Playing Santa: A Holiday Sports Romance by Stephanie Queen

Author:Stephanie Queen [Queen, Stephanie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-12-14T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter 5

Sean

TGIF. It’s been a long fucking week and I’m relieved as I hop in my SUV and check my voice mails and texts. Nothing. I dial Ronnie’s number. Nothing. Having her number doesn’t do me a hell of a lot of good because her phone is never turned on. It’s one of those throwaway phones—a cheap one that doesn’t even have a camera. She didn’t call this week in spite of her promise to and she and Jimmy are long gone from my house before I get home each night. I haven’t been able to get home early to surprise them because our days are running long with preparation for Sunday’s game in L.A..

It’s after six, but I shrug as I start the car up and pull out of the lot, calling up the shelter anyway. Garino answers. At least it’s someone, if not exactly the someone I’d been hoping to hear.

“How the hell are you, Garino?”

“Better than you, I imagine, or you wouldn’t be calling the shelter at this hour.”

I snort, but she’s right on target. “How’s Ronnie and Jimmy doing? I haven’t seen them lately.”

“I know. She gets a kick out of the notes you leave for her and Jimmy at the house. I think they’re enjoying dog sitting for you more than working at the animal shelter.”

“That right? Did she tell you she leaves me notes too? And cake. A different kind every day. I’ve been bringing them into the stadium to the guys. She’s famous on the team now as the cake lady. Delicious shit ought to be illegal.”

Garino cackles. “Yes, she’s enjoying that. Says she doesn’t feel as guilty taking all your money if she can spend some of it on cake and give it back to you—along with a little piece of her heart I imagine.”

That makes me take a sharp breath, but I steady myself. “That you talking or her?”

“That’s me and my wild romantic imagination. But I’m not wrong.”

“Then why doesn’t she call me?”

“She’s skittish. Uses the cost of phone calls as her excuse, but she’s afraid to step into another relationship where she’s dependent on someone. Especially a man like you.”

Sighing deep, because it’s my worst fear spoken out loud, I say, “That you talking or her?”

“What she said is that she don’t want to be no stinking Cinderella. First time I heard her lapse into bad grammar in ages.”

Tension tightens my chest. Not what I want to hear. Maybe I ought to let her go. At what point does wooing a woman turn into stalking?

Garino continues, “She likes the arrangement where Jimmy gets to see Dasher and not you—though he still asks for you, talks about you, brags about your trophies. Likes sitting at your shiny kitchen counter doing his homework while momma bakes you a cake. The domestic scene he paints warms my heart and I’ve suggested on more than one occasion that she ought to wait there for you to come home to give you a big welcome.

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