Touching Down(48)
“In eleven years?”
He held out his arms. “It’s never too early to plan for your child’s education.”
I blinked, wondering where the hotheaded, living-in-the-moment boy I’d known had gone. I wondered if there was any semblance of that boy inside the man before me now.
“Thanks again for the hat.” Charlie settled it lower on her forehead, rolling back and forth on her toes and heels.
“You’re welcome again for the hat.”
“Bye, Charlie-Bird.” I gathered her into my arms and gave her a hug. “Love you.”
“Love you back,” she replied when she’d wrestled free of my hug. Her eyes suddenly went wide like she’d just noticed I was wearing a dress. “Wow. Mom, you look pretty.” She pinched the skirt of my dress like she’d never seen anything so lovely before. “Why are you so dressed up?”
“I’m not that dressed up,” I argued, not exactly eager to admit that Grant was the last guy I’d been on a date with. Forty-nine dog years ago.
“Eh, yeah, you are,” Charlie fired back. “Your idea of dressing up is wearing something other than tennis shoes.”
“I’m sure your mom gets dressed up when she goes out with her friends or on a date,” Grant added.
Charlie’s face pinched together. “What’s a date?”
And fantastic.
“You know. It’s when a guy picks up a girl and takes her out to dinner or a show or something like that.” Grant motioned between himself and me like we were a physical explanation to the verbal one he’d just given.
“Oh,” Charlie said, blinking. “Mom’s never been on one of those.”
“And I think I just heard the timer in the kitchen. Better go check to make sure the lasagna isn’t burning.” Dropping my hands on her shoulders, I walked her back inside and halfway through the hallway before she could dish about any more of my private life.
“Night, Dad. Have fun. On your date.” Charlie waggled her brows at me.
“Your father and I are going out to talk. That’s all. This isn’t a date.”
“Okay, thanks! We will!” Grant shouted from outside.
Grumbling, I dropped another kiss on her head and watched her disappear into the kitchen. When I emerged out the front door, Grant looked amused.
“What’s this about you not going on those date things?” His grin stretched across his entire face.
“Oh, please. Let’s see how many dates you get to go on when you raise a child on your own for seven years.” I shot his smirk right back. “I thought it was common knowledge.”
Grant came up beside me when I started down the walkway. “Is that why you visibly winced when your daughter just sold you out?”
“Can we change the subject?”
“No more talk of dating history?”
“None.”
Grant held his arm out for me as we wandered toward the driveway. He waited until I took it, then he asked, “Okay. So how many boyfriends have you had since me?”
I shoved his arm aside, but my sigh only made him laugh.
“It’s a good thing you showed up with this corsage. It’s buying you a little leeway.”
“God knows this fuck-up needs as much leeway as I can get with you.” Grant came around in front of me to open the passenger door of his truck for me.
“Grant, you are one of the best players in professional football today. You made regular visits to an elderly woman until she died, you started a free football league in one of the poorest places in the country, you forgave me for what I did, you accepted your daughter without giving it a moment’s thought, and you’re respected and adored by the entire nation. You are not a fuck-up. You are the opposite, and you should stop seeing yourself as the same kid who had to fight to survive The Clink.”
He paused in the door after he’d helped me into the cab, looking at me sitting there like he was seeing something I couldn’t. “I don’t ever want to stop seeing myself as that kid. Never.”
“Why not?”
“Because the best part of me is in that tough, cocky-as-shit kid.”
My eyebrows pulled together. “What part is that? The ability to sleep with one eye open?”
He shook his head slowly. “You. You’re the best part of me. The best part of that boy and the best part of this man. I’d rather be a fuck-up with that, than the golden boy without.”
My heart stopped. I could actually feel it pulse to a stop. Right before it restarted with a vengeance. What did a girl say after that? What did she do? More importantly, how did she keep up with her agenda to keep things friendly, a thick line drawn between us to keep our hearts and souls safe?