I feel like a little girl playing at a woman’s game.

Taking a step back, I drop my gaze and mutter, “I think you can handle the rest on your own.”

Moving back to the front of the class, I take Melissa’s place and finish the rest of the poses. I refuse to look in the mirror again at Ryker, who may possibly be getting molested by Melissa. While the thought of it causes me unease, I refuse to let myself care anymore about it.

Chapter 5

Ryker

The front door swings open, banging hard against the wall, and I feel the reverberation of it all the way into the kitchen, where I’m paying some bills online.

“We’re home, Dad,” Violet calls out, and then I hear both her and Ruby’s feet pounding up the stairs. It’s like clockwork when they get home from school: They run upstairs and get out of their uniforms and into playclothes. Since it’s a nice day outside, hovering in the low sixties, I know they’ll head right back out to play. Violet to sit on the swing while perhaps reading a book and Ruby to collect bugs.

The front door shuts and I assume that’s Kate coming in, as she’s the one who picks up the girls from school when she picks up Ben. They all go to the same private Montessori school and it’s been such a blessing to have Kate helping me out.

I was so unsure of what to do and how to handle them when they first came to live with me, and I was ashamed I didn’t know more. I was annoyed by the fact that I became one of those men who went off to earn the bacon and left the little wife at home to manage the kids. The reason that annoys me is that I’m far more progressive in my thinking and apparently at some point I had just become a lazy fuck and let Hensley handle it all.

It only took about a month for Kate to get me settled with the girls and soon I didn’t need her full time. Which was good, because she was itching to turn all of her attention back to Zack and his little boy, Ben.

My best mate, Zack, can be a knucklehead sometimes. He had hired Kate earlier this year to care for Ben, as Zack himself was a single father, Ben’s mom dying in a car accident late in the prior year. Kate was the perfect nanny, managing Ben and the household with ease, but she couldn’t seem to manage Zack himself. The bonehead seduced her, caused her to fall in love with him, and then he hurt her badly.

While I felt terrible for what each of them was going through, I used this fortuitous event to scoop Kate up so she could help me with the girls. Sadly, she wasn’t with me long when Zack decided to pull his head out of his ass and get his girl back. Kate stayed with me a few more weeks and then she proclaimed me ready to fly on my own.

Well…almost on my own. While I’m perfectly capable of managing the girls when I’m in town, it’s a bit harder when I travel to away games. I held off hiring another nanny when Kate offered to keep the girls with her when the team had road games. I took her up on it because I trusted her, but I still feel a little guilty that it’s disrupting her own time with Ben.

“Hey,” I hear from the entryway to the kitchen.

I look up in surprise to see Zack standing there.

“What are you doing here?”

“Ben had a dentist appointment this afternoon and he only wanted Kate to take him. So I had carpool duty.”

Zack says this with a grin on his face, because he actually gets a genuine kick out of how much Ben has grown to love Kate. She has, in all respects, become his mother.

Flopping down into a chair at the kitchen table opposite me, Zack says, “What did you do today?”

Today was a rare day off, as we had a home game yesterday and have another tomorrow, and then will go immediately on the road for an away game. “Worked out.”

“Why didn’t you call me? I would have gone with you.”

Hmmm. Do I tell Zack the truth?

“I actually went to a yoga class,” I hedge, pleased with myself that was the full truth so far.

“Dude,” he says mockingly. “Are you serious?”

“Yup. It’s great for flexibility, and as your star goalie, you know I have to keep these old hips limber.”

“You could try fucking someone,” Zack teases in a low voice, because as a parent, he knows when to avoid prying little ears. “That definitely keeps the hips loose.”

And that’s just great.

Now I’m thinking about Gray again.

I’ve been trying to focus on other things, hence the reason I’m paying bills even though they’re not due until next week. Ever since that stupid yoga class this morning, all I’ve been able to do today is think about how her hands felt on me. Innocent and benign at first, but then it changed into something else. Her touches lingered, and they were totally unnecessary. It was with just a simple placement of her hand behind my knee to straighten my leg out that I felt it. A faint stirring in my dick as it decided to wake up and check out this woman whose soft handling seem to call out to him.

When Gray walked around to my front and raised those green eyes up my way, I felt victorious over the just-barely-there sensual look. It validated what I had been considering.

That she was attracted to me and not just my stats as a goalie.

So when Zack suggests I need to fuck someone to keep the hips loose, I know exactly who my fuck of choice would be.

My boss, Gray Brannon.

I give a mental, shameful slap to myself and turn the subject to safer territory. Well, safer for me but guaranteed to get a rise out of Zack.

“Any new ideas on the proposal?” I ask casually, and suppress the grin when Zack’s body tightens all over.