False Start: A Fake Dating Sports Romance (Red Zone Rivals)

A few days later, I stretched my legs out from the Adirondack chair in our backyard, watching as Kyle chased Sebastian with his arms loaded up with water balloons.

Sebastian was laughing so hard he could barely run in a straight line, and he certainly wasn’t going fast enough to keep Kyle from catching him. But Kyle pretended like he couldn’t catch him, lobbing water balloons close enough to break and splash Sebastian’s feet and legs without actually hitting him.

It was the perfect summer day in Seattle, the kind where everyone was outside enjoying the sunshine. Kyle had ribs on the grill — the grill he’d purchased, because I certainly never used one — and he seemed to have just as much energy as my son, judging by the way they’d played all afternoon long.

My heart beat steadily as I watched them play, calmly — which was interesting, considering the conversation I knew was coming. Kyle and I had decided to tell Sebastian about us.

I waited for my stomach to knot, for my chest to seize, for my body to rebel and remind me that this could all go up in flames at any moment.

But everything about Kyle felt safe. Secure.

Comfortable.

As if no time had passed between us.

As if the only future ahead of us was one where we were together.

There was still a lot to figure out, that we both knew. But we were content to take things slowly — especially since, so far, it had felt like a whirlwind between us.

“Catch, Mommy!”

I blinked out of my thoughts just in time to see a bright red water balloon sailing through the air toward me, but my reflexes weren’t fast enough to catch it. I put my hands up, but all that did was provide the perfect popping point.

My nails.

Water drenched me, and Sebastian died in a fit of laughter as Kyle struggled to keep his own at bay.

I stood, tonguing my cheek and wiping my wet hair out of my face. “Oh, think that’s funny, do you?”

I took off in a sprint, bending to gather a few water balloons out of the large tin bucket before I was chasing them both down and launching balloons as hard as I could.

It was an all-out war then, and twenty minutes later, we were all soaked, our faces red from laughing, our stomachs growling as we sat down at the picnic table outside and Kyle served us dinner.

He sat down next to me once everyone had a plate and something to drink, and his hand slid confidently over my knee under the table, squeezing.

It sent chills parading over me, the delicious kind that made me cross my legs and squeeze my thighs together.

For a while, we just ate and laughed about the water balloon fight — Sebastian particularly stuck on how he had wrangled me into the whole ordeal. But after a while, when the conversation had slowed, Kyle cleared his throat and dabbed at the corner of his mouth with his napkin.

“Sebastian,” he said, hand finding mine under the table and wrapping it up tightly. “We’d like to talk to you about something.”

“Okay,” my son said, swinging his feet and chomping on his corn on the cob.

Kyle lifted our hands to rest on the table, smoothing his thumb over mine. He nodded for me to take the wheel then.

“Do you remember when I introduced you to Kyle, and I told you we were friends?” I asked my son.

He nodded, still mostly focused on his food, bless him.

“Well… Kyle and I are actually more than friends. We’re… special friends.”

Sebastian’s legs stopped swinging, his brows folding together. “Like best friends?”

“Yeah, kind of,” I said, and I frowned, trying to figure out how to tell him.

Kyle patted my hand, taking over. “I care very much about your mom,” he said. “And she cares about me. We…”

His voice faded then, and I wondered if he was thinking what I was.

We love each other.

But that was absurd to think, let alone say out loud. It was too much, too fast.

And yet, I’d always loved him. Ever since we were kids.

“We just want you to know that Kyle will be around more often,” I offered. “And that you may see us showing affection to each other the way special friends do. Like this,” I said, holding up our clasped hands.

“And I don’t plan on going anywhere,” Kyle added. “I… I plan to be here, to be a part of your mom’s life. And yours. If that’s okay.”

Sebastian set his corn on the cob down, and I wondered if the seriousness of the conversation was hitting him. Kids always knew. They could pick up even what we tried to cover as adults.

“Are you my new dad?”

I rolled my lips together, emotion strangling my throat. Fortunately, Kyle was still calm and collected.

“I will never take your dad’s place,” he said.

Sebastian seemed almost sad about that. He nodded, hanging his head.

“But,” Kyle added quickly. “What I’d like to do is be your friend. And I want to hang out more, and get to know more about you, and tell you more about me. I’d like to take you fun places, like the zoo and the pool. I’d like to pick you up from camp sometimes, and I hope to be here on my days off. And when the season starts… maybe you could come to a football game.”

Sebastian’s eyes lit up at that, and he looked at me. “Could I?”

“We’ll see,” I said. “But, yes, I imagine so.”

“That would be so cool!” Sebastian said excitedly.

“Do you have any questions for us?” I asked.

He thought hard on it for a moment before shaking his head, shrugging, and digging back into his ribs. “Nope.”

Kyle smiled. “Okay, well… if you change your mind, we’re here for you.”

“Okay,” Sebastian said.

And just like that, the conversation was done.

Later, I walked Kyle out to his car, the two of us deciding that him staying the night might not be the best move on the first day we told Sebastian about us. But the evening had gone off without a hitch, and I could feel both of us breathing easier now that we were walking in slow steps toward the future.

“I hate saying goodbye to you,” he murmured against my hair as he held me by his car. His lips pressed against my temple before he pulled back, thumbing my jaw line.

“I’ll see you soon.”

“Never soon enough.”

I smiled, leaning into his palm. “That went well,” I offered, nodding toward the house where Sebastian was already asleep.

“It did,” Kyle agreed. “He’s… God, he’s such a great kid. I really am excited to get to know him more.”

“I think he idolizes you already.”

“That’s a lot of pressure.”

“Welcome to parenthood,” I said on a laugh.

My voice caught a bit at that, realizing what I’d said, but Kyle smiled wider and smoothed my skin with his palm. “I like the sound of that.”

“Speaking of… have you talked to your parents yet?”

He went cool at the mention of his mom and dad, but he still held me, as if I was the force grounding him through it all.

“Not yet, but I plan to. Soon.”

I nodded. “I’m here for you when you do.”

“Thank you.”

“This is kind of crazy, isn’t it?” I asked after a while, shaking my head. “How fast everything has happened between us?”

“Don’t,” Kyle said instantly. “Don’t do that.”

“Do what?”

“Overthink everything until you make yourself sick,” he said with a smirk, thumb gliding over my bottom lip. “Madelyn, you have had to think so hard about everything. For years now. You had to go through what happened to us alone. You healed alone. Then, with Marshall, you were the only one thinking about your family. You had to plan ahead for everything for you and Sebastian. You have always had to be the responsible one.”

My eyes watered against my will, and I nodded, hating how true that all was, how much it sent pangs through my chest.

“Don’t think about this,” he pleaded, his blue eyes searching mine. “Just… let it be. Let us have a chance.”

I nodded, kissing his palm. “I’m scared,” I whispered.

“So am I,” he admitted, and then he framed my face. “But I’m sure, too. I’m sure about you. I’m sure about us. I’m sure about this.”

His next kiss cemented how he felt, the power in it so electrifying I felt as if I could float off the ground and right up into the clouds covering the moon.

Kyle held me for a long while, the two of us too greedy to let go as we leaned against his car. We touched and kissed, eyes wandering over one another as if the other wasn’t quite real, as if it all may be a dream and we never wanted to wake.

Somehow, eventually, Kyle found the strength to say goodnight.

But it was only with the promise that he’d see me tomorrow.