Dirty Tackle: A Football Romance (16 page)

Scarlet watched her with a thoughtful look on her face. “She doesn’t seem very nice.”

It was amazing how perceptive children were. “She’s not,” I said truthfully. I didn’t figure there was any reason to try and hide that fact, even though I always wanted Scarlet to give someone the benefit of the doubt. Olivia had proved she didn’t deserve that courtesy, though.

We walked into the gym, and I saw Marvin waiting for me on the bench outside my office.

“Hey, Doc!” he said. His smile got even broader when he saw Scarlet standing there next to me. “Hey, I didn’t realize you had a mini me!” He got down on one knee and stuck out his hand. “’I’m Marvin. What’s your name?”

I appreciated Marvin’s openness and warmth right away. Scarlet seemed quite taken aback, probably because Marvin was the size of a tank. “Scarlet.”
 

“Scarlet. That is a very pretty name for a very pretty girl,” he said. “You come to help mom out at work today, Scarlet?”

Scarlet giggled. “I’m not a doctor.”

“You’re not? I thought they gave out those doctor degrees to just about anyone who wanted one,” Marvin said. He winked at me. I couldn’t help but chuckle too. His humor was infectious.

“Let’s get you up on the table, Marvin. Stretch your shoulder out, and see that everything is still healing properly.”

I positioned Scarlet on the bench that Marvin had just vacated. She had watched me work with patients before, and she was good at sitting by and just watching. She would occasionally ask a question of me or Marvin, and we just continued to work through them. Marvin finally sat up at the end of the session. He moved his shoulder back and forth. “You are some kind of miracle worker. My shoulder feels great. Way better than before,” he said.

I gave him a light tap on the top of the muscle. “Well, if you’d quit trying to run into Mack trucks at every opportunity, you’d make my job a lot easier.”

He chuckled. Then his eyes settled on a place over my shoulder, and he grinned again and gave a wave. “I suppose that’s your next appointment, huh?”

I knew that it was Shane even before I turned around. Regardless of what was going on between us, my body was innately tuned into him. I thought that if I ever needed to find him, I’d be able to locate him anywhere.

I turned and saw that he was in his practice uniform. He was so damn handsome. Before I could say anything else, Scarlet squealed and jumped off the bench. Just as she had done a couple of days before, she sprinted across the room and launched herself at her parent, only this time it was Shane instead of me. It was a good thing he was used to catching things that moved quickly at him.

He laughed as he scooped her up and gave her a big hug. Marvin watched the scene with a look on his face that told me he probably had started to get a sense of what was going on.

“He’s really happy,” he said in a low voice.

I shook my head sadly. “He’s not happy with me, if that’s what you’re saying.”

Marvin looked at me. “I’ve known that man for a long time. I’ve seen him with a screw or two loose. I’ve seen him party hard. I’ve seen him make a wicked path through every defender on the field to score a touchdown. None of those things have made him light up inside the way he’s been for the last week since you came back into his life.”

“He’s angry at me,” I admitted.

“Well, whatever it’s about, I know that you’ll work through it. There’s no way the two of you don’t belong together. Anybody with eyes could see it.”

I thought about what he said. He got up and shook my hand and then made his way across the room. Shane met him halfway, and I heard a mumbled conversation. Then he motioned down at Scarlet, and Marvin started to laugh. It was a deep belly laugh of pure joy. Then he shook Scarlet’s hand again and slapped Shane on the back. If he hadn’t known before, he definitely did now. I saw him give me a sympathetic look, as if he now fully understood my situation. He gave me a small nod and a thumbs up signal. It was nice to know that somebody believed we could work things out. I just didn’t know if I was as confident as Marvin was for our future.

Shane motioned for Scarlet to follow him, and he walked over to me. “I’d like to give Scarlet a tour of the field. Maybe introduce her to a couple of people. I can have her back in an hour or so, before practice starts,” he said.

This was it. The first time that I was supposed to trust my daughter entirely in the hands of her father. I knew that I had to start letting go and start letting him into her life. I was just a little hurt that I hadn’t been invited to be part of the tour as well.

“Okay,” I said. I looked down at Scarlet. “You mind your manners and listen to everything that your daddy says, okay?”

She nodded vigorously. “I’ll be good, Mommy. I promise.”

I felt my chest constrict as I watched the two of them leave the room, Shane’s huge hulking form and Scarlet’s small, petite one next to him. It was the kind of picture that I always envisioned in my mind when I thought about my daughter finally being with her father.

I sat down on the table and stared off into space as I waited for my next patient. I knew that it was going to be a longer afternoon than I anticipated.

By the time that Shane had come back with Scarlet an hour later, a new plan had started to form in my mind. I didn’t know if Shane could ever trust me again. All I could do was give him time with Scarlet and watch their relationship develop and grow.

“How about I make dinner for us at your place tonight?” I asked hesitantly. “I know you have a game tomorrow, so we can make it an early night.”

“I didn’t think you knew how to cook,” he said with a knowing look.

I held up my cell phone. “I’ve got all of the best restaurants in the city on speed dial.”

“Can we, Daddy?”

“Of course, pumpkin. I think that would be great,” he said. He didn’t seem all that thrilled at the idea that I was going to be joining them, though. Still, I was grateful that he hadn’t completely disregarded the idea out of hand.

“Seven o’clock?” I asked. He nodded in agreement. “I’ll see you then.”

When we walked into Shane’s building later that evening, Scarlet had tried looking everywhere at once. “It’s so big here,” she said.

I knew exactly what she meant. It wasn’t as if I hadn’t provided a comfortable somewhat middle-class apartment for us for our new home. But this was moving up to the big time. Shane’s luxury condo in downtown was the kind of place that most people wouldn’t even get to see in their lifetime. It was the epitome of extravagance. I figured there was a part of him that thought he deserved it, and he had earned it. He had come from extremely humble beginnings and made something great out of himself.

We got into the elevator, and I let Scarlet press the button to the top floor. She practically bounced on the balls of her feet she was so excited to see Shane again. She had loved the tour of the field and had talked about it all the way home. She just couldn’t get enough of her new daddy. I just hoped that the bubble wasn’t going to burst, and it would all come crashing down for her. I didn’t think Shane would do that, but I couldn’t know for sure.

This was the thing that I was concerned about the most. I hoped that he wouldn’t take advantage of my daughter’s feelings, and then one day grow tired of being a parent. It was something that I often wondered often when I contemplated telling him about Scarlet after reading the latest celebrity gossip about whichever new supermodel he was dating or the party that he had been seen at until 3 AM. He hadn’t acted like that with me, but his recent history seemed to speak for itself. I had to give him the benefit of the doubt, for Scarlet’s sake.

I found that I was just as anxious tonight as Scarlet was. This was my first step in trying to repair our relationship. If nothing else, I would find a way to be friends for Scarlet because it was the right thing to do, but there was a part of me that ached for Shane.

We arrived at his door, and it opened just as I was getting ready to knock. I had to admit that he looked entirely delectable. He wore a fitted gray sweater and a pair of jeans that clung to his trim hips. It made me remember that I had barely taken the time to brush my hair and straighten my clothes before we had to run out the door. I smelled something delicious as I lifted my nose into the air. I held up the bags of Chinese take-out. “I brought dinner.”

He gave Scarlet a broad smile. “And I baked dessert. Do you like apple pie?”

“Yes!” she exclaimed.

“Come on in,” he said to us. He was infinitely more reserved with me then he was with Scarlet. I followed behind them as he gave her a grand tour of the condo that ended with him opening the door to a room I hadn’t seen before. There was only a single bed and a dresser in it, but he told her that this was going to be her room, and she could decorate it however she wanted.

Scarlet squealed and ran over to jump on the bed. That was something I wouldn’t have let her do at home, but I didn’t correct her. This gesture made me put away some of my fears. He wouldn’t give her a room at his condo if he wasn’t planning on spending some quality time with her.
 

It struck me then that my relationship with him wasn’t important—it was all about Scarlet. That’s the one thing I could focus on now.

I went into the kitchen and started to unpack the different boxes inside the bags. I wanted to let Shane and Scarlet talk all about how she was going to design her new room without interfering.

“Where is Mommy going to sleep?” I heard Scarlet asked as they came back into the room.

My hands stilled as I took out the plates, and I looked at Shane out of the corner of my eye cautiously wondering what he was going to say. He gave me a long look. I could see that there was still anger there, but there was something else as well.
 

“Mommy can sleep wherever she wants to sleep. But I think she may want to sleep at her apartment,” he finally said.

I smiled brightly at Scarlet. “It’ll be a sleepover like when you sleep at your friends’ houses. We will make sure that you have a bag with everything that you need in it for those times when you do stay over here.”

“Can I stay over tonight?” she asked innocently.

There was a long look that passed between me and Shane again. I could tell that he wasn’t planning to be the one to talk first. This was what he wanted after all. More time with Scarlet.

“Your daddy has a big game tomorrow, and he has to get up early,” I said slowly.

“Not that early,” he said. Scarlet looked at me again in confusion. It was all coming down to me. I could tell that I was going to hate being ganged up on by these two; the conspiring against me had started far sooner than I expected.

“How about you go ahead and look out that telescope in the corner at the city skyline? Your daddy and I will talk about it okay?” I said.

She nodded happily and made her way across the room.

“I’m not comfortable with her staying here by herself,” I said quietly as I started to spoon the food out onto the plates.

“If she wants to stay, then I’m fine with letting her stay,” Shane said.

“Well, if she’s staying, I’m staying too,” I said with a note of finality in my voice. There. He was going to have to start accepting that for the time being Scarlet and I were a package deal. He may not want to be around me, but he was going to have to deal with it.

“Fine,” he said.

I looked up at him in surprise. “Fine?”

He indicated around the room. “This place is big enough for the three of us. That’s fine.”

Over dinner, I told Scarlet that we could stay. She was thrilled. Shane had thoughtfully picked out a few movies that we could watch after dinner. We settled in front of the TV with the amazing apple pie that he had made from scratch. I had to admit that a man who could bake was something that was very sexy.
 

He let Scarlet pick the movie, and then he put it on. Scarlet was between us on the couch, but I was still acutely aware of Shane just being a few feet away. The feeling of being there together with our daughter between us was surreal. It felt for a few hours in the darkness like we were a real family.

When the movie was over, Shane surprised us once again. He went to the hall closet and pulled out a small suitcase. He showed it to Scarlet as he opened it up for her. Inside there was a pair of pajamas and a couple of outfits that appeared to be just her size. There was even a toothbrush inside. “I had my assistant pick up a few things in case you might want to stay,” he told her with a grin.

Scarlet grabbed the suitcase out of his hand and gave him a hug. Then she beelined for the bathroom to try on her new pajamas. He leaned against the doorway of the hallway and stared at me. He must have seen the expression of surprise still on my face because he gave a shrug. “I was Boy Scout after all. Always be prepared and all that.”

The way he stood there all casual and as if he didn’t have a care in the world made me want to just grab him and kiss him. But of course, I couldn’t do that. I was so aware of him. Did he feel the same way about me? It had seemed when we had first encountered each other, he couldn’t keep his hands off of me. Now, though, everything had changed