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He looks good.
“That’s me,” I say, and my voice is two octaves higher than normal.
I’m flustered and thrown off balance, and I add an awkward wave to seal the deal of being an absolute loser in front of a guy who’s been voted America’s favorite athlete.
“What are you doing here?” He unwraps his fingers from my wrist and bends down to pluck my phone and bag off the floor. “Are you visiting Shawn?”
“I actually got a job as a team photographer. I’m now a proud member of the Titans organization.”
“No way. Congratulations. I didn’t know you were into photography.”
“It’s always been a hobby of mine, and after dropping out of college, I—” I bite the inside of my cheek and swallow down the story he doesn’t want to hear. “Sorry. I’m rambling. Yes, I’m interested in photography.”
“Awesome. Guess that means I’ll see you around the stadium instead of in the stands. It’s way more fun down here, and it’ll be good to have some new faces on the sidelines.” His grin stretches wider, and there’s no way there’s not a line of women fawning over him at every fan meet and greet. “It’s been a couple years since I’ve seen you, hasn’t it?”
“Yeah. It feels like you fell off the face of the earth,” I say. “How is everything?”
“Daddy.” There’s a girl at his side tugging on his athletic shorts. She’s so small, I didn’t notice her before. “She’s pretty.”
“Oh, gosh. Sorry,” I say. “I didn’t mean to?—”
“No, you didn’t. I’m just?—”
“I should?—”
“Pretty,” she says again, interrupting us. “Pretty, Daddy. Say hi?”
Dallas scoops the little girl in his arms and holds her against his hip. “Sure, June Bug. Maven, this is my daughter, June. We’re working on speaking in full sentences, so to translate for my babbling spawn, she thinks you’re pretty, and she wants to say hi.”
My eyes dart between them.
She’s the spitting image of him, a carbon copy down to the way her nose turns up at the end and the dimple on her left cheek. Even her eyes twinkle the same way, flecks of gold mixed in with the brown, and I don’t know what to say.
Dallas and I aren’t friends; we’re more like friend-adjacent, cordial in passing when we see each other at games or team events but never close enough to know he has adaughter. He’s done a good job of keeping her out of the spotlight.
My gaze bounces to his left hand to see if there’s a ring there, but all I find is a smudge of pink nail polish chipping on his middle finger.
“I didn’t know you were married,” is the first thing my brain decides to come up with, and I cringe. “Sorry. Wow. That was incredibly invasive.”
“I’m not,” he answers. “It’s just June and me.”
“Oh.Oh.Right.” I nod, and I turn my attention to the girl in his arms. Her cheek rests on his shoulder, and she watches me. “Hi, June. It’s nice to meet you. You have a very pretty name.”
June giggles and buries her face in Dallas’s sweatshirt. I glance up at him, afraid I might have said something wrong, but he gives me a reassuring smile.
“She can be shy. Besides the guys on the team and her nannies, she doesn’t meet a lot of new people,” he explains, then he frowns. A line of wrinkles forms across his forehead, and suddenly he looks years older. “That makes it seem like I never let her leave the house. I do, clearly. I’m just protective over who is in her life, and now I’m talking your ear off, aren’t I?”
“Not at all. I understand why you’re protective of her. Not that I fully understand; I don’t have a kid or anything. There’s nothingwrongwith having a kid, I’m just—” I laugh. “This is going well, isn’t it?”
His frown melts away, and he grins. Two dimples again, and a tint of color on his cheeks. “I don’t know about you, but this is the most fun I’ve had all day.”
“That means you have low expectations for fun.” I check my watch and gesture to the elevators behind him. “I should get going. My orientation starts soon.”
“Good luck today. I’m sorry for knocking you over.”
“Don’t worry about it. I wasn’t paying attention. I’m the guilty party here.”
“Call it even by saying hi at the preseason game in a couple weeks?” Dallas asks. “We can’t let this be our only interaction this year. That would be tragic.”
