Page 90 of Game On

I walked over to Liam again and squatted down to his height. “Okay, bud, I gotta go. Be good for Mari, okay?”

He hugged me, not wanting to let go. Rosie waddled over to me and hugged me, too. “Oh, hey, little miss. Will you miss me too?”

“Say, bye-bye, Rosie,” Lily told her.

“Bye-bye!” Rosie told me.

I kissed both of their cheeks, and Mari distracted them with toys while I got up and walked out of the door. I loved playing hockey, but I felt a pang in my heart whenever I had to leave Liam. Now Lily and her daughter, too.

My phone buzzed in my pocket when I walked down the hall and toward the elevator. Blaise had been blowing me up because I was running late. I took the elevator down to the garage and found Blaise’s car idling for me. I slid into the passenger seat while he sped off toward the landing strip where we’d get the jet.

He laughed as soon as he saw my tie. “Boys are gonna roast you for that nerd shit.”

I shrugged. “Don’t care. The kids and Lily liked it.”

Blaise rubbed a hand across his jaw. “You two serious, huh?”

I shook my head. “Nah.”

He raised an eyebrow but kept his mouth shut.

“Say what you gotta say, bro.”

“I get you’re both busy, but…are you sure you can’t make it work?”

“You were the one who told me she was off-limits.”

“I wanted to protect her,” he explained. “Look, I’m just saying, last night you looked happy together. You seem perfect for each other. Veronica wants Lil to be happy, to find what we have.”

“We don’t have time for that. Casual’s all we’ll ever be.”

But when I said it, I wasn’t sure I even believed that.

You weren’t supposed to kiss your fuck buddy goodbye. Or reveal your tortured childhood to her. Or miss her as much as I already did. I was barely out the door, and I couldn’t wait to see her smiling face again.

I was so totally fucked.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

LILY

You weren’t supposed to miss your friends with benefits. Or get giddy when he texted you asking how your day was. Your heart wasn’t supposed to do backflips when you saw him again, even if it felt like it was for a minute before he was back on the road again. You certainly weren’t supposed to long for his touch.

Shit.

I fell for Logan, and I was so totally screwed.

We had been texting and chatting every day since the Halloween party. He was bummed he couldn’t take Liam out trick or treating on the actual Halloween, but Mari and I took the kids out and snapped pictures while Logan was in Raleigh. The day he got back, we ate takeout lunch on his couch, and I reenacted Liam roaring like the dinosaur we’d dressed him up as. He cooed when I showed him the picture of Rosie as a little pumpkin. She looked so damn cute.

Veronica had lamented that she only had Blaise for a few hours, and then he was gone again. I understood that now. I felt a deep pang in my chest when I only got stolen moments with Logan. I saw him for dinner, and then he was right back on the road for another couple of days.

It had been like this for the past couple of weeks, where we saw each other a few times a week, and sometimes only for a few minutes. I missed his kisses, his loud laugh, and how he held my daughter to his chest and called her little miss while he soothed her tears.

None of this had been part of the plan. I didn’t have time for a relationship, and I didn’t want to jump into anything this soon after my divorce. Maybe it was because Logan was Ginger, and I’d known him so much longer than I realized. That bond had cemented our future together, but I was pretty sure Logan didn’t feel the same way.

My phone buzzed on the desk, and a sly smile spread across my face at a text from the man in question.

LOGAN: Hey, princess, we just got back in. Got practice and team meetings today. Takeout and gaming sesh tonight?