Free Lady and the Champ by Katherine Lace Page A

hand. She seems happy enough, oblivious of the verbal warfare going on between her parents. Her parents. Good God, I still can’t get my head around this.
    “So? You’re her father—take care of her.” Megan tries again to pull the door open, but Austin slides a foot forward and shoves the door back shut with a sharp kick.
    “You need to at least call me first, Megan. I have shit to do. I have work. I have…” He glances down the hallway and I jump, flattening a little against the wall, but he just continues, “…physical therapy. You’re interrupting. And if I don’t get this knee sorted out, I don’t play, I don’t get paid, and you don’t get paid.”
    Megan also glances toward the hall, but she doesn’t seem to see me, either. “I see. Physical therapy.” Her gaze rakes over him, taking in the robe and his state of undress. “Is that what you’re calling it these days?” She tosses her hair back, glaring up at him. “Don’t be doing any of that shit in front of my baby.”
    “Oh, now she’s your baby?” He shifts a little, pointing Emma in Megan’s direction. “I can take her tomorrow. Not today.”
    “Tomorrow doesn’t work for me. I’ve got an appointment in fifteen minutes. It’s either leave her here or take her to Mom’s.”
    Whatever “take her to Mom’s” means to Austin, it’s obviously something undesirable. “Fine,” he says through gritted teeth. “But you need to start planning this shit ahead of time, or we’re going back to the mediator.”
    She just makes a face. “Whatever.”
    This time when she pulls the door open, he lets her go. After the door falls shut behind her, he turns his attention to the little bundle of adorable in his arms.
    “It’s okay, honey,” he says in an ultra-sweet voice. “Mommy doesn’t mean to be a raging bitch.” Then he looks up, and this time his eyes meet mine.
    “You have a daughter?”
    He gives me a proud smile. “Yeah.” Then he glares at the door where Megan disappeared moments before.
    I lean against the wall just inside the living room, crossing my arms over my chest. “What happened?”
    “She wasn’t planned, that’s all.” He strokes a hand over Emma’s round head. “Well, I have my suspicions.”
    She seems content, not flailing or crying or acting like she needs something. Her big eyes are a dark blue-gray, and there’s a string of drool hanging from her chin. She’s adorable, and utterly alien to me.
    “So you think Megan got knocked up on purpose?”
    He rolls his eyes. I realize I’m making light of the situation, but I still haven’t gotten over the shock. Austin Sherwood as a daddy. It’s not the kind of thing that’s easy to get your head around. Especially when you were damn near having sex with him not five minutes ago.
    “Considering how she’s acted since Emma was born, yes, I suspect that’s what she was after.”
    He moves toward the living room, where he takes a seat on the couch. I can’t help but notice the flash of the insides of his thighs as his robe flaps.
    He’s not just holding her now. He’s got her propped in his lap while she plays with his face, her little fingers grabbing at his nose and his lips. She pulls at them, then he crosses his eyes at her and she bursts out in peals of giggles. God, she’s cute.
    I settle onto a corner of a recliner on the other side of the room. “She’s adorable.”
    He gives me a smile that tugs at my heart. “Thank you.”
    “How come you never talk about her? From everything I’ve read about you, you’re footloose and fancy free and fucking your way through most of the city.”
    Austin claps a hand over Emma’s ears. “Don’t talk like that in front of the baby.”
    Both my eyebrows shoot up, and it’s all I can do to keep from laughing at him. “Coming from the guy who just said b-i-t-c-h .”
    Emma makes a sound, sort of a grunt but also something like an attempt at vocalization, and it sounds so much like “Uck” that I