Page 12 of Scoring Chances
I pause, turning to face her. “Of course.”
“Your other nannies… Maddie said they quit after you kissed them…”
I deflate. “For one, it was just one nanny. Not nannies.” The others I had considered hiring were past conquests, but I didn't actually go through with hiring them. That was on Keelan's express suggestion.
“Oh… well, what exactly did she mean by that then?”
I sigh deeply. Wondering how I should say this.
“It means he slept with her, and she wanted more,” Keelan says, slowly walking down the front steps. “Isn’t that right, Hicks?”
I roll my eyes.
“Oh,” Cassidy says through a gulp.
“It’s a little more complicated than that,” I say, eyeing my teammate.
Keelan reaches me and throws an arm over my shoulders. “Basically, our boy Hicks here doesn’t do relationships. But every girl he meets seems to wish he did.”
I shrug out from under the weight of his arm. “Thanks for that, Lando. Always so insightful.” I glare at him, and he laughs.
“But lucky for you, Cassidy! He’s sworn off nannies,” he pats my shoulder twice. “So you’re safe from his charms.”
I watch her eyes widen when he says that, but she recovers quickly.
“Not because I don’t want to,” I say, so she understands it’s not that I don’t find her attractive.
She looks at me like I have something on my face.
“I just mean–”
She laughs nervously. “It’s ok. You don’t have to explain.”
“Right.” I glance at Keelan, who looks like he’s having way too much fun at my expense.
The toddler's cries break through the awkwardness, and Cassidy looks down at her phone, now doubling as a baby monitor. “Parker’s up. I should go–”
“Yeah! I’ll… go get Cole,” I hitch my thumb over my shoulder.
She nods and turns on her heel, disappearing behind the giant doors.
Keelan whistles, and I turn to see him leaning on the hood of my car. “Real smooth there, Daddy Hicks.”
“Shut up,” I mutter.
“No, seriously. I don’t think you actually know how not to flirt with a woman.”
“Oh, like you do?”
“Hey!” he puts his palms up. “I’m one year sober.”
“From?”
“Women. Sex. All of it.”
“Well, aren’t you just the poster child for sobriety, then?” I push past him to grab my stuff from the passenger’s seat in the car.
“It’s kind of nice, actually. No pressure. Just enjoying life.”