I groaned, slumping over my open Numbers, Statistics, and Data Journalism textbook. I’d been studying for so long that the words were blurring together. The more I reread it, the less sense it made. Like staring at a word so long that it no longer looked like a real word.

And sadly, schoolwork waited for no woman—or her birthday, which was today.

Downstairs, the front door slammed. I glanced at my phone to discover I’d completely lost track of time. Chase was a couple of minutes late, and I wasn’t even dressed. Footsteps sounded on the hardwood, and moments later, he appeared in the doorway to my office, his keys in one hand.

He flashed me a heart-stopping smile. “Sorry I’m late. I had to make a quick stop.” His smile faded, and he studied me with a frown. “Have you been studying all day?”

“Maybe.” I hated to admit it, because he already felt bad about being gone all day for training camp.

“James.” He crossed his arms, leaning against the doorframe. “Did you at least eat something? Take a break?”

Chase had left for the arena early, and I’d rolled out of bed not long after, taking a quick shower before shuffling directly to my office down the hall. I’d even set up a Keurig machine on a side table near my desk so I didn’t have to leave to make coffee. It was a brilliant, if dangerous, move on my part.

And I hadn’t exactly eaten breakfast. But I did eat lunch, so that counted as “something,” right?

“Don’t worry,” I said. “I ate lunch on the deck and studied out there for a bit.”

Or I tried to until our neighbor’s kids and their friends got into their pool and yelled Marco and Polo at the top of their lungs. After moving out of an apartment complex full of people in their twenties who threw ragers every weekend, I thought we’d be guaranteed some peace and quiet in the suburbs. I never imagined it would be noisier here, but that was absolutely the case between the hours of three and eight p.m. Guess that’s what we got for buying in a family friendly neighborhood.

Chase always laughed and said it’d be our kids making a racket soon enough. Fair point. Especially if our kids were anything like him—based on what his mother said, I was going to have my hands full.

Or maybe our kids would end up being quiet and studious like I was a child. But probably not.

“Did you take a break?” Chase repeated, raising his dark eyebrows.

“Yeah, I took a few study breaks in between.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Uh-huh.”