Losing an Edge (Portland Storm Book 13) (7 page)

“CAN WE FEED
him to the agilators, too?” Connor asked, looking up at Anthony with a toddler version of an evil grin.

“No, we can’t.” I had a hard time not laughing at this kid. I didn’t know how either Cam or Sara could ever keep a straight face with him. “We’re not feeding anyone to the alligators.”

“Mommy said we could.”

“Are there going to be alligators at the park?” Anthony asked, taking Connor’s coat from me and holding it out to help the little boy into it. “I’m
scared
of alligators.” He winked at me.

“You’re scared?” Connor cackled while I busied myself with grabbing the diaper bag and lunch box filled with at least four times more snacks than we could possibly need for a two-hour trip to play.

Sara rolled her eyes and finished buttoning up Cassidy’s coat. “Come on. I don’t know about alligators…”

“They’re gonna eat him,” Connor said gleefully. “And I’m gonna watch.”

Somehow, the three of us adults managed to load the two kids into Sara’s SUV and climb in ourselves, along with all our mounds of
stuff
, and soon enough were on our way to the indoor park. No sooner had we arrived than Connor seemingly forgot all about alligators due to the massive ball pit waiting for him. I managed to pry his coat free before he sprinted away and dove in without waiting to see how deep it was.

Connor sunk in up to his head, but he had the biggest grin on his face. I doubted he would care if he went completely under. At least the pit was full of balls and not water.

Sara busied herself with taking Cassidy’s coat off and finding a play area more appropriate for someone of her size, leaving me and Anthony to find a locker in the coat room to store all our stuff.

“He seems like quite a handful,” Anthony said, taking the diaper bag and snacks from me.

I raised a brow and chuckled. “You haven’t seen anything yet. He seems positively well behaved so far today.”

Anthony snort-laughed. “Should make for an interesting afternoon.”

Which would suit me nicely. The more interesting this afternoon became, the less time I’d have to worry about my date with Levi Babcock tonight.

With everything safely stowed for the time being, we headed back out to the main play area. Sara and Cassidy had found some blocks and another mother and baby, leaving Connor to the two of us. The holy terror himself was busy flinging his body through the balls toward some bigger kids, using his arms to make it seem like he was a gator trying to chomp them. I let out an internal sigh and tried to mentally prepare myself to go haul him off before he went overboard and hurt another child. I’d barely resigned myself to what I needed to do before Anthony kicked off his shoes and jumped into the fray himself.

Connor gator-chomped Anthony’s arm and giggled.

Anthony let out a fake howl of pain. “You got me!”

“The agilators got you.”

“I’m dying! Help. Help me, Cadence.” He held out his arms, which allowed Connor to jump on his midsection and bury him in the ball pit until I could only see his feet.

“CayCay can’t save you from the agilators.”

In no time, half the other kids in the place had joined Connor in climbing all over Anthony, but he only laughed and egged them on. It only took him minutes to become the prime attraction of the day, a human jungle gym for their amusement. He laughed and joked with them, giving in to any punishment Connor and his newfound friends saw fit to give him.

I found a nearby spot on a bench where I could be sure Connor didn’t cause any true harm. My cell phone buzzed in my pocket only a moment after I took my seat. I dug it out and swiped the screen to find a text message from Sara.

I like Anthony, too. Just in case you don’t trust yourself in determining whether you should like him. Don’t know him as well as 501, but there’s no need to feed him to the agilators.

I laughed out loud, which caught Anthony’s attention. He flashed a grin in my direction—a distraction that lasted barely long enough for Connor and the other kids to pile on top of him again—and I did my best to sit back and enjoy the day without worrying about any of the men who were at the forefront of my mind.

AT TEN TILL
eight, I parked behind Jonny’s pickup in the driveway, my knuckles practically white as I gripped my steering wheel. There was no fucking good reason for me to be this nervous. Yeah, Cadence was Jonny’s sister, but despite appearances, he was a reasonable guy. Besides, he’d married his coach’s daughter. And my brother had married the daughter of one of the other coaches. The guy who used to be the captain of the Storm before Jamie had married a teammate’s kid sister. It wasn’t like any of this was unheard of or out of the ordinary, and especially not around this team.

But no matter what kind of pep talk I tried to give myself, I was anxious as all hell. And I didn’t like it.

Dating wasn’t exactly a hardship for me. Women tended to throw themselves at me, especially now that Jamie was well and truly taken. It tended to go with the territory when you had the trademark Babcock dimples and propensity for blushing. I’d even gone in for a spray tan a couple of times to see if darker skin would cut down on the blushing, but it didn’t seem to matter. Blushing ran in the family. Plus, all the guys felt the need to rib me for it, which only made me blush worse.

Sitting in my car wasn’t going to do me any good, so I cut off the engine and headed for the porch. I hadn’t even gotten my finger on the doorbell when the door flung open, and a wet, naked Connor Johnson grinned up at me. “You’re a motherfucker. Mommy’s gonna feed you to the agilators.”

Buster followed after him, barking at me.

“How about you don’t jump on my balls first?”

“I wanna go back and jump in the balls again,” he said, grabbing my hand and taking off down the steps toward my car. “Let’s go.”

“Whoa, buddy.” I ushered him back inside so I could shut the door and keep the cold out. “I don’t know anything about that…”

Sara came down the stairs with Cassidy wrapped up in a hooded bunny towel. “Hey,” she said when she saw me. “I didn’t hear the bell.”

“I didn’t ring it. Connor let me in before I could.”

She scowled at her son. “What did we say about answering the door?”

“Only Mommy and Daddy and CayCay can.” That kid didn’t look the least bit contrite.

“Mm hmm. And what were you supposed to do before leaving the bathroom?”

“Dry off and put on my Batman underwears.” He looked up at me, like he was searching for an accomplice. Then he grinned. “501 said balls.”

“So did you, buddy,” Sara said, trying hard not to laugh.

“Can I go to the ball place with him?”

“Maybe some other day.” Sara gave him a stern look. “Go. Dry. Put on Batman.”

The naked boy streaked up the stairs with the dog hot on his heels. When he got to the top, he flung himself at Cadence, who was making her way down, apparently using her clothes as a towel to dry himself off.

“Connor Allan Johnson,” Sara warned, shaking her head in my direction.

“The ball place?” I asked.

Cadence flashed apologetic eyes in my direction as she headed down the stairs. “We took them to an indoor park today. He spent hours pretending he was an alligator eating Anthony in the ball pit. Are we doing anything outside? I’ll need to go change into something dry if we are.” She had on a gold sweater dress that hugged her curves and ended an inch or two above the knee, and some sort of strappy heels that made her legs look long and sleek.

“Not tonight,” I assured her. “Indoor only. So as long as you think you’ll dry off soon… I don’t mind waiting if you want to change, though.” Although, that would leave me subject to whatever tortures Jonny might have in mind if he came in from wherever he was hiding.

Not only that, but I hoped she’d stay in this dress. The material didn’t leave much to the imagination, but that didn’t stop my imagination from running overtime.

“Nah. I’m fine. Let’s leave before Connor does something else to sabotage me.” She took her coat and purse out of the closet and allowed me to help her into it.

“We’ll leave the light on,” Sara called as we headed out the door.

Cadence nodded and waved.

Once we were in the car and on our way to the Moda Center, she turned to me. “Cam hasn’t been giving you a hard time, has he? I didn’t mean for it to go down like that yesterday. In front of him and all.”

I shrugged. He wasn’t being any worse than I’d expect. “Why did you lie to him?”

She raised a brow.

“You didn’t agree to go out with me when I asked you. I would have remembered. Trust me.”

“Maybe my brother doesn’t need to know everything.”

“Maybe not. But maybe, if I’m going to be part of your lies, I should know what’s going on.”

“Maybe you should,” she said. “Maybe you shouldn’t.”

We were at a red light, so I faced her for a moment. Her face was still lit up with the same gorgeous smile she usually bore, but it didn’t reach all the way to her eyes again, taking me back to the moment she’d won the gold medal and should have been on top of the world. Seeing her like that crushed a bit of my heart. I didn’t understand it. I didn’t understand her.

But damn if I didn’t want to know her well enough to figure out everything about her.

“You’re a web of secrets, Cadence.”

She ducked her head down and stared at her lap. “Only a few.”

“A few big ones.”

“Could be.”

The light turned green. Soon, we were in the parking garage.

“There’s no hockey game tonight, is there?” she asked.

I parked and flipped down my sun visor, grabbing the two tickets I’d stashed there. I handed them to her.

“The End of All Things?” There was a hint of awe in her tone.

“Katie hooked me up.” I winked. “There are perks to having a famous sister-in-law.”

I reached for her hand as we headed into the arena, not sure if she’d let me touch her or not. She didn’t cringe or flinch away, so I wrapped her hand in mine and held on as we made our way through the crowd.

There was a war going on in my head, though.

A part of me was crowing like a rooster, because Cadence Johnson was on an actual date with me. She was even more famous than my famous sister-in-law, and now that she’d agreed to give me a chance, I had the opportunity to turn our relationship into something more. That was the asshole part of me, and right now his voice was becoming seriously loud in my head.

Another part of me simply wanted to figure out what secrets she was keeping…and find a way to make that smile reach her eyes. I didn’t know what to call that part of me. His voice was quiet but persistent.

I had no earthly idea which side would win.

“
CAM’S NOT GOING
to bed until I get back,” Cadence said. “You know that, right? It’s one of those overprotective big brother things. I don’t think he’ll ever outgrow that. Even once all his little sisters are married off to men he approves of, he won’t stop…he’ll end up shifting all the focus to Cassidy.”

She was smiling. A real smile, even. One that reached all the way to her eyes. There was something magic about her eyes. The hazel in them seemed to change color with her mood. When she was wary, they were almost brown, dark and intense like a cup of rich coffee. When she was focused on something and thinking hard, they turned to a light golden color. But now, when she was relaxed and enjoying herself, they were morphing into something soft and green. So far, I’d seen each of those colors tonight, only sparking my curiosity to learn how many other hues might be found in them at different times.