The big guy indeed gave him a single hard smack to the spine that I was pretty sure would’ve broken my back.

Then, finally then, did my friend turn back. “Where was I now? Bianca, this is Vanny, and this is Aiden. And these little angels are Fiona, Grayson, and Sammy.” He bounced the girl. “My niece and nephews.”

The big man rolled his eyes again, but the pretty woman—Vanessa—grinned.

“They’re some of my best friends, even though they only come visit about once a year.”

“You know, I’m pretty sure you only come to visit once or twice a year too so….” The woman trailed off, inching her way toward the big guy, who took her into his side, reached over, and put his hand on the hip farthest away from him.

They were pretty cute together.

“I thought y’all weren’t gettin’ here ’til tomorrow?” Zac asked before whispering who knew what to the little girl.

Vanessa shrugged. “We were in Austin visiting Diana. My brother is here on business, so we came down to see him too. We were calling to see if you wanted to go eat with us, but you weren’t answering, so we decided to come over and make sure you were still alive.”

Aiden slid the woman—she had a huge colorful rock on her ring finger, so I had to bet she was his wife—a look. “And?”

She slid him a look back before sighing. “And I wanted to see Trevor’s house,” Vanessa admitted. “Part of me still can’t believe he doesn’t just have a coffin in a castle somewhere.”

Zac laughed, and so did the massive man, the sound of his kind of rusty, not likes Zac’s which was clear and happy and well used.

“I don’t go into his room, so you never know what he’s sleepin’ in in there.” Zac bumped my elbow with his free one, blue eyes catching mine. “You seen it?”

“No, not yet,” I said, not sure what to say.

Zac’s hand landed on the back of my neck, giving it a squeeze before it slid down and rubbed between my shoulder blades. “Come on in then. I’ll let you snoop around. Where y’all goin’ to eat?”

The woman rattled off a place that wasn’t a restaurant but more of a family-fun center with tokens and games that I’d taken Guillermo and Luisa to before about half an hour away.

Her answer also happened to be my cue to go do something. “Well, I have some things to do, but it was nice meeting—”

“Come with us,” Zac interrupted.

Had he missed the part where he’d been the one invited and not both of us? I tried to tell him with my eyeballs what I was thinking, but when his smile didn’t falter or do anything, I whispered, “Ehm, they came to see you.”

Zac didn’t whisper back. “Vanny, tell her she can come.”

“Of course you’re invited. I didn’t know you were the Peewee.”

She’d just thought I was BIANCA BLACKHAIRGYM HOU.

Zac winked, which didn’t help any either.

“Aiden’s treat,” he said.

The Aiden guy just stared at him, but Zac was oblivious.

“You comin’?” He busted out the big guns as he beamed that Zac smile at me. “Please?”

I wanted to tell him that I really should get to work, but… how could I say no to that ‘please’?

I was pretty sure he knew the answer to that was that I couldn’t say no to him and his pleases.

That was how, an hour later, after all three kids peed, I found myself realizing that I had to be the only person who didn’t know who the Aiden guy was. He had played in Dallas, like I’d wondered. And while I had no doubt he’d played some defensive position based on his size, he must have been really well loved and admired since Houston fans weren’t exactly Three Hundreds fans. Because the second we entered the family entertainment center—which I knew from memory had pizza, burgers, and chicken nuggets—it seemed like every eye turned toward the big man and the Disney prince quarterback who threw farts at me.

If someone were to ask me, the Aiden guy sure wasn’t hard on the eyes, but Zac… well, Zac was Zac. If I was going to look at anyone, it was going to be him. And not just because of the way his bones and skin had been put together, but also because of the rest of him. The stuff you couldn’t see on the outside so easily.

All I had to think about was the way he’d picked on the kids and showered them with attention from the moment he’d seen them.

It shouldn’t have been surprising; he’d always liked kids even when he’d been nothing but one himself. I was living proof of that. God forbid there was a baby-baby somewhere; he was going to try and kiss it, then steal it. I kind of wished there had been a baby, honestly. But he was so cute with the toddler and the boy I’d learned who was now almost seven and the quiet one who I thought might have been thirteen with a fake birth certificate that said five.

“Can I help you with something?” I asked Vanessa after we’d arrived at the huge facility with an indoor playground, bowling alley, and hundreds of games. The Aiden man had bought us wristbands and the kids digital “tokens” to use. To give Zac credit, I had seen him saddle up next to him at the register, they’d bickered, fought with credit cards, and then Zac had rolled his eyes and shoved his back into his wallet.

“Can you watch Fi for a second?” the other woman answered as the younger of the two little boys whispered a question to her.

Standing off to the side, Zac was talking to Aiden with the oldest boy standing there, his head tipped all the way back, listening to them. From the bits and pieces I caught onto, they were talking football.

“Sure,” I said before taking a seat in the empty chair beside her.

The three-year-old blinked at me with these crazy-long, black eyelashes that I was way more jealous of than a grown woman should ever feel.

I smiled at her. “I like your hair bows.”

Those big, dark eyes blinked up at me. “Mommy did it.”

“Wow. My mommy never gave me hair bows that pretty,” I told her and winced.

Lord, that struck a little too close to home.

To be fair, my mom had done some things to my hair, but only in the month or so a year she was in the States. My God, that really did sting a little when I thought about it. She had emailed me two weeks ago to check in. She’d even sent me a picture of her and my dad with some villagers.

“How old are you?” I asked her, pushing my parents aside. They were close to retirement, but I knew things were never going to change. I was fine with it.

She held up two fingers right as Vanessa finished telling her husband—Zac had confirmed it on the way to the complex, explaining all about how all three of them had lived together for a few months years ago during the end of his time in Dallas—that the other boy needed to pee. “Fi, one more finger,” she corrected the little girl as she turned toward us.

Fiona flashed me three fingers, and I ooh and aahed over them. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched Zac walk off with Aiden and the two boys to where I could only imagine was the bathroom.

“Your kids are so cute,” I told her. “The boys are huge.”

Vanessa snickered. “They take after their dad. I told Aiden they’re going to have beards by the time they’re thirteen, and women are going to think they’re full-grown men.”