Happily Ever All-Star: A Secret Baby Romance - Sosie Frost Page 0,230

didn’t bother telling Cole what else I’d found in my box. Dad had stashed his own framed pictures of Rose in with mine. He blamed everything on my baby, every reason my life went wrong.

And at the bottom of his note? A plea.

Please marry Jasper so I won’t worry about what happens to you once I’m gone.

It didn’t hurt any less to know that Dad was looking for a reason to fire me, to force me into a marriage I didn’t want. But I wasn’t giving up. Not yet. Not ever.

“I had picked out a dress to wear to dinner with you,” I said. “Used it as packing material for my dishes instead.”

Cole loomed in the doorway, but he hadn’t taken a step inside the apartment. Probably because he didn’t fit. He looked down at me with a scowl.

“Piper, I didn’t tell him to fire you. I’m sorry it happened.”

I bumped Rose higher on my hip. “Fantastic. And since I can feed my child with apologies, we’ll be fine.”

“You didn’t answer your phone.”

I hadn’t wanted to talk to Cole, but I also didn’t want him to know that I gave him a second thought.

“I’ve been a little busy.”

He glanced over the apartment…all of the apartment. So tiny it might have shamed me if I had any capacity for shame left.

“I wanted to...help,” he said.

“Cole Hawthorne, my knight-in-shining-armor.” I laughed. “Can you blame a girl for not being interested in your help?”

He stepped into my apartment despite me not inviting him in.

So it’d be war then.

I kicked open a box and laid a blanket inside. Rose squealed as I set her in the box. I let her play with Mr. Bumpybottom while I got rid of Cole.

He looked over the disaster of an apartment and kicked a roll of bubble wrap. “You’re packing?”

“Just lost my job.” I stole the duct tape from Rose before she tried to eat it. “I can’t afford it here.”

“Where will you go?”

An excellent question. “I have no idea, but at least I have time to look.”

Cole dodged a box of dishes and steadied a teetering stack of duffel bags filled with Rose’s clothes. He surveyed my home—most of which would fit in his foyer. If he thought he’d find a hot tub out back, he was sorely mistaken.

“You actually live here?”

He was less of an asshole at his own house. “Yes.”

“It’s a little claustrophobic…” He crossed his arms, frowned, then uncrossed them. “I feel like I’m going to break things.”

“Then get out.”

He stepped away, flinching as Rose bumbled up from the box, blanket on her head and not a care in the world.

“I wanted to talk.” He shrugged. “About…everything.”

And I wanted to finish packing so I could move before I depleted my meager savings. “I think we’ve said enough.”

“It looks like you’ve been stuck packing for a while. Do you want something to eat?”

Was he kidding or just the world’s largest asshole? “Are you asking me out?”

“You gotta eat.”

“Not with you.”

“You’ll want to talk to me.”

“Wanna bet?”

He shrugged. “I’m your biggest client. You need to court me a little.”

“I don’t have any clients. I was fired.”

“You do now,” he said. “I want you back.”

“You want me?” I kicked a box out of my path. “To do what?”

“To be my agent. I fired Maddy.”

Oh, this poor bastard had hit his head one too many times on the field. “You’re delusional. I’m not an agent. I don’t know anything about football or how to best represent a player like you.”

Cole expected my resistance. “I think you could learn for a million dollars.”

I quieted. He smirked.

“Count them zeroes, beautiful. If you’re my agent, you get the commission. With that kind of money, you and Rose could buy the whole damn apartment complex.”

And a lot more.

Private school. Good clothes, better food, a great nanny. Rose would never want for anything.

I didn’t answer him. Cole didn’t like my silence. He ran a hand through his hair, loose and wild like how he wore it on the field.

“I haven’t told anyone else why I’m refusing the trade,” he said. “I don’t think they’d understand, and I doubt even more that they’d care. You’re the only one who seems to give a fuck. Who better to represent me than the only person I trust with the truth?”

Oh, damn him.

Cole stared at me. His eyes deepened, a royal and rich blue that shouldn’t have charmed me more than the prospect of a million dollars. This wasn’t a man who trusted anyone with anything. Not