Curvy Fake Wife for the Player

8. Sasha

Chapter 8

Sasha

W ith Dixie asleep in her new crib, I decided to take advantage of the peace and quiet, using the time to put away the three big baskets of freshly laundered baby clothes. This little girl already had more clothes than I did, and sure, it was mostly my fault for buying so many adorable outfits for her, but it was only as I stuffed the closet and the tiny armoire that I realized my indulgence.

An hour later, all the clothes had a place to call home, so did the toys and even the necessities like diapers and wipes. Dixie’s room was in perfect order and I looked around the room with a satisfied smile before grabbing the monitor and making my way towards the kitchen for a glass of water.

I drank down a full glass of cold water and refilled it immediately, letting the icy liquid cool my overheated body. Though the penthouse was very well air conditioned, I felt warm enough that I already removed the cardigan I had on earlier. It was common in Texas. Sometimes even a steady blast of cold air was no match for the Texas heat.

It had been a busy day already with Alex’s agent showing up with a doctor to do swabs for paternity testing. I couldn’t help but smile as I thought about Alex’s face when he realized he’d been running around in his underwear all morning. Then again, a body like his was worth showing off, from a strictly objective point of view. He was gorgeous and fit, that wasn’t in question.

Keep telling yourself that, sister.

Yeah, okay. If I was being honest with myself I could admit—only to myself—that Alex was a knockout. He was classically handsome with thick blond hair and sparkling green eyes that glittered when he smiled. And his body? Well it was the stuff of every woman’s X-rated fantasies.

“Excuse me.”

Alex’s deep voice startled a yelp out of me, which was bad enough, but my body jerked, sending all the water in my glass up in the air before it promptly landed on my head, and his bare chest.

“Holy hell, man. You scared me.” Eventually I managed to tear my gaze away from his bronzed, muscled chest and look up at his smirking face.

“Sorry?” He shrugged and reached across my body, his heavily corded forearm brushed across my stomach as he reached for a bottle of water in the fridge. “I thought you heard me.”

I took a few steps back and rolled my eyes. “Well maybe if you didn’t walk around like a ninja, I would have heard you.”

Alex barked out a laugh and shook his head. “You’re the first person to ever say that. I’m only graceful and stealthy on the ice.”

“Obviously none of those people have ever lived with you.”

“They wish,” he answered with a smile before he turned the bottle upside down and finished it in just a few seconds. His gaze settled on mine, his expression suddenly serious. “I should apologize for Jack. He can be a little over the top at times.”

Jack was exactly what I expected of a man who looked out for tough guys like Alex. “Don’t apologize. It’s good that you have people in your life looking out for you.” It was more than I had in my life, so who was I to judge?

“Yeah well, he could look out for me without being so overbearing about it.” Alex’s laugh told me there was genuine affection between the men, which only made me more curious about their relationship. “I ordered everything you left in the shopping cart,” he said, changing the subject. “It should all arrive tomorrow morning.”

My eyes rounded in shock. “You bought it all?”

His brows dipped in confusion. “Yeah. You said she needed it all, right?”

I nodded, words escaping me for a minute. I didn’t know how to ask the question that formed on the tip of my tongue in a nice way. “But what if, ugh, never mind.”

“What if she’s not mine.” It wasn’t a question because clearly, it was on his mind too. Alex’s broad shoulders shrugged. “If she’s not, then she’ll go wherever she’s going in style.”

His words surprised me and caused a pinch in my chest, not because his words were sweet and kind, okay not just because they were sweet and kind, but because it meant Dixie’s young life would be filled with upheaval and uncertainty.

“That’s nice of you.”

“What can I say? I’m a nice guy.”

“So far, I have to agree.” I started to relax, well as much as I could with him standing in front of me showing off steel-cut abs and bulging pecs, and I even managed a smile. “How are you doing with all of this, really?”

A sigh of what looked like relief escaped, and Alex put his hands on his hips, his green gaze studying me closely almost as if he was trying to decide whether or not to trust me with his feelings.

“I have no fucking clue, Sasha. I mean one minute I was enjoying a solo dinner of steak and beer and the next there was a little girl with my eyes clinging to me for dear life. How am I supposed to feel?”

It was a lot to deal with for anyone, but especially for a guy like Alex who’d been living a mostly carefree life. “You’re supposed to feel however you feel. Are you angry? Scared? Whatever you’re feeling, own it so you can deal with it.”

“Just like that, huh?”

“Yeah, that’s the abridged version of course, without all the steps of owning it and dealing with it.” There were plenty of issues in my own life that required those same steps so I knew the work needed to deal with it. “It’s a process.”

His smile came slowly. “That’s the catch, then?”

I nodded. “There’s always a catch. You can be a superstar hockey player without the press invading your every waking moment.”

He growled his disapproval at my words. “No kidding. Now I’ll have both you and Jack on my case.” Once again his gaze studied me and I resisted the urge to squirm under his appraisal. “What about you, Sasha?”

I blinked and then frowned. “What about me?”

“Where are you from? How did you get into the nanny biz?” He shrugged and slid between me and the fridge, in search of food, no doubt.

I hated talking about my past, but it had been so long since someone actually asked about it, that the words tumbled out easily. “I’m from Connecticut, born and raised there until I left for college.”

“Where did you go to college?”

Okay, so we’re really doing this. I sighed as I answered. “Undergrad in Chicago and graduate school in California.”

“Wow. Smart. Your folks must be proud as hell of you.”

I laughed bitterly at his words. “I can assure you that they’re not proud. They would be proud if I married the right man, which means a man from the right family with a good name.” I shook off the thoughts of the last conversation with my mother. “Anyway I received my degrees in early childhood development and education and child psychology and I wasn’t exactly sure what to do with it. While I was trying to figure it out and dodge my parents, Serenity found me and I ended up here.”

Alex let out a long, low whistle. “So you’re still deciding, then?”

“No,” I sighed. “I’ve decided. Turns out my experience combined with my education has made me a good nanny.” I didn’t want him to ask why, so I turned the tables. “How did you become a hockey player?”

He laughed as he stepped back from the fridge with an arm full of sandwich ingredients, talking as he assembled them. “It might surprise you to learn there aren’t a lot of hockey opportunities in the backwoods of Tennessee.”

I grinned. “I thought I heard a hint of a southern accent in there.”

He flashed a proud smile. “Crayfish Hills,” he admitted with a shy grin. “I had a bit of a temper as a kid and I had exactly one friend who came from a so-called normal family. His dad noticed my temper and suggested hockey as a way to deal with it. My family couldn’t afford the equipment, never mind the team expense for me to play, so Mr. Morris paid for it and he taught me to play. Early in the morning and on the weekends, sometimes evenings after school. Turns out, I had a head for the game. It was the first time anyone had ever done something like that for me and it meant something. It meant a lot, actually.”

Ah, hell. His sincere words combined with that look on his face started the unfortunate stirrings of a crush. “That’s sweet.”

His green gaze narrowed in my direction but I just laughed. “I was recruited to a fancy private school for high school to play, and then college, going early in the draft.”

“A real Cinderella story. Good for you.” It was nice to see that everything he had was borne of hard work and determination, rather than his name or upbringing. “Do you enjoy it?”

“I do. It was the best thing that ever happened to me.”

I stared at the strange mix of the man who was big and tough, working in a brutal profession, but also managed honesty and sincerity with ease.

“Will Dixie put a kink in your social life?”

He laughed. “You really haven’t looked me up online?”

I sighed as I shook my head. “Just briefly. I probably should have done a deep dive, but I know better than most just how little you can believe what is written about the rich and famous. Plus, everything moved so fast with this placement, I spent all of last two days settling Dixie.”

Curiosity burned in his gaze as he put the finishing touches on the biggest sandwich I’d ever seen, but he didn’t ask. “She might slow me down but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. After my brief relationship with Tatiana went south, she decided to share intimate details of our time together with the world.”

My eyes bulged out of my head in shock. “Tatiana? You dated her? She’s gorgeous!” She was tall and leggy and busty, the absolute trifecta where most men were concerned.

“She’s gorgeous,” he agreed. “But that’s all she is. Trust me.” The look of disgust on his face urged me to believe him.

“Well I know a thing or two about that. Not beauty, per se, but it’s all about appearances in my world, or rather my parents’ small world. But he’s from a good family. Don’t you know who his great-grandfather was?” I scoffed and rolled my eyes. “As if any of that says a damn thing about the person or their character.”

His eyes grew wide and his mouth dropped open. “You’re a rich girl.”

My face burned with embarrassment and I shook my head. “I’m not. My parents are rich and I grew up that way, but I’m a nanny.” Technically all of that was true. I had a substantial trust fund, but I didn’t use it so I wasn’t really rich. Right?

“We’re a fine pair, aren’t we? You’re a rich girl playing at being poor and I’m a poor kid pretending like I belong.”

I laughed. “Something tells me that you’ve always belonged, Alex. You just didn’t realize it.”

He flashed a satisfied smile and took a huge bite of his sandwich. “Thanks.”

I shook my head when he offered me a bite of the monstrous sandwich. “No thanks.” But I did have another question that was as much for my sake as for Dixie’s. “What do you plan to do about Dixie?”

He shrugged and finished chewing. “Not sure. Well, that’s a lie. If she’s mine then she’s my kid, my blood and I will do everything in my power to give her the best life possible. I’ll make sure she’s protected and cared for. Period.”

Good. “That’s what every little kid needs.”

“I agree.” His jaw was tense and I had a feeling that although our backgrounds were worlds apart, our experiences weren’t.

“And if she’s not yours?”

He shrugged again. “I don’t even want to think about it, Sasha. I don’t know what I want the test results to say, which makes me an asshole, doesn’t it?”

“No. It’s okay to have complicated feelings on this. You thought your life was going to look one way and now that’s changed. You’ll have the results soon enough and then you can figure out what your new life is going to look like.”

He frowned. “This is one of those things where all the spaces between the words require a lot of damn work, isn’t it?”

I nodded. “Now you’re getting it.” Dixie started to fuss on the monitor and I picked it up, attached it to my back pocket, and started for the baby’s room. “Good luck.”

“Yeah, thanks,” he grumbled to my back.

I wanted to laugh at his put-out tone but I refused to let myself laugh or smile. I could not, would not allow myself to crush on the hockey player or the sexy single dad. Or my boss.

Nope. Now way. No how.

Absolutely not.