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“Trix! I’ve missed you!” Lizzy beams at me. Lizzy is Cooper’s thirteen-year-old daughter. We bonded initially on my first family trip with the Rawlings to their family lake house. She’d been more than thrilled to find out that I knew how to play some of her favorite games and was willing to listen to her stories and flip through her art books with her. The kid is a prodigy, honestly, who is desperately excited to get through school so she can start a career in video game design.
“I’ve missed you too! How have you been? How was school this past year? You’ve gotten so much taller.” I’m doing the mental math, and if I’m right, she’s just finished eighth grade. She’s shot up at least another inch in the last year and is coming closer and closer to my five-nine, especially in the platform sneakers she has on.
“It was good. I start high school in the fall. Dad’s terrified.” She laughs as she looks at her father, and he gives me a sheepish shrug.
“Wow. Time has flown by. How’s the designing going?” Last we talked she’d come up with a concept for a game she wanted to develop with her friends.
“Good. I’m going to a designing and coding camp later this summer.”
“That’s amazing! I’m so excited for you.” I want to ask her so many more questions because she’s the sweetest kid, but my eyes dodge to the hall I need to hurry down to find Madison before this event gets fully underway.
“You should come sit with us!” Lizzy looks at me hopefully and I smile back, wishing I didn’t have to let her down.
“I think she’s got some work to do, Lizzy,” Cooper says softly to his daughter, picking up on my anxiety. He flashes me a look of understanding, and I answer it with my own.
“Oh. Okay. I get it.” She gives me a resigned look of appreciation, and I feel guilty after the two of them rescued me. I glance at Cooper one last time, hoping he doesn’t think I’m being ungrateful.
Cooper, the single dad, has always been a bit of an enigma. Mostly because that version of Cooper was the one I knew best, but the one the rest of the world knew was Cooper, the playboy. The guy who dates models and actresses. The life of parties and the forever single guy who never had time for anything else but football and partying, and more secretly, his daughter. He’s always worked hard to keep her and their lives out of the limelight.
“If I can get away, I’ll definitely come to find you so you can tell me more.” I grin at her, and then wave a quick goodbye and nod at Cooper one last time before I start to speed walk down the hall.
Cooper looks nothing like Rob, my ex, despite the fact they share genes. He’s taller, with darker-brown hair that’s always got that messy, just-woke-up look with short curls, where Rob had always spent hours grooming his. Cooper has deep-brown eyes flecked with gold and warm brown, where Rob’s are a crystal blue and hold a sharp gaze that Cooper just isn’t capable of. Cooper’s jaw is more cut, and he’s leaner with a broad chest and the kind of shoulders and traps that would give him an excellent career in fitness modeling if he ever wanted it. Even in his day-off jeans, T-shirt, and backward hat look he has going on today, he’s still gorgeous. Whatever woman eventually lands him is going to be lucky as hell. I used to look forward to seeing who he’d end up with, hoping it was someone as fun and laidback as he is, as I desperately wanted a future sister-in-law to hang out with at the family get-togethers. But now that’s all a distant memory. Because while Rob and I had been on-again and off-again for quite a while, the last time we called things off, it was permanent.
“There you are!” Madison, my best friend, beams when she sees me come in the door. She’s still putting together swag bags for the families to take home. I hustle to take over the bag prep.
“I’m so sorry I’m late. The guy at the door wouldn’t let me in because I didn’t have my badge. Acted like I was a dire security risk to the entire team. I called to see if you could get me in, but I guess you didn’t hear it.”
“Oh no! I’m so sorry, Bea! It’s in my purse in the office. I didn’t even think.” Madison looks at me apologetically. “I’ve just been rushing around and I didn’t even notice the time. I should have known when you weren’t your usual punctual self.”
“It’s okay. Cooper got me in. Apparently, Mr. Rules at the door will let anyone come in as long as they’re with a player.” I give her a sideways look and shake my head.
“Cooper got you in, huh? Was that awkward? Did he say anything about Rob?” Madison raises an inquisitive brow.
“No, he barely talked at all. Mostly just Lizzy. She was surprised and catching me up on things in her life. She’s so sweet. I forgot how much I missed her.”
“That’s Cooper’s daughter, right?”
“Yes.”
“I forget that he has one, honestly. With his reputation and everything.”
“I was literally just thinking that on the way in. That how I’ve known him is so the opposite of his reputation.”
“Well, he’s been working hard on it,” Madison quips.
“True. He wants Playboy of the Year as badly as Quentin wants Grump of the Year. How’s that going by the way?” Quentin Undergrove is the Chaos’s new quarterback, Madison’s ex, and the current focus of her PR efforts.
“We’re making progress. He’s being agreeable. Too agreeable, which I find suspicious.” She flattens her lips.
“I told you my theory.” I flash a small smirk at her that she doesn’t appreciate.
“Yes, well… doesn’t change facts.”
“You don’t still think about him that way?” I raise a brow at her because I don’t believe it.
She and Quentin are forces of nature separately. The two of them together? I don’t think there’s anything they couldn’t accomplish. As long as they aren’t fighting each other. If they come to blows, they’re going to take everyone out with them, possibly this entire organization. Especially considering his uncle is the coach and her brother is expected to be one of his main receiving targets on the field. But Madison can run circles around almost anyone in PR. It’s part of the reason I love working with and learning from her. So if anyone can put Quentin in his place—it’s her. Assuming they don’t kill each other first.
“Do you still think about Rob?” She volleys the question back, and the look on her face tells me she doesn’t mean for it to hurt so much as to remind me that we’re both in a similar place. She’s worse off, really, since she’s forced to work with her ex.
