Rushing the Goal
Page 52

Baylor scoffed as she grinned around the bite of sandwich she had just taken. “You mean Benji almost doing you against his truck? Yeah, I saw it, and I put two and two together.”
“Hellfire,” she cried out, covering her face with her hands as her cheeks turned deep red.
“I didn’t think it was like you to leave a whole bag over there, but if you were doing a walk of shame, you just might.”
Peeking through her hands at her grinning sister-in-law, she said, “Have I told you lately I don’t like you?”
Baylor feigned hurt. “Me? I thought I was your favorite.”
Lucy covered her face back up and then shook her head. “What am I doing?”
She said it more to herself, but Baylor took it upon herself to answer. “I think you should go with it. He had those sex eyes and it was kind of hot. Usually, I look at him like he’s kinda goofy, but with those sex eyes… Rawr.”
Sliding her hands down her face, she set Baylor with a look. “Please don’t ever say that about him again.”
Baylor giggled as she shrugged. “Aw, how sweet, you’re jealous.”
Lucy glared because there was no way in hell she would give that sentence life. Ignoring it because it was silly to even think about it, she said, “I’m a mom.”
Baylor shrugged. “Yeah, who needs a hot dude to spice up her life. I say go for it.”
Closing her eyes, she let out a long breath. “Where are Jayden and Angie?”
Baylor took another bite. “Upstairs.”
“Okay,” she said, standing up. “I hope you choke on that sandwich.”
Baylor sputtered with laughter, and Lucy grinned back at her as she headed for the stairs. “They didn’t see anything,” she called back at her and Lucy’s grin disappeared.
Should she tell them?
Tell them what?
They weren’t even, really, kind of dating.
Like, kind of. But not really.
She did sleep with him, though, and he did hang out with Angie, but that didn’t matter. It was nothing. Nothing to even speak about.
Yeah, she’d wait.
For what, she wasn’t sure, because this was going nowhere.
He probably wouldn’t even call her.
Or text her.
Yeah, he was just being nice.
…or she was a big idiot.
It was a toss-up.
“Hey, Coach!”
Shea Adler turned around just as Lucy and Angie made their way to him. With a big grin on his face, he waved happily. “Hey, Hart. How’s it going?”
Looking exhausted, which was a complete sham since the girl slept more than Lucy did, she slapped her leg. “Well, funny story.”
Jesus.
Angie had told everyone she saw they were homeless, and no matter how many times Lucy told her to stop, she still proceeded to tell the world. Lucy had just finished writing a very lengthy email to Angie’s teacher, guaranteeing her that they were not, in fact, homeless.
“So our apartment got flooded and they are tearing it up. They called Mom and told her we couldn’t go back for a while. It’s a mess. I would say we’re homeless, but I don’t want to lose my iPad and Mom has already threatened me with that if I tell one more person we’re homeless. So we’re not homeless, but we don’t have a home.”
This kid.
Letting out a long breath, Lucy ran her fingers through her hair before meeting Shea’s stunned gaze. “Wow, okay.”
Lucy shrugged. “Ladies and gentlemen, Angela Lynn Hart.”
Shea laughed as he bumped fists with her and smiled over at Lucy. “You guys are good, though, right? We have a house y’all can stay at, but it’s an hour from here.”
She appreciated his worry. He was such a good guy, and she knew what house he was speaking of. It was Elli’s old house. A lot of people had rented it from her, but like he said, it was an hour from here, and that wouldn’t cut it for her. “Yeah, we are staying with Jayden until we get things figured out. They aren’t sure if the building is even safe anymore. There was way more damage when they got farther into it. We’ve had to move my office into my brother’s den while he’s gone. So I’ve got until Friday to figure out what I’m going to do. It’s a mess.”
“Man, that blows. Let me know if you need anything, okay? I can help, Elli will help too, you know that. Even if it’s just to keep Angie. She can come hang with us.”
Lucy smiled. “Thanks, Shea. Really, that means a lot. I’ve got this, though.”
Shea nodded. “Oh, I know. Just wanted to let you know we’re here for you,” he said with a grin before turning to Angie. “Ready to hit the ice?”
“Yes, sir!” she cheered before taking her bag from Lucy. She said a quick bye, and as Lucy was walking away, she heard Angie telling Shea about quitting dance, which made Lucy roll her eyes.
Angie was telling everyone, and because of that, Lucy knew she had to have everything figured out before Angie went back to her dad’s. She wasn’t sure if Angie would tell him about their housing issues, but to be sure, she wanted to have a plan. No reason to give him anything he could use to get custody of Angie. Things were good the way they had it, and she wasn’t using Angie’s diagnosis as any kind of excuse. She needed consistency and she needed stability. Rick was not that. He never had been. So what made him think he was now? It made no sense. But thankfully, they were staying with family, so that was normal for Angie. But she worried what would happen when they needed to move.