Stadium of Lights: A Second Chance Sports Romance by Tia Lewis

doubted Abby owned a dress. She would’ve stuck out like Waldo in a place like this.
    I ordered a drink at the bar, chatting with the bartender while I waited. Skylar had been smart to ask for one in the room—but then she was well-acquainted with the way we rolled. There had to be alcohol, especially after an incredible win.
    She must have heard me thinking about her, because she came up behind me. “Hey, QB. Great game out there today!” I turned to give her a hug, bending over her tiny frame.
    “Careful, don’t let your man see you hugging me like this,” I joked.
    “Oh, please, like he hasn’t hugged a million women … and worse than that.” She rolled her eyes. I liked her a lot—she knew the way things went and didn’t let it make her bitter. She always wanted us to be a family, to have dinners together like the one she’d just organized. And she was drop-dead gorgeous, which didn’t hurt. Garrett knew he’d never find another woman like her in a million years, which was why he at least tried to keep it in his pants sometimes.
    “This was a great pick. I love the food here,” I said.
    “I know. You boys sure know how to eat. That’s why I went with a buffet—I’ve seen Garrett put away three, four plates of food.”
    “Four? That’s nothing.” I winked, looking across the room to where the servers were setting up two carving stations and around two dozen chafing dishes. They knew we’d come to eat.
    Just then, at the end of the long buffet table, my eyes fell on what could only be an angel. She wore a white dress with one sort of floaty sleeve. Her other arm was bare, long and slender. A cloud of wavy red hair. She laughed, tipping her head back to expose a long, smooth throat. My heart almost stopped beating.
    Skylar followed my gaze. “Doesn’t she look great?” she gushed. “I had excellent raw material to work with.”
    “That’s … it can’t be …”
    “Abby,” she confirmed. “The poor girl, she felt so out of place. But look at her. I don’t think there’s a man here who hasn’t already slipped in a puddle of his own drool after staring—including my fiancé.” She chuckled.
    “That’s Abby?” No way. Then she laughed again. I knew that laugh like I knew my own. Abby. Jesus Christ. I’d already been surprised at how much she’d changed, but in that dress … and the hair … and makeup, holy shit, she was wearing makeup.
    And she was with Chad. That piece of shit.
    “Hello? Max?”
    “Huh?” I looked down at Skylar, who smirked.
    “I said, do you have your eye on her? I thought you got in a tongue fight with one of the cheerleaders after the game.”
    “That was an accident,” I told her. “That wasn’t real.”
    “Oh, I know that you idiot.” She slapped my arm. “I was only teasing. Nobody gets serious over a cheerleader. So, you like her, huh?”
    “The cheerleader?”
    “Abby. You know who I mean.”
    “No. It’s just … didn’t Garrett tell you?”
    “Garrett tells me nothing.”
    I looked back to where Abby stood. “I’ve known her my whole life.” But I never really knew her, and I finally figured it out when I saw her standing there with Chad. The girl I thought I knew was gone, long dead. How could I have been so blind?
    “Hmm …” That was all Skylar said as she walked away. Funny, but even though she was a woman, I trusted her more than I trusted my teammates. She wouldn’t go around blabbing to everybody that I’d almost shit my pants when I got my first look at Abby in her new dress.
    Damn, that Chad. He didn’t care about her. He only wanted another notch in his headboard. And from the way she was laughing at just about everything he said, he would get it before the night was over. Unless I stepped in, of course.
    And I would.
    I walked over to them with a smile on my face. “Well, you showed up,” I said, looking at Abby. She was so beautiful. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen it before—yeah, she had a nice body, and