He hadn’t even seen her, let alone noticed that he’d nearly killed her! Of course, that was nothing new. Kevin Tucker had spent his entire career with the Chicago Stars football team not noticing her.

Daphne dusted off her fluffy white cottontail, rubbed the dirt from her shimmery blue pumps, and decided to buy herself the fastest pair of Rollerblades in the whole world. So fast she could catch up with Benny and his mountain bike …

Molly spent a few moments contemplating chasing Kevin in the chartreuse Volkswagen Beetle she’d bought used after she’d sold her Mercedes, but even her fertile imagination couldn’t conjure up a satisfactory conclusion to that scene. As she headed toward the front entrance of Stars headquarters, she shook her head in self-disgust. The man was reckless and shallow, and he only cared about football. Enough was enough. She was finished with unrequited love.

Not that it was really love. Instead, she had a pathetic crush on the jerk, which might be excusable if she were sixteen, but was ludicrous for a twenty-seven-year-old woman with a near-genius IQ.

Some genius.

A blast of warm air hit her as she entered the lobby through a set of glass doors emblazoned with the team logo, consisting of three interlocking gold stars in a sky blue oval. She no longer spent much time at the Chicago Stars headquarters as she’d done when she was still in high school. Even then she’d felt like a stranger. As a dyed-in-the-wool romantic, she preferred reading a really good novel or losing herself in a museum to watching contact sports. Of course she was a dedicated Stars fan, but her loyalty was more a product of family background than natural inclination. Sweat, blood, and the violent clashing of shoulder pads were as foreign to her nature as … well … Kevin Tucker.

“Aunt Molly!”

“We’ve been waiting for you!”

“You’ll never ever guess what happened!”

She smiled as her beautiful eleven-year-old nieces came flying into the lobby, blond hair streaming behind them.

Tess and Julie looked like miniature versions of their mother, Molly’s older sister, Phoebe. The girls were identical twins, but Tess was enveloped in jeans and a baggy Stars sweatshirt, while Julie wore black capris and a pink sweater. Both were athletic but Julie loved ballet, and Tess triumphed at team sports. Their sunny, optimistic natures made the Calebow twins popular with their classmates but a trial to their parents, since it never occurred to either girl to turn down a challenge.

The twins screeched to a stop. Whatever they’d been about to tell Molly vanished as they stared at her hair.

“Omigod, it’s red!”

“Really red!”

“That’s so cool! Why didn’t you tell us?”

“It was sort of an impulse,” Molly replied.

“I’m gonna dye my hair just like it!” Julie announced.

“Not your best idea,” Molly said quickly. “Now, what were you going to tell me?”

“Dad is like so mad,” Tess declared, eyes wide.

Julie’s eyes grew even larger. “Him and Uncle Ron have been fighting with Kevin again.”