10. Jesse

JESSE

Maddie's breathscame out in pants, wisps of hair falling from her ponytail and tickling her reddened cheeks. The other kids had trickled off the field after the game with their parents, most of them bored toward the end and ready to go, but we had trouble keeping Maddie in her seat.

"If I went back in at the end, I could have made a goal. I know it," she said, still gasping between sips of water.

"Making a goal isn't everything," Emily said, shaking her head as she settled on the bench next to Maddie. "Learning how to move the ball where you need it to go is what is important. You did great for your first game, so don't focus on goals yet."

"Here," I said, twisting open another bottle of water as I squatted in front of her. "Drink more and catch your breath like Em—Coach Emily—just said."

The first game seemed to have gone by before I could even blink. I handed out bags of snacks to the kids running on and off the field, and every time Emily would take Maddie out, she'd beg to go back in. Most of the players clustered around the ball, fighting to get control until they'd end up kicking in a circle.

Maddie gulped the bottle as I peered up at Emily. I wasn't sure if it was the memories of watching her play in high school or how fucking gorgeous she looked today, but the fight to keep my eyes off her the entire game had been as exhausting as it was pointless.

The rage simmering in my veins at the referee for eye-fucking Emily every time he'd glanced her way didn't help.

But what could I do? March over there and tell him to stop leering at her because she was my…nothing.

Emily was my friend, and I'd made it all too clear to her how I barely had time for even that. I'd insisted to her and everyone else that Maddie was the only woman I had room for in my life, and if that left Emily open for douches like this guy to hit on her, the only one I could be furious with was myself.

"I didn't think being on the sidelines would be this labor-intensive," I joked when Emily's gaze slid to mine.

"Honestly," she sighed, "neither did I. Their excitement is good. I guess I just need to teach them all to focus a little." She exhaled a long breath. "I think I got a little cocky. I thought I'd be better at this."

"That's not true." I shook my head. "You were great."

She lifted a shoulder. "I didn't play, but yelling every ten minutes to stop crowding around the ball because they wouldn't listen to me felt like a full-body workout by the end."

"Kids this age have a hard time listening, period, never mind when they're excited. I have short but very current experience with that." I motioned to Maddie, still chugging her water. "I think you did great, Legs. So stop worrying about it."

"Yeah!" Maddie agreed. "You're awesome." She scrunched up her nose and turned to me. "Wait, why did you call her Legs?"

"Because when she was a soccer superstar in high school—" I bent my head to whisper, my eyes on Emily "—she ran really fast."

I'd called her Legs because hers were long, lean, and gorgeous, and when I hadn't been telling her that, my mouth and hands had been showing my appreciation until she shivered in my arms.

Emily shook her head at me and swiped her hand along the back of her neck. I swore I spotted a blush staining her cheeks, and the thought kicked up my pulse. Knowing she may have been a little jealous by the attention I was getting on the sidelines gave me a thrill I had no right to have if I didn't intend to do anything about it.

Too bad intending to was a hell of a lot different from wanting to.

"Thank you both for that vote of confidence. I'll try to take your word for it. I think it was a great first game, but I'll be happy to sit on my butt all day tomorrow and edit."

I nodded, now thinking of Emily's ass in those tight shorts and those fucking legs as she'd run back and forth along the field today.

I hadn't heard much of what she'd said during the game either.

"Good game. Wow, you were working pretty hard there," Alex, the referee or whatever the fuck he was, told my niece as he took a seat next to Emily. He was pandering to a kid for an excuse to talk to her coach. But I'd already shown too many cards to Emily today about how I was trying not to feel about her. I couldn't point out this guy's all too obvious intentions.

"She was," Emily said, not looking back at Alex as she smiled at Maddie. "She reminds me a lot of me when I was her age. Although I always took my snack breaks." She tapped her toe against Maddie's sneaker.

"I bet," Alex said with that same slimy gleam in his eye before standing. "I told Penny I'd do this again if she needed the help. Although a game that counts is probably more pressure."

He stood, his eyes still on Emily. It took the restraint of every cell in my body not to pop off the bench and tell him to back off, but this wasn't the time or place—and if we were only friends, it never would be.

"Hope to see you again if I do."

"We'll be here," I said. "Have a good day."

"Have a good day," he said, moving his gaze back and forth between Emily and me as he shifted to leave.

"What?" I asked when I caught Emily staring. "I was being polite."

"So, I was the only one who thought we'll be here sounded like a threat?" Emily pursed her lips at me.

"Are you okay, Uncle Jesse?" Maddie asked before I could answer Emily, her eyes wide as she examined my face.

"Yeah, Mad. Why do you ask?"

"Because you made that rumbly noise my stomach sometimes does when I get really hungry."

Emily laughed but tapped her chest, pretending to clear her throat.

"That means your uncle should have eaten a snack while he was handing them out today." She clicked her tongue against her teeth and shook her head.

"Yes, even from where I was sitting, he looked a little cranky."

I shut my eyes at my mother's voice behind me.

"I'm not cranky."

She patted my shoulder without glancing back at me and reached for Maddie.

"What a game!"

Maddie popped off the bench and hugged my mother's waist.

"Did you see me, Grams? I almost kicked a goal twice!"

"I did. The ribbon was a great idea since I could spot you the whole time."

Mom tugged on the frayed edge of the ribbon before coming up to Emily.

"I made a nice big lasagna for tonight, and we would love it if you stopped by to eat it with us, Emily."

Maddie sucked in a gasp and folded her hands under her chin.

"Please come! Grams makes the best lasagna."

"I remember," Emily said, flashing my mother a warm smile. "I don't want to impose?—"

"When did you ever impose? I used to make a big tray of lasagna whenever Coach Emily had a big game," my mother told Maddie while keeping her gaze on Emily. "Maybe we can restart the tradition this season."

Restarting anything where Emily was concerned was probably a bad idea, but I couldn't stop my mother any more than I could stop myself.

"Please," Maddie pleaded as she tugged on Emily's hand.

"We'd love it if you'd have dinner with us. Please," I said, my voice dipping to a lower and needier octave than my niece's. I couldn't stop wanting her, but I needed her to be at a distance for a lot of reasons.

The adoration my niece had for Emily was a big one. My own longing for Emily seemed like it came from my bones, deepening each day and costing me more sleep every night.

It would be so easy to get lost in her again, and I was already halfway there, despite my weak attempts to hold myself back.

"Okay, then. I'll bring dessert."

"Yes," my niece said, pumping her fist in the air before roping her arms around Emily's neck.

"I'm excited too," Emily said, sputtering out a cough after my niece appeared to almost choke her. "I better get home and change out of coach clothes. See you all later." She lifted her head, her smile shrinking a bit when her gaze met mine.

I dropped my eyes to the ground, the only way to keep from tracking her as she left the field.

"Did you really make that lasagna for everyone tonight or just one person?" I asked my mother when I lifted my head.

"I put it together this morning for later. I knew Maddie would be hungry and maybe we'd have…guests." She shrugged, hoisting the long strap for the portable chair over her shoulder.

"You don't usually plan that far ahead for guests." I slipped the chair strap off my mother's arm and put it over my shoulder.

"Sometimes you have to in order to get things moving. If this family knows anything," she said, her eyes narrowed to slits at me, "it's that time is limited."

"I know that. But I can't afford to?—"

"Waste it? Along with any other chances and opportunities the good Lord is kind enough to give you? Yes, now you see my point." She patted my cheek, her honey-colored eyes shining as she scanned my face.

"Come on, sweetheart." She held out a hand for Maddie. "You have clothes in your room at our house. You can get showered and changed before Emily—I mean before dinner."

I let my head fall back, my eyes drifting up to the blue sky and puffy clouds my sister used to insist were marshmallows when she was Maddie's age.

"Stop laughing," I whispered as I followed my mother to my truck.