status.
Beckett slid her glass across the bar and she took a sip. “So we’re friends now?” An amused grin lifted the corners of her mouth. A mouth he wanted to kiss again.
“I think we qualify.” He lifted his bottle and touched her glass. “To friends.”
“To friends.”
Friends who’d made out on his kitchen counter and had the hottest sex of his life in his bed. He shifted in his seat, his cock stiff at the memories.
He stared at the bottle in his hand, letting the condensation cool him off.
“So what’s got you down today? I know Bri said Austin gave you a hard time.”
He nodded. “I also had a call with my manager. That brawl isn’t going to be forgotten any time soon. I hate disappointing my team, management, and my family,” he admitted.
“I’m sorry.” She wrinkled her nose as if in thought. “If it’s any consolation, everything passes in time.”
Same thing Beckett had said, and he appreciated her attempt at making him feel better. “But in the meantime, things suck. And Austin’s solution was to tell me to settle down and get married.” He let out a half laugh, still certain that was the worst idea he’d ever heard.
She grinned. “Not ready to give up the bachelor lifestyle?” Her half smile made him chuckle.
“Not in this lifetime.”
She swirled the ice in her glass with the straw. “You know, getting married would help me, too. Hannah’s mother has got a lot of strikes against her, but she’s still her biological parent, while my current reputation has me branded as a groupie. But if I could offer her a stable home with two parents, the judge would look at me a lot more favorably.” She took a sip of her drink, eyeing him over the top of the glass.
“Jesus. I am so sorry for causing you problems,” he said, well aware she wasn’t teasing nor was she hinting.
She shrugged. “It’s not your fault paparazzi follow you around. It just sucks for both of us.”
He didn’t sense any guile. Just an honest statement in response to his mention of marriage as a solution. But the wheels in his brain began to turn.
“No prospective male friend in your life willing to step up?” he asked, unsure if he wanted her to say yes or no.
“Nope.” Her shoulders dropped dejectedly.
He studied her delicate profile, and something twisted in his chest as he felt a shift inside him. Not that he wanted to get married. He didn’t. He valued his independence and the life he lived, but the fact was that he’d helped cause her dilemma with Hannah. True, her stepmother had been making custody threats before they’d been caught making out on his driveway, but she certainly looked a lot less parental thanks to him.
And there were even more reasons the action made sense. She stood to lose custody of her sister. He stood to lose, well, everything. Austin had made it clear his lifestyle and behavior jeopardized how he went out at the end of his career. And he’d worked too damned hard to get where he was in the majors to blow it over juvenile stupidity now.
Marriage to Macy was a radical, crazy idea. They didn’t know each other well, but they sure as hell were sexually compatible. More than any woman he’d been with before.
He took a sip of his beer. “If there were a willing man, would you consider getting married?” he asked, wondering where she stood on the matter.
She paused from drinking her soda and met his gaze. “I don’t know. I never had a reason to give it a thought.” She visibly swallowed hard. “Why are you asking?”
Was it hope he saw in her beautiful brown eyes?
A mixture of panic along with a sort of resolution rose up in his throat. “I don’t know why I’m asking, really. There’s a part of me that thinks we could solve each other’s problems and another part of me that wants to hurl at the very idea,” he said honestly.
She burst out laughing. “You’ve got to be kidding. Bad boy Jaxon Prescott is considering getting married?”
“I wasn’t.” Until he’d spoken to her. He curled his fingers tighter around the bottle.
“Yeah. Not in this lifetime is what I believe you just said.”
He glanced at her, really considering. They needed the same thing. A settled, family appearance. A way for her to keep her sister and for him to calm his team management so he didn’t end his career in humiliation. But such a