Free Sinners Football 01- Goals for a Sinner by Lynn Shurr

with you?” Stevie rested her head on his broad chest.
    “If you are out of ideas, I have some suggestions,” he answered.
     

Chapter Nine
    Because of crowded flights into Seattle, Stevie took the red-eye leaving at 5:00 a.m. the day before the Super Bowl. She couldn’t get on the same flight as Ma and Pa Riley, traveling with Brother Kevin, Merrilee and an eight-year-old nephew and six-year-old niece. If she were honest, she hadn’t tried very hard to do so. This whole arrangement would be awkward enough.
    When the cab pulled up near the designated address, Stevie reluctantly gathered her gear and started down the boardwalk. The house number matched the one on a cheerful yellow two-story floating home at the very end of the pier. She rang the bell on the green door set between two planters of yellow and purple pansies blooming abundantly in the chill air. The door swung open and she stepped into the two welcoming arms belonging to Connor’s mother and the chaos beyond her.
    “Stephanie Dowd, we meet at last,” the tall blonde woman said in greeting. Her voice had a slight accent hinting of Sweden, but Connor claimed was really northern Wisconsin in origin. “I’m Kristen Riley, Connor’s mom.”
    Kristen Riley had aged like a loftier version of Grace Kelly. Once a Golden Girl for the old Saints team, she had put on flesh in her middle years but still had beauty and style. Her eyes were Connor’s eyes, the beautiful cerulean blue of a northern sky on a sunny winter’s day. Her lips were Connor’s, full and beautifully formed. Her nose, like his, set straight and slim. By now, she should have touches of gray in her hair, but she kept it tinted a tasteful champagne blonde. She wore its soft waves pulled back into a knot at the base of her neck. Her long legs remained shapely though her waist had thickened and her rather impressive breasts overflowed in grandmotherly abundance. She hugged Stevie to that pillowy chest.
    Pulling slightly away, Stevie smiled at her welcome. “I’m happy to meet you, Mrs. Riley. Connor is so fond of you,” she said over the background noise of a television and crying children.
    “Sure, a man should love his mother and his wife. Connor has plenty of love to go around. You should see him with his nieces and nephews. Connor will make a great father someday, the sooner the better. Sorry we haven’t met before, but I try to give my son his privacy. He is a young man and, well…young men need privacy. I wouldn’t want to walk in on anything, you know. We talk on the phone nearly every day, and lately all the talk is of the wonderful Stephanie Dowd. Come in, come in.” Stevie stood as if glued to the doorstep. Mrs.
    Riley gave her arm a tug and ushered her into the living room where the rest of the family gathered: big, burly Keith Riley, Connor’s dad, and petite, brunette Merrilee, the woman Kevin Riley married after dumping Stevie. Children swarmed around them. Stevie counted four on the floor, and looking at Merrilee from the bottom up, number five was due in about four months.
    Beneath a pile of kids, Kevin Riley of the dark hair and Irish eyes gave horsey rides to two of his brood. The two-year old boy, who had his daddy’s dark hair and deep blue eyes, had just fallen off and wailed loudly.
    A little girl with dark curls and darker eyes attempted to pull her four-year-old sister off Daddy’s back. “My turn, my turn!” she shrieked. An eight-year-old boy, also dark haired and dark-eyed, sat by his mother in a folded-arm pose. Obviously, he was too old for horsey rides, but a little jealous of the cuddling his baby brother got for falling.
    Mrs. Riley clapped her hands for attention.
    “This is Stephanie Dowd, Connor’s special friend. I want you to make her feel like part of the family.”
    “Stevie. Please, call me Stevie, all of you. I see you decided to bring all of the grandchildren and won’t have room for me. Let me see if the cab is still there. I can go to a