“Stop looking at me like that. I’m a man, B.”

He and this man shit were getting on her last nerve, but as much as she hated it, he was right. “I know, but it makes me nervous. How do we know this will work?”

He smiled. “Because Mom is looking out for me. For us. She wouldn’t bring us this if it wasn’t safe, B.”

Her heart broke a bit as he held her gaze. Another reason why he gave her anxiety. He was so freaking trusting. “Not everyone is good, though, Rod.”

“Yeah, but Mom is our guardian angel. We’re okay. It will be okay. I believe it in my heart.”

Emotion clogged her throat as she held his gaze. “Your heart, huh?

“Yup, my whole heart. Don’t worry.”

Tears gathered in her eyes as she looked down at her eggnog. He was killing her slowly, and she prayed that he was right. That their mother was looking down on them, guiding their ways because they needed it.

Especially Brie.

She just felt so lost lately. Her love life was shit, nonexistent, and that was depressing since the new year was almost here. She wasn’t one to fail at goals, but she was pretty sure that goal was toast. So was the one from last year to lose ten pounds; she was pretty sure she had gained ten instead. Rodney’s living situation and his heart issue were both stresses that were weighing her down to the bottom of the ocean. And then there was her job.

Usually, Brie was very confident when it came to her career. She knew what she was doing and she was damn good at it, but the last couple days, things had been a little shitty. While she would never apologize to that asshole, she did feel bad for how things went down with Vaughn during that interview. She should have read the teleprompter; she should have done what was right. But instead, she was the showboater, and she crashed. Hard.

Then there was him hollering to her behind the bench. God, she was still so embarrassed by that. Especially because instead of just agreeing with him, she called him out on it and told him the truth. That it was a fucking tap in and not a wrister, but that did nothing but get her ass chewed out by her boss. She shouldn’t talk to the players like that, she shouldn’t be mingling, she needed to focus on the issues on hand. But there was no ignoring Vaughn Johansson.

He had been grinning so damn hard. His face full of life and she enjoyed that. She loved when a player scored. It was like all their hopes and dreams came across their faces, and she adored that. She wanted so badly to cheer out for him, to tell him it didn’t matter that it was just a tap in, that it was amazing nonetheless. But in true JoHo fashion, he called to her, and she threw it right back in his face. She didn’t know what it was about that guy, but he made her crazy.

Truly crazy.

Then the next thing she knew, she couldn’t stop thinking about him. She wanted to know where he was today. She hadn’t heard a peep out of his apartment, except for what she knew was a dog. And she wanted so badly to kick the door down and get it out. She loved dogs, a little too much, and she wondered what it was. Probably some big dog like a Great Dane, because obviously, Vaughn was lacking in the cock department and had to have big things to make up for it. He was a cocky mother, but Lord, he was beautiful. So fucking beautiful, it was unfair.

When he’d walked out of the locker room to leave Chicago, his suit fit him like a glove and it took everything out of her not to drool as she’d watched him get on to the bus. Man, she hated him.

Rolling her eyes, she exhaled loudly as she leaned her head against the back of the couch, looking up at the ceiling. Rodney looked over at her. “I love your apartment. Too bad I can’t live here.”

Looking back at Rodney, she smiled. “Right? We’d have a blast.”

“Yeah, lots of popcorn and candy.”

She laughed. “Yeah, probably a good thing we don’t live together.”

“Yeah, you’d make me fat.”

She snorted at that since they both knew it would be the other way around. Rodney was heavier than her, with a bigger lower half and wide shoulders. Classic Down syndrome body type, but even with that, he was also an eater. So was she, but she actually tried to be conscious, whereas Rodney did not care. “Sure, I would.”

He gave her an exaggerated wink, and she smiled. Looking down, he inhaled hard before looking back up at her. “So, I go in on Friday?”

She nodded. “Yup, I’m gonna be able to stay for four days, then I gotta meet the Assassins out in California. I’ll fly out on my own to be there before the game, but I’ll miss all the morning stuff and leaving early.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be. I want to be here. I wish I could just not leave, but it’s my job.”

“And we need the bacon.”

“We do love bacon.”

He nodded. “Too bad Mom isn’t here.”

Swallowing hard past the lump in her throat, she held his gaze. “I know.”

“But it’s cool. I’m a man, I’ll find a hot nurse to flirt with.”

She laughed, rolling her eyes. “Good plan, Rod.”

“I thought so.” Leaning back in his seat, he cuddled with a blanket. “But you’ll call every day?”

“Of course, I will.”

“And we can FaceTime too.”

“Yup, and I might even bring you something from California.”

“Please!”

“What do you want?”

“I don’t know. I’ll Google it.”

Laughing, she watched as he fumbled with his phone before tapping away. He Googled everything, and he was so good at it, sometimes he knew things before she did. When his eyes lit up, she smiled before he looked up to her. “See’s Candies.”

“Done.”

“Yes!”

Chuckling, she took a sip of her eggnog as the timer for the apple pie went off. “Ooh, the pie is ready.”

Placing her cup on the table, she kicked off her blanket just as Rodney yelled out, “You bought ice cream, right?”

She snapped her fingers. “Crap. No, I forgot.”

His shoulders fell. “B, we can’t have pie without ice cream!”

“Ugh, I know. How did I forget?”

“Because you are not a real pie person.”

She nodded as she went into the kitchen, getting her oven mitts. “You’re right, I’m more of a cake gal.” He shot her a cheeky grin before getting up and putting his shoes on. “What are you doing?”