“She’s a damn genius,” Adam mutters, shaking his head.
“I’m gonna do it!” Lily screeches right before she darts across the field to meet her teammates.
“Will you marry me?” Adam asks as he wraps an arm around Celia’s neck and plants a kiss on top of her head.
“Quit manhandling her, dude,” I say as I pull Celia away from his grasp and park her in the lawn chair next to mine. I saved her the one with the pillow attached to the back. What can I say? I’m a gentleman.
Celia lets out a giggle as she settles into her chair and crosses her legs. I give a quick mental “thank you” to Mother Nature for the warm weather as Celia’s shorts creep up her hot, little legs. “I had a feeling our little princess would be obstinate. Sparkles and glitter make soccer a whole lot more fun for princesses.”
Adam lets out a sigh of relief. “Look, I don’t care how you did it. I had no idea how I was going to get her on that field. I was two ‘pleases’ away from giving up. I only wanted her to try something new, and it turned into a huge stand off. Seriously, thank you for saving the day.”
“No problem,” Celia says with a smile. She puts on her sunglasses and tips her head to the sun. “You should have invited Sara to join us, Adam. She would have enjoyed seeing Lily and Gage play, and I would have enjoyed the extra dose of estrogen. With Audrey away at the pharmaceutical rep training for the last couple months, I could have used her girl power against you two knuckleheads.”
“Don’t go there,” Adam warns.
“I’m just saying. You let Cain, Audrey, and me come to the games, so I don’t see why Sara should be any different.” Celia turns to me for reinforcement, but I throw my hands up on this one. Double-teaming him will only piss him off more.
“You don’t have to understand it, Celia. It doesn’t concern you.” Adam pushes forward in his chair and props his elbows on his knees, giving his full attention to the game.
Celia takes a deep breath, and I can tell she’s about to beat the Sara horse to death, and then drag it down the street. Luckily for all of us, her phone starts chirping, distracting her. After looking at the caller ID, she stands and squeezes my shoulder.
“I have to take this. Be right back,” she whispers as she places the phone to her ear and walks away.
I refocus on the game just in time to see Gage kick the ball into the goal. Adam and I both jump out of our chairs, clapping and cheering for little man. His tiny fist pumps the air and he whips around to find us. When he realizes his dad saw the whole things, his smile nearly splits his face. That’s pure gold right there.
We both take our seats as the cheering settles down. I grab a bottle of water from the ice chest behind me and get one for Adam as well.
“I hope you know what you’re doing with her. I have a feeling someone’s gonna get hurt in this scenario, and I don’t mean Celia,” Adam warns as he twists the cap off his water.
“I’m a big boy. I know what I’m doing.” I flick my bottle in his direction, splashing him with drops of freezing cold water.
“Do you really? Because from where I’m sitting, I see a girl hung on a guy from her past. And when I say hung up, I mean in the truest sense of the word. And I don’t think he left for college, okay? I’m pretty fucking sure he died, and that shit isn’t gonna disappear because you want it to.” Adam’s voice is low, but there’s no mistaking his serious tone. Don’t get me wrong, it’s appreciated, but he’s not saying anything I haven’t thought of myself.
“I hear you, Adam, loud and clear, all right?” He nods. “But from where I’m sitting, I see an amazing girl who deserves more than the shit hand she’s holding right now. I know the risks.”
That seems to shut him up, and we watch the game in companionable silence. I’m not one to sit on the sidelines, so taking my cue from Adam, I wade in where I’m most definitely not wanted.
“You know, I admire you, dude. You are a stellar dad,” I say, keeping my eyes trained to the soccer field. “Just saying, Sara would be great with them. No pressure or anything, I just know it’s got to be fucking hard to juggle two separate lives, which is essentially what you’re doing right now.”
I know he hears me because I can see his jaw muscles tensing as he clenches his teeth. I resist the urge to tell him to calm the fuck down. Life’s too short to be that tense.
“Within minutes of being born, those two children lost the most important person in their lives. No child should have to go through that. Forgive me if I’m not big on introducing anyone into the fold that may not want to stay around for the long haul,” Adam says quietly.
“Look man, I get it. But nothing in this world is guaranteed, and you seem to be serious about this girl—”
“But is she serious about me? Ah, no quick answer to that one, huh?” he says when I don’t answer immediately. He shakes his head and pulls down on the bill of his hat, hiding his eyes. “I’m not the only person to consider here. It takes two, and until I know she’s in this thing with me, no kids.”
Before I can answer, Celia places a hand on my shoulder and squeezes. “I’m sorry, y’all. It looks like I’m going to have to take off after the first game today. One of my clinic patients needs me to make a home visit. So a play by play of the second game tonight—”
“Hold on, Tink. Let me get this straight. You are going to the home of one of your mentally ill patients this afternoon?” I ask, willing myself to calm down.
“Well … yes,” she answers.
“You and what policeman?”
“What? What are you talking about? It’s just me.”
“I’ve told her, dude, and she won’t listen. I can’t go with her because I’ve got Lily and Gage, but I’ve warned her. She’s got a head as hard as a rock,” Adam says, shrugging at Celia when she shoots him the evil eye.
“Celia...”
“I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself, ya big oaf.” She crosses her arms and stamps her tiny foot.
“I’m well aware of that, but you’re still not going by yourself. Just think of me as an added bonus—excellent company for an otherwise boring afternoon.”
It’s clear she doesn’t agree, and I swear I can see a bit of smoke shooting out of her ears. She pivots on her foot and flips her hand under the bill of Adam’s baseball hat, and it flies backward into the grass.
“And you … you traitor. You two are always ganging up on me now,” she says with a huff. “I wish…”
“Go ahead, lay into me. You know you wanna,” Adam taunts.
His lighthearted chuckle only spurs her on.
“May the fleas of a thousand camels infest your armpits!” Celia spits out, garnering more attention than she bargained for.
All of the parents in the near vicinity burst out laughing. One soccer dad claps Adam on the shoulder, saying, “That sounds serious, man.”
Something catches Adam’s attention on the field, and he swats at Celia, pointing toward the pile of kids crowded around the goal. In the midst of the mayhem, the one and only butterfly soccer princess is lining up her shot for the goal. For the moment, Sara, home visits, fleas, and camels are forgotten.
She looks determined. She looks sparkly. She looks fierce.
With a swift kick and a tiny bit of luck, the ball soars past the goalie and hits the back of the net. All three of us shoot up out of our chairs and jump up and down, cheering.
Lily swipes her unruly curls from her eyes and turns to the crowd, beaming. She searches until she finds Celia, lifting her hands and wiggling her fingers as she giggles.
“Sparkle, sparkle, sparkle,” Celia whispers as she wiggles her fingers right back.
“I See Fire” by Ed Sheeran