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“Okay,” Harlow interrupted. “You forgot to call Uno, I win.”
Sage sat back and blinked. “That’s not how it works.”
“It does in this round.” She collected the cards and kept her gaze squarely on the table. “What are you up to this evening?”
I licked at my bottom lip, waiting to see if she’d look at me, but nope. She was going to dig in her heels on this one. “Heading to my mom’s for dinner. Wanna come?”
Harlow paused as she shuffled the cards. Her cheeks were still that bright shade of pink. “Oh, I don’t know if we should intrude.”
“My mom would love it,” I said truthfully. “Adaline is in town for a couple of nights from Seattle. They’re working on some wedding plans.”
Finally, that broke her mini standoff. “Adaline is engaged? That’s great.”
“He’s all right,” I conceded. “They’re getting married later this year. Need to wait until the season is done.”
While she was helping clear the table, Sage’s movements slowed. “What season?”
I fought a grin. “Football.”
She blinked a few times. “Who’s your sister engaged to?” she asked in a hushed whisper.
My pause was a bit more dramatic than necessary, but I couldn’t help it. “Emmett Ward.”
The cards fell out of her hands, and her butt plopped back into her seat. “The all-pro quarterback from the Washington Wolves?” she asked on a squeak. “Son of Logan Ward, the best defensive coach of the last decade?”
Harlow watched her daughter with a soft smile on her face.
I tapped my chin. “Yeah, that would be the one.”
“Holy shit,” she whispered.
Harlow cleared her throat.
Sage gave her a look. “Sorry. But Mom, this isn’t normal. He knows so many football players.” Then she swung terrified eyes in my direction. “They won’t be there tonight, will they? I can’t go if they’ll be there.”
“You wouldn’t want to meet them?” Harlow asked. “Think of what an amazing story that would be at school.” She nudged Sage’s arm. “You’d definitely have something to talk about with Grant.”
Sage’s cheeks bloomed fire-engine red, and she gave me a horror-filled look.
“I have no idea what she’s talking about,” I lied. “And no, there will be no professional football players at family dinner tonight. Emmett plays in Green Bay tomorrow, which is why Adaline came home. Parker and Beckett play in Denver, and I’m pretty sure Greer traveled along for that game.”
Her frame melted a little. “You’re sure they won’t be there?”
I held up two fingers. “Scout’s honor.”
Harlow brushed past me. “You were never a Boy Scout, and they use three fingers for a salute, not two.”
I gave her a look. “It is obnoxious how much random knowledge you have.”
Sage laughed when her mom stuck her tongue out at me.
“You get the point,” I told Sage. “I promise they won’t be there.”
She nodded. “Okay.”
“You really wouldn’t want to go otherwise?” I asked, trading a brief questioning look with Harlow. She shrugged.
“No,” Sage said. “I’d panic. Can you imagine if we’re sitting at dinner and Parker asks me to pass the salt, and I blurt out that he needs to work on his rush blocking if he expects their run game to improve?”
