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“Um, because I didn’t realize I knew him until right now.”
Max tilted his head and furrowed his brow. “How’d you not know?”
“Most people call me Jeff. It’s only ball players and people around baseball who call me Smitty.”
“But I call you Smitty.” Max narrowed his eyes at him. His fingers tangled in his sandy blond hair as he scratched his head. Jeff could practically see the little wheels in his head spinning.
“Well, yeah, but you’re a ballplayer, right?” Shit. He hoped he was playing this cooler than he felt.
A smile spread across Max’s face. “Yeah.” He glanced at his mom. “But she’s not.”
“Exactly.” Jeff nodded. “That’s why she only knew my name was Jeff.”
“Oh.” Max’s head bobbed in understanding.
“We should get going, buddy. We have to go by Aunty Vika’s on the way home.”
“Yes.” Max pumped his arm in the air, then turned to Jeff. “You want to come?”
Jeff bit back a laugh. Yeah, that wouldn’t be incredibly uncomfortable. Saskia could barely look him in the eye. “No thanks, bud.”
Saskia flicked a brief look at him. If he didn’t know better, he’d think she looked guilty, but that didn’t make sense. He glanced at her naked ring finger. No ring. So why the look? What happened between them was one time, years ago. Sure, it had been memorable, but certainly not something she needed to feel bad about all these years later. Weird.
She reached down and grabbed her son’s hand. “Let’s go, Max.”
Max raised his hand. “Bye Smitty.”
“Later Max. Have a good week.”
Jeff watched as Max and his mom walked across the field toward the parking lot. And maybe his stare lingered on Saskia’s ass, but just because she was someone’s mom didn’t mean he couldn’t look.
Chapter Two
Kiapulledhercarup in front of her sister’s house and turned off the engine. She really needed her big sister right now. How the hell could the man, Smitty, her son had been gushing over for the past two weeks be Jeff—herJeff? It wasn’t possible that the man she’d slept with six years ago in Tucson was here and coaching her son at camp.
What were the odds? She’d looked for him everywhere when she’d found out she was pregnant, and he’d disappeared. Only to show up now. Here. Six years later.
“Why are we at Aunty Vika’s?” Max asked.
“I thought you might like to play with your cousins.” Kia pushed open her car door then waited for her son to slide out of the back seat.
“They’re gonna be so jealous you got to meet Smitty.” Max bounced on the sidewalk beside her. Energy vibrated out of him with each hop. He always seemed to have an excess of energy coursing through his body no matter what she did to tire him out. She’d been hoping putting him in the baseball after-school program would burn off some of it, but so far that hadn’t happened.
She cupped the back of her son’s head. “I don’t think your cousins care all that much about a baseball player, honey.”
“Nuh-uh, Layla said he was cute.” Max bounced on his toes.
Awesome. She rolled her eyes. Her niece was eleven going on sixteen. “How does Layla know what he looks like?”
“She looked him up last time.”
Kia squatted so she could look her son in the eyes. “How come you guys looked him up?”
“I don’t know.” Max shrugged. His little hands splayed out in front of him as his shoulders rose. “I said he was the best baseball player ever. Alex said he wasn’t, so we looked him up.” Max put his hands on his hips and rolled his eyes. “’Cept Layla kept talking about who was cutest instead of who was the best, then Katya got all mad.” He looked at her and huffed out an annoyed sound. “Girls are dumb. Who cares who’s the cutest? He can throw the ball so far. He could probably hit our house from here.”
Kia bit back a laugh. “I’m pretty sure he couldn’t hit our house from here, but I have no doubt he can throw the ball really far.”
Max stood on his tiptoes and looked in the direction of their house. She smiled to herself as her son stared at the buildings like he could see through them and over two blocks to their house. Finally, he nodded like he’d come to some conclusion. “I bet he could.”
