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Damon Rose and his brother agreed to meet me here. We all knew what a circus it could be to go out in the more well-known spots in the city, so neither of them complained about passing up the five-star meal for a hole in the wall like this.
I felt my eyes drifting to the girl who had taken our orders. At the moment, she was half bent over one of the touchscreen computers to tap in an order. Long legs clad in tight fitting leggings that left nothing to the imagination. Thick red hair that spilled out of a ponytail reaching just above her ass. And she had an adorable upturned nose with a smear of freckles on her pale face.
But I wasn’t here for women. I looked to my son, Ben. He was working on another picture to join the tens of thousands he seemed to produce each month. The kid was only six, but he’d shown an intense interest for anything related to drawing pretty much since... Well, since I’d gotten into the league two years ago.
I was all Ben had, and once I realized he might need more from me than I’d been giving him, I knew I needed to do something.
That’s why I found myself in some run-down restaurant across from my agent and his brother.
The moment I even floated the possibility of taking a year or two away from baseball, I knew Damon would be down my throat trying to change my mind. Sure enough, he’d even brought his brother, Chris, along.
“...Could consider some sort of compromise,” Damon was saying.
“It’s my son,” I said. I spared a glance for our waitress when she stopped to set our drinks down. The black t-shirt she was wearing sagged enough to give me a glimpse of milky white cleavage and the faint white line of her bra. I forced my eyes away.
Focus, asshole.
I thought I felt her eyes lingering on me before she headed back toward the bar to talk to a little kid who was sitting by himself. The kid looked about Ben’s age, and I wondered if the girl was his mom. She couldn’t be past her early twenties, and that would’ve made her almost as young as Ally was when she got pregnant with Ben.
The thought of Ally always gave a bitter twist to my stomach, though, so I brought my attention back to Damon. “I can’t just leave him with some stranger all day and brush my hands of it.”
Chris cut in like the two of them were playing good cop bad cop. “You never know. A nanny might be exactly what Ben needs.”
“He needs me,” I said.
Damon leaned in, tapping his fingertips on the table. “Just consider it. You’ve tried dragging him around to practices and games. Would it hurt to give it a few weeks at the most? If he doesn’t like it, then we can consider more extreme options.”
“You’re only interested in your bank account, Damon. Skip pretending you're actually concerned about us.” I felt annoyed with both of them. I’d known Chris since college, and I did like the guy. I also knew Damon was the best in the business. But this wasn’t a business decision. Ben was my son, and he was—
Shit. Where was Ben?
He must’ve ducked under the table and headed off to the bathroom. More and more he’d gotten quiet—to the point where he would go to extremes to avoid even having to let me know he needed to pee.
“Dammit,” I said under my breath. I went to get up. In my hurry, I bumped the table and tipped the fresh beer all over my pants.
The waitress was rushing toward me with a handful of balled up napkins before I could react. I was about to move her aside to go after Ben, but I saw he’d been stopped by the kid at the bar. The kid was looking at Ben’s sketchbook and saying something animated as he pointed.
“Oh I’m so sorry,” the waitress said.
I felt my attention pulled to her as she crouched in front of me. She wasn’t seriously going to…
Yep.
She blotted the front of my pants a few times before it dawned on her that she was kneeling in front of me with her hand between my legs in front of a room full of stunned customers. She froze, hand a couple inches from me as her cheeks went a shade of red to match her hair.
“I am so. So. Sorry.” She got up, dropping the napkins. She started half-dancing from foot to foot like she had to pee. “I get scatterbrained when it’s busy. And I’m really hot right now. Like I’m freaking drenched, it’s why-”
Chris made a sputtering sound between laughter and choking. I shot him a look and found him bent over clutching his stomach. Damon was watching us with a glint of something mysterious in his eyes.
