Touchdown - Leslie North Page 0,8

him to a spring—no, it was just the fact that Saturdays were an extra-light training day before game Sundays, and he had plenty of reserves to burn off.

That was all.

He pulled open the door to find the curvaceous Jill waiting for him on his porch, glittering smile and all. She was dressed like she’d just come from the gym, in skintight leggings and a flowy tank top that allowed a neon pink sports bra to peek out.

“Welcome back,” he said, stepping aside so she could come in. Her black sneaker scuffed on his shiny floor. “You just get done at the gym?”

“Why, do I stink?” she teased, swatting at his arm. “Yeah, I stopped after some meetings to take a cardio class. Trying to start some new habits.”

“You should come work out with me,” he said, unable to prevent the suggestive smile he sent her way. Dammit, flirtation was second nature to him. And she was too beautiful to resist.

“I couldn’t hang at NFL level,” she said, laughing as she followed him through the house and toward the living room. “No, thank you. I’d die on the first day.”

“Aw, come on. I’d go easy on you.” They stepped into the living room, and as soon as they noticed Jill, the triplets came scampering her way. Soon she was hugging the three of them, passing out kisses and greetings like they were candy.

“I missed you little lovelies,” she cooed. The kids immediately herded her over to their play area, where she was roped into stacking blocks with them. Maxwell eased onto the couch at a distance, wanting to give Jill her own space with the kids. He grabbed for the remote control and started flipping through channels, intent on finding something more pleasant than Peppa Pig for background noise.

“Peppa!” demanded Kevin.

Maxwell sighed. “Fine.” He flipped it back to the channel it had been on previously. Satisfied, Kevin refocused on playing with the blocks. Maxwell shook his head. “Doesn’t make sense. You weren’t even watching it, Kev.”

Jill snorted, flanked by three columns of multicolored blocks. “That apparently doesn’t matter.”

“And that’s only one of the quirks of these kids,” Maxwell said, leaning back into the couch. “Man, I’d give anything to be able to have one final Q&A with Carmen and Wayne.”

Jill nodded sadly. “Me too.”

“I don’t know how they did it.” There was a strange volcano of emotion bubbling inside him right now, one that he didn’t entirely know how to corral. Nor did he want to. “Most days it feels like I could never be enough for these three.”

Jill’s big eyes shimmered, and he wondered for a moment if she might cry.

“All we can do is try our best,” she finally said. “And I think that will be enough.”

Jill played with the triplets for a while as Maxwell watched and occasionally joined in. He enjoyed watching her interact with them, even picked up a few tips along the way as she effortlessly maneuvered around meltdowns and sharing battles, and injected preschool lessons into even the simplest moments.

After she’d been there nearly an hour, Maxwell finally broke free of the spell she had him under. “Shit, Jill. Are you hungry? Thirsty? You want anything?”

She laughed, waving him off. “No, no. I ate dinner before I came. What did y’all eat tonight?”

“Grilled chicken, mac and cheese, and approximately one bite of sweet potato,” he said with a smirk. “I’m speaking for the triplets, of course. I always eat all my sweet potatoes.”

“As a good Southern boy should,” Jill said with a wink. He found it hard to look away from her after that. Something about her was so effortlessly sensual, brimming with promise and sexiness. And really, it was a little unfair: she was easily the first and maybe only woman to catch his eye over the past couple of months, and of course she would come wrapped up in an awkward situation like this.

No matter how much he wanted to tug that tank top off and see what silken delights awaited him there…he shouldn’t. And more importantly, he wouldn’t.

He cleared his throat, yanking his gaze to safer territory: the soft rug of the play area. “So how did your work meeting go last night?”

“Pretty good,” she said, sending him a hopeful look. “I met with my partners. Originally, I was going to open up the practice with only one other dentist, but we’re looking at bringing on a third—that’s who we grilled yesterday. Sorry, interviewed,” she corrected with a laugh.

“So you’ll be

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