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It had … stung, seeing Leah happily accept something from Rosa. Sure, she tried to protest, but I saw the smile. She was touched by the gesture, touched that someone saw her struggles and immediately came up with a solution. It was sweet and I’m glad everyone on the team was so welcoming of Leah and she seemed to enjoy hanging out with them.

But I hated that I couldn’t have that kind of easy relationship with her.

“Yeah, for the most part.” I shrugged and kicked at a ball someone’d left out on the field, dribbling it as we walked toward the player entrance.

“Pass it to me,” Leah said, jogging a little ways ahead of me. Smiling, I lobbed it over to her, letting it land with a gentle plop in front of her feet. Leah smiled and started kicking the ball around and I did my best to ignore her form.

“When my kids play soccer—well, more like pass the ball around, they always look like they're having so much fun. At some point, I started thinking they were enjoying a simple game because they’re kids. But everybody here seemed to have fun too. Or at least had fun fucking with you.” She kicked the ball with the tip of her shoe, sending it flying off to the side. “Shit, sorry. I’ll—”

“Nah, I got it.” I jogged over and got the ball, dribbling it over to her and stopping facing the wall between us and the stands. She furrowed her brow, but turned to face the same way. I knocked the ball over to her. “You lose control of the ball when you kick with your toes. Try with the inside of your foot.”

I pointed to my foot and she raised an eyebrow. “Seriously?”

“Yeah, seriously. If I’m at a game and our kid has soccer practice, I’m gonna need you to know the basics. Kicking the ball and getting it to go where you want is as basic as it gets.”

“Hmm. And you’re not gonna come behind me and reposition my hips, are you?”

“Not a practical move when playing soccer, I’m afraid.”

“What’s the move for soccer then?” she asked with a cheeky smile. For someone who very staunchly wanted to keep our relationship as minimal as possible, Leah sure liked to flirt.

“You’d have to ask Brooker, he’s more … flirtatious.”

“Is that your diplomatic way of saying he’s a playboy?”

I didn’t answer and she threw her head back and laughed. When she straightened, she shuffled on her feet to angle her body and kick the ball properly.

Well, not properly, but with better form than before. It bounced against the wall and rolled right back to her. A little smile pulled at her lips and she made another shot, this one with a little more power. And again, it bounced right back.

“I think I see the appeal.” She did another few kicks before turning toward me. “Think I can take you on now?”

“Hmm.” The guys made a lot of bets about goals and how a play will pan out, a bunch of things, really. I didn’t participate since a lot of the bets were ragging on each other, but it did give me an idea for this situation.

There were dozens of things I wanted to discuss while Leah was here, but if I had to put one thing on the top of that list, it'd be …

“How about a game of keep-away? Every time you steal the ball from me, you get to pay for 10 percent of the pregnancy-related medical bills.”

“Oh so this is where your teammates get it, huh? You taught them all how to be rowdy?”

“No,” I said, laughing. “But they did give me the idea. I just … I make a lot more and I don’t do much with it. You’re doing all the literal growing, I think it’s fair that I contribute how I can.”

“Was this your plan all along?” she asked, stomping on the ball. “To challenge a pregnant woman to an athletic competition?”

“I wouldn’t say ‘plan.’ But you came over so we could get some things sorted out and the guys kinda stole all your attention.”

“Jealous?” she teased, toeing the ball back and forth.

“Maybe a little.” I shrugged. The one thing I couldn’t do, wouldn’t do, was lie or obfuscate the truth. I was happy she was here, I was happy everyone got along, but I was jealous. Not for any romantic reasons, just that I wanted her time, her easy conversation, her smiles.

After our call the other day, it was very clear that I enjoyed her company. I’d known that when I met her at the bar, but the knowledge hadn’t really set with me. And now I knew I wanted all my off hours to be spent with her. There was so much I didn’t know, so much we needed to plan for, it’d be practical to spend all night on the phone talking.

“It’s going to be a lot of money, you know?” she said, voice shifting to soft uncertainty.

“I have a lot of money.” I shrugged again, a tad uncomfortable flaunting my wealth. But I wanted her to understand that paying wouldn’t be a strain on me like it might be for her.

Leah bit her lip and I could see the argument playing out in her mind, see the battle to make this co-parent thing work against the way she wanted to do things on her own.

“Do I get any handicaps?” she grumbled.