Page 53 of Backup Plan

I roll my eyes. “That’s definitely a twenty-six-year-old answer.”

He laughs. “Honestly, I don’t know. I love football. I don’t know that I’m passionate about it, and sometimes I feel like I should be since I play it professionally, but I’m always in the backseat. Always second best. The youngest of the Bradley brothers, the only one who plays pro ball and isn’t a starter. Sometimes I wonder how I even got here. Other times I wonder if it’s because my dad paid for my position in the league somehow.” He presses his lips together and adds, “I’m passionate about Cap’n Crunch. I’m passionate about living somewhere with a view. Beyond that…I don’t know.”

“I think you’re passionate about taking care of your family,” I point out. “You were the one flying back and forth when your mother was sick. You were the one reaching out to everyone with news of your father’s indictment.”

“Someone had to. It just sort of fell on me.”

“You still did it, and you didn’t have to. You’re passionate about fitness,” I point out.

“As I eat sugary cereal for a nightly snack,” he retorts.

“You’re passionate about making sure everyone around you has everything they need. That they’re comfortable, and that’s a rare trait in a man, Liam. Honestly. You have no idea.”

His eyes meet mine, and they burn. “Thank you. I guess I’m passionate about someday owning my own business. I don’t want to work for someone else when I retire, but I’m not really sure what I’d do.”

I shiver.

His brows dip. “Are you okay?”

I shiver harder.

Shit.

I mentally chalked the first shiver up to the way he was looking at me.

But this second one…

I reach up and feel my own forehead with the back of my hand, and I wrinkle my nose. “Where’s that thermometer?”

“Let me sanitize it for you first,” he says, and he dumps rubbing alcohol along the tip before he turns it on and pushes it across the counter toward me.

When it beeps, I check the readout, and it’s 101.2.

I close my eyes and let out a sigh. “I’m next, I guess. Stay far, far away from us. Save yourself.”

He shakes his head and walks around the counter. He pulls me against his chest and holds me in a hug. “I’m already exposed, anyway.”

“I’m so sorry, Liam,” I say, my voice trembling. “I feel terrible that we moved in and spread germs all over your place when you have to be in San Diego in a few days.”

“I’ve got a week before I have to be there, and honestly, there’s nowhere I’d rather spend that week than right here with you and your boys.”

I tilt up to look at him, and I wish I could kiss him. I don’t know what I did to deserve this.

I remind myself he’s just being nice. We literally just finished a conversation where we discussed that one of his passions is helping other people. This isn’t anything more than that.

Even though after just a few days with him, I’m already starting to wish it could be.

CHAPTER 16: Liam Bradley

Closet

My three houseguests are all fighting fevers, so it’s inevitable when I wake up on Tuesday morning sweating with a headache and sore throat.

I head downstairs to take my temperature, and it’s over 101. I grab my phone to call the team doctor in San Diego since I’m supposed to be there in six days.

“I have a friend and her kids staying with me, and one was diagnosed with the flu.”

“Say no more, Liam. Even if you don’t have symptoms, I can prescribe prophylactic dosing. Are you in Chicago?” he asks.