Maxwell jogged toward them from the other side of the cookout area, where he’d been visiting with some fans. His “fun jersey,” as he’d called it, stretched across his shoulders, the team logo emblazoned across his chest. Between the bulge of his biceps and the muscly terrain of his calves, Jill was entranced. Which was becoming more and more common these days.
“Hey, y’all. How’s it going?” Maxwell slipped his hand around Jill’s waist and pressed a quick kiss to her cheek. Jill couldn’t fight the silly grin that overtook her. She felt a bit like a teenager around Maxwell sometimes.
“We’re great,” Jill offered. “Just catching up and spying on you while you do your NFL-star duties.”
Maxwell laughed. “Come on, now. We all know Daisy’s man is the real star of the NFL.”
Daisy batted his words away. “Trust me, you’re all stars. Especially while I’m in charge of your conditioning.”
“I don’t think I’d survive fifteen minutes of a Daisy-led strength plan,” Tessa said.
“Oh, yes, you would,” Daisy said. “I even think you’d last half an hour.”
Everyone laughed at that, just as James shouted Maxwell’s name from across the party.
“That’s my cue, ladies. The boss man is reeling me in again.” Maxwell winked at Jill. “Don’t forget to eat something, okay?”
“I won’t,” Jill said, still fighting the silly grin as Maxwell jogged off. She watched him go, transfixed by the roundness of his ass under his black workout shorts. But she wasn’t the only one watching him. Another group of women nearby were similarly entranced by the wonderland that was Maxwell’s ass.
And she recognized one of those pretty blondes as a background fixture from the picture Maxwell had sent from his drunk night out.
Her stomach shrank to a nut and plummeted to her feet, anxiety swelling hot and swift inside her.
“Whatcha looking at?” Tessa asked, nudging Jill.
“Oh. Nothing.” Jill frowned, yanking her gaze back to Daisy and Tessa. “I just thought I recognized that woman over there.”
Daisy peered in the direction Jill was looking. “You know one of the cheerleaders?”
“No, no, I…” Jill tried to wave it off, but wasn’t sure exactly how to play this one. What were she and Maxwell anyway? Not knowing how he talked about her—as in title—made this a strange topic to wade into. And admitting a jealous streak when she had no claim to Maxwell? Even worse. “It’s gonna sound stupid.”
“Nothing sounds stupid when you’re dating and loving an NFL star,” Tessa said, looking sincerely into Jill’s eyes.
Jill opened her mouth to reply but stalled. This, right here, was the crux of the matter. “No, we’re not…I mean…”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Tessa was quick to say. “I just assumed you two were an item.”
“You’re very cute together,” Daisy added.
Jill smiled down at the ground, trying to collect her thoughts and figure out why this felt so weird on the inside. “We just haven’t talked about it yet,” she finally said. “What’s your take on it, ladies? Aren’t NFL players notoriously slow to settle down?”
Her heart raced as she analyzed every nuance in their reactions, straining to find some hidden truth about Maxwell, a secret kernel that could set her at ease or help her figure out the path forward. Because the truth was, she had no idea what was going on inside of her. She felt like she could fall in love with the man, at the same time she felt compelled to run far, far away from the situation.
Tessa laughed—nervously, maybe—her face unreadable. “Well, they do have that reputation, I guess.”
“Not all NFL players are created equal,” Daisy said, leveling her with a look. “There are some of the biggest skirt chasers you’ll ever meet. And others are as loyal as they come.”
Jill appreciated the attempt to make her feel better. But she had a suspicion, and she wanted to test it out. If she left some blanks, maybe the others would fill them in for her. “Right…but…I don’t know. Maxwell in particular has a reputation…”
Tessa shook her head. “That was in the past. Before the kids came along. Trust us.”
A sick knot twisted at her stomach, which only confirmed her deepest fears. Maxwell was the latter sort of player Daisy had referenced, and Tessa’s reaction only confirmed it. The kids had only come around recently—which meant he had a whole professional lifetime of entanglements, situations, and love affairs that Jill didn’t even know about. And if Jill had learned anything from her ex, that cheerleader was probably one of them.
“Well, Maxwell and I are just…testing things out,” Jill said, forcing an easygoing smile even though her heart raced. “Our focus is really on the kids anyway. We don’t want to make a wrong move and then everything gets messed up.”
“That’s totally understandable,” Tessa said. “I wanted to take it slow with Mark when I first told him about Angus. Mostly so that Angus could get to know his daddy, without extra stuff getting in the way.”
“Yeah.” Jill nodded, feeling slightly bolstered. “That extra stuff can really pull away from what the focus is.”
“Oh, ladies, I think they’re calling for me to head over there,” Daisy said, her gaze locked across the field where the players were. To Jill, she said, “Let me know if you ever need an ear. I’m always available. I’d love for all of us to hang out more, too.” She squeezed Jill’s arm and jogged off, joining the hulking, manly football players and other coaches over by the team flags and backdrop.
Tessa smiled over at Jill, shielding her eyes against the sun. “Maxwell’s a good guy. There are some questionable ones on the team, but he’s not one of them.”
Jill appreciated the words of encouragement, but the seeds of doubt had been sown. It didn’t matter—not when she had all those years of quiet agony with her ex to draw on, all the small heartbreaks and suspicions and jealousy to fester and swarm unchecked inside her.
They chatted about other, non-NFL things for a while, including trading toddler horror stories, and then the triplets were getting hungry. Jill herded them toward the grills, the nanny in tow, with Tessa and Angus as her side. She appreciated the camaraderie—hell, she needed a couple solid girlfriends in this strange sports-celebrity world. Daisy and Tessa could be those solid girls. But cultivating a friendship with them needed to happen despite whatever happened with Maxwell.
Because as the evening wore on and she observed Maxwell in his natural habitat—slinging his arm around female fans, cheesing extra hard around the pretty girls, giving those heartbreaker looks to anyone with a decent-sized chest—she realized there was a whole life that Maxwell had that she had no part in. No control over. And certainly no voice in.
Maxwell was a charmer, that much was certain. So if he’d had a reputation six months ago, then it still existed now. All she saw was Home Maxwell—the doting man playing the daddy role, who knew exactly how to kiss her so that she’d turn to putty. She had no idea what Real World Maxwell was like…and if this cookout was any indication, then she had a lot more she needed to learn about him. Her mind worked over the situation endlessly while she drifted through the cookout, interacting with the kids and soaking up the evening sun.