The Crush (The Wolves: A Football Dynasty, #3)

by Karla Sorensen

It would have been the start of a life. One step forward with her, all those years ago, and it would have snapped something foundational into place.

That’s why I turned to face him. “I was thinking about your sister, actually.” Parker laughed at first. Then he looked at my face, and the smile died. “Oh shit, Emmett. Adaline?”

“Leave it to you to have some life-changing epiphany five years after you had your chance with someone. You are, without a doubt, the smartest dumbass I’ve ever met in my life.”

What was it about hot men who were good with kids?

It was impossible to force someone to make you a priority. It was impossible to make someone feel the same way you did. And it was impossible to force the stars to align when the timing wasn’t right.

He spoke against my ear, a delicious rumble that had my eyes fluttering shut. “Go inside, Adaline, unless you want them to see this.”

The best way I could take care of Adaline right now was to bear the brunt of missing her.

Emmett as a dad. It was almost too much to think about. My ovaries screamed—somewhere deep in the place where ovaries existed—to be the one providing said babies.

Adaline wasn’t fireworks and lightning. She was something softer, sneaking up on me until I couldn’t look away. A sunrise, maybe. A beginning point that changed so gradually you hardly noticed until the brightest, most vivid colors you’ve ever seen dominated the entire horizon.

If I thought my family was bad about NFL games, I was wrong. There was a whole new level of Ward family competitiveness that emerged from a very unlikely source—my niece’s soccer game. Molly’s daughter Luna (currently at striker) and Isabel’s daughter Willa (playing defense) were on the same rec soccer team—seven- and eight-year-old girls—and I almost moved to the other team’s sidelines so that I wasn’t associated with the people I was related to.

Most professional players didn’t look that bloodthirsty when they eyed the net.

“Because when Mommy has something serious to tell me, she gets down and puts her face close to mine and makes sure my eyes are on her, and I’m listening good.” Her eyes widened. “Are you listening good, Uncle Emmett?”

“Don’t get a concussion because your brain is important,”

“Emmett,” he said incredulously, “football is not my legacy.”

“I hope I live for another forty years, so I can see your kids—your sisters’ kids—grow up. But if I died tomorrow, Emmett, I hope no one talks about a fucking game when they bury me. I hope they talk about the kind of husband and father and grandfather I am.” His voice cracked on the last word. “That is the only legacy I care about leaving behind.”

world without my dad in it—even as a hypothetical—was impossible to imagine. He tugged me in for a tight hug, pounding his fist on my back.

“I love you, Emmett,” he said into my ear. “I am proud of you, no matter what came before or what comes after this. And it has nothing to...

I’d give up anything to do this every single day.

“I am in love with you, Adaline Wilder. And if it is within my power to give you what you want, I’ll do it.”

It looked like a ring, and as soon as I realized what I’d done, my mind raced.

Was it terribly neanderthal of me that I couldn’t wait for her to be pregnant with our first child? Adaline and babies did something to me.

“But I don’t think you and I have ever really needed those things. We fell in love with each other in all the simple, day-to-day moments. And I think that’s what I missed, in the early days when I was trying to get your attention.”

“The best part of any day is you,” I told her. “No matter what happens, no matter where I am, or what else is going on.” I slid the metal ring over her knuckle, grinning when it fit. “And I want to spend the rest of my life doing what I do best—loving you. Adaline Wilder, will you marry me?”