phone. “I better be going. I have to take Mom and Joe to bingo tonight.”
“I’ll walk you out.” I turn to Tiger. “Are you done for the day, or do you still have work to do?”
“I have some paperwork that’ll take me a while.” She walks with us to the back door. “I’ll be in the pool house if you need me.” Her lips pucker like she’s trying to hide the way her lips curve up at the corners.
Without even realizing it, I lean into her. “I do have a couple of questions.”
“You know where to find me.”
We’re in our own little bubble, and I’ve completely forgotten my mom is standing next to me until she clears her throat.
“Oh, um …” Tiger rubs her finger under her nose and looks anywhere but at my mom or me. “It was good to see you, Gracie.”
“You too, dear.”
Then the woman of my dreams scampers away like a scared bunny.
“You two seem pretty chummy.” Mom pats my chest then begins walking toward her car.
I follow like a good son, even though all I want to do is run after Tiger. “We’re a little more than chummy.”
A smile as big as Dallas splits my mom’s face. “That’s what I’d heard, but I thought it was just Ryder’s rumor mill. It makes me very happy to know it’s true.”
The tips of my fingers slip into my back pockets. “Me too. Now if I can just get this shoulder to cooperate, my life will be pretty damn perfect.”
A look that I can’t quite interpret dims her sunny appearance. “Baby, your life is pretty perfect right this minute.”
“How can you say that? I’ve got a bum shoulder, McKay is playing like a veteran, and I could lose the one thing that …” I don’t finish. She knows as well as I do what football has given us.
She places her hand over my heart. “One day I hope you see that you are so much more than football, Cash. You have so much to offer, and you don’t have to put on a pair of shoulder pads and punish your body week after week to be able to give those things to the world.”
I place my hand over hers. I know she means well, but she’s wrong. I know my worth and where it comes from. “I hear you, Mom.”
That thread of sadness laces through her features again. “I know you hear me, son. I want you to believe me.”
I bend and kiss her cheek. “Love you, Mom. Thanks for coming today.”
“It’s a beautiful house. I hope one day you fill it with lots and lots of grandchildren for me to spoil.”
My hand rises in a wave as she drives away, then falls to the warm place under my ribs. Mom’s been the one constant in my life, in the shitty times and the good times. I’m lucky to have this fierce woman in my life. We may butt heads sometimes, but we’re always, always each other’s champions.
I make my way to the other fierce woman in my life. The sound of hammers and a drill saw, along with a country music song, stream from the open windows of the big house as the crew finishes up their day. They’ve done a hell of a job. The house is going to be gorgeous when it’s done.
Indecision stops me when I get to the front door of the pool house. Do I knock or go in? I decide to play it safe and knock. From the other side of the door, Tiger yells, “Come in.”
The smell of vanilla and oranges hits me as soon as I open the door. I glance around the living room, but Tiger’s nowhere to be found. “Marco!”
“Polo!” she yells from the bedroom.
I laugh and make my way to where she is. “You said you needed to show me something …” Whatever I was going to say next flies from my brain when I turn the corner and see her standing in the middle of the room in a red bra and matching satin panties. Her hair is piled on top of her head with loose tendrils falling to frame her features, and her tan legs go on for days and days.
“Hi.”
She’s a goddess, but the thing that gets to me the most is the wash of uncertainty I see move over her face before she hides it. How can she think for a second that I wouldn’t be struck dumb by her in this