damn it. I was really hoping they’d get right to work. Now that it’s just the two of us in here, there’s no way Connor will leave me alone.
“How’s the hot new nanny?”
The word “hot” has me opening my eyes and turning my head so fast to glare at my best friend, I nearly launch myself at him.
“I knew that would get your attention.”
“Asshole,” I mutter under my breath and then turn my head back so I’m staring at the ceiling tiles. “I like you much better when you don’t talk.”
I can hear him laugh under his breath before a rhythmic thump, thump sound begins. I don’t need to look over at him to know he’s tossing a ball up to himself while he waits for Sloane to come back.
He stays quiet for a moment, the sound of the ball hitting his hand over and over the only sound in the room. Just when I start to think he might actually drop it, I’m disappointed to hear him speak again.
“Seriously, man. How did things go this morning? Was Sophia pumped to hang with Sadie?”
Pumped would be an understatement. Sophia slept in her own bed all night which I was extremely grateful for after such a long, shitty night.
It didn’t matter, though, I was in too much pain to get any sleep.
When she came barreling into my room at seven fifteen, screaming, “Dad! Dad! Miss Sadie is coming over!” I was already wide awake watching videos of my injury online.
“Yeah, she was definitely excited.” My words come out monotone as I try to act unimpressed by both this conversation and the fact that my daughter likes her new nanny more than she likes me.
Connor ignores me and fires another question at me. “How’s this going to work? Doesn’t she need to be at the rink for practices and games? Meaning you’ll both be here. Where will Sophia be?”
I had the same questions for Sadie last night when we were texting. She seemed much more optimistic about everything than I did.
“Sadie mainly works out of her office these days since she transformed it into a meditation room. She created a space for Sophia there. On off days, she said she’ll do her best to schedule individual sessions with the guys around any workouts or appointments I have.
She doesn’t travel with us during the playoffs so she’ll be free to be with Sophia while I’m gone. ”
The sound of the ball hitting the floor and bouncing away causes me to turn my head to look at Connor.
“Dude. Don’t tell me she’s moving in with you. I thought this was only while you were hurt.”
Where the fuck is Sloane? It’s been a solid five minutes since she left. For some reason, I feel like she’s doing this on purpose. Leaving me here to suffer with Connor.
He’s sitting up with his legs dangling off the edge of the table now. Eyes wide, still looking at me while he waits for a response.
“You know how guilty I feel making my parents watch Sophia for days at a time. This solves that problem and I trust Sadie with Sophia. It’s a win-win.”
Connor stares at me with a cocky smile on his face. “You trust her? You don’t trust anybody with Sophia. Not even me.”
I bark out a laugh. “Ha! Can you blame me? The one and only time I asked you to watch her for me, you fell asleep before she did.”
“Valid point. But seriously, Niko. Do you really think her moving in is such a good idea? I’ve seen the way you look at her.”
Why does Connor have to be so damn perceptive? Sometimes I swear he knows me better than I know myself.
“It won’t be a problem. Besides, she was about to be homeless. I didn’t really have much of a choice.” The words taste like bullshit on the way out of my mouth. Yes, Sadie mentioned needing to find a new place to live, but homeless is a stretch. I was just doing the right thing. Right?
Connor calls, “bullshit,” just as Sloane finally walks back into the training room. She picks up the ball Connor dropped and launches it as his head. He catches it at the last second, grabbing it just before it smacks him in the eye.
“Take care of your shit, Smith. And lie down.”
Connor mutters, “Yes, ma’am,” and lies back on the training table like an obedient puppy.
Sloane is one of the best athletic trainers in the league and not someone we ever mess with if we can help it. She checks in with me before getting to work on Connor, the two of them chatting about tomorrow night’s matchup.
Not wanting to hear about a game I can’t participate in, I lean down and grab my headphones from my bag. I slip them on and grab my phone to turn on a playlist to get me through the last ten minutes of my treatment.
I swipe to unlock my phone and a text from Sadie is waiting for me.
It’s a picture of her and Sophia, dressed up in princess outfits with their makeup done.
Sophia must’ve done Sadie’s makeup because there’s lipstick above her lip, eyeshadow covering her eyebrows, and some type of glitter covering her cheeks.
They look happy and carefree, living their very best lives. It’s adorable and perfect.
With one goofy, glitter-covered picture, a piece of the wall I’ve spent years building around my heart crumbles away.