Fair Play Read Free

you?”
    “Huh?” She’s not old enough to know what a gig is, I guess.
    “Never mind, how old are you, Scarlet?”
    “Four, my birthday was yesterday,” she says with pride.
    “Wow, four, you’re almost a woman,”
    I smile, and she giggles, and we continue to look at my pictures until I notice she is unusually still, and even more unusually quiet. When I look down, she’s sound asleep with her arms wrapped around mine. Her head is leaning against the seat, and her perfect little mouth is hanging open.
    I raise my free hand over my head, and Nick pops over the seat right away.
    “Oh my God, she’s asleep.” He leans over to cross his arms on the top of our seats and rests his forehead on them with a sigh.
    “That bad of a day, huh?”
    He lifts his head and looks me straight in the eyes. “You have no idea.”
    “She doesn’t seem that bad,” I say and cup her rosy cheek with my hand.
    “She’s not. I love her like a madman, but her nanny broke her foot and we’ve been on our own for a week. I don’t know how she does it all the time.”
    I want to ask where Scarlet’s mother is and why she’s not taking care of her, but it’s not my business, so I nod sympathetically.
    “Well, at least you’re almost home, she can wind down after your vacation in her own surroundings, right?”
    He lifts his head and reaches down to gently brush a curl off of her cheek.
    “No, I wish it were that easy for her. We weren’t on vacation, we were traveling for work. I’ve been dragging her all over the country for a week straight, poor thing.”
    “Oh yeah? What do you do?”
    “I play football.”
    “Professionally?”
    “Yep, I’m the quarterback for the South Carolina Hawks.”
    “You’re the Nicolas Wood? Like as in NFA Nico Wood?”
    He chuckles, and a blush spreads over his cheeks. This crazy handsome, sexy athlete just blushed when I recognized his name.
    “The one and only.”
    “Wow, a famous football-playing daddy, that’s awesome.”
    “It’ll feel awesome when I get her home. Thankfully we don’t have to go anywhere for a few weeks.”
    “Excuse me, sir, I need to have you choose a seat so people can move up and down the aisle please,” says a new flight attendant. This one is full of professionalism and unaffected by Nick’s hypnotizing blue eyes.
    “Sure, sorry. I guess I have been standing around for a while. Do you want me to take her?” he asks me, nodding at Scarlet.
    “No, she’s good. She’s keeping me warm. I’ll tell you when she wakes up.”
    “Oh, you won’t have to tell me, she makes herself known,” he says and disappears behind me to take his seat.
    I look down at the little stranger curled up so close to me and wonder about her mother. I don’t have much of a filter when it comes to asking people personal questions, but I lost my mother when I was little, so that’s a subject I won’t touch.
    The screen of my tablet is dark, and my eyes are getting heavy. The tiny heater next to me is also making me sleepy. I recline my seat a couple of inches and close my eyes. I know he can see me through the crack in the seats. I feel his eyes on me, and that makes it harder to relax. I’m going to look. No, that will make it look like I reclined just to stare at him. Is that why I reclined the seat? No, I’m tired, it’s been a long day, and I want to rest my eyes.
    Oh hell, who am I kidding? I roll my head toward the slit in the seats and just as I thought, he’s watching me. He’s sitting there with his elbow on the armrest and his chin resting on his hand, gazing at me. I smile, and one corner of his mouth lifts in a smoldering smirk.
    I need my camera. That is the sexiest look anyone has ever given me, and I want to capture it and keep it forever, but I can’t. This little napper on my arm is keeping me from reaching my bag with my camera in it.
    Maybe I’ll be lucky enough to snap it when I do their family photo shoot. Crap, I never looked for a ring. I glance