“And the winning team, with ten items found, is Coach George and his wife, Amanda, along with Barrett and Grant Cassidy.”

“I didn’t know the Cassidys could run that fast,” someone shouted amid the applause.

“I will kick your ass in practice next week,” Barrett said, pointing a finger and glaring at one of the guys.

Trevor laughed. Everyone gave the winning teams cheers. And Coach was grinning.

It was a good win, because Trevor knew how much Coach loved deep-sea fishing. So did the Cassidy brothers.

“Thanks for this, Trevor,” George said, waving the gift certificate. “I’m going to enjoy it.”

“So will I,” Amanda said, sliding the certificate into her purse. “While he’s off fishing for the day, I’ll be at the spa.”

Haven had moved in next to Trevor. “Sounds like a win-win for everyone, then.”

“More so for me, I think,” Amanda said with a wide smile. “I do love my spa days.”

“I don’t know. I do love my fishing.” George put his arm around Amanda. “But yeah, spa day for you, babe.”

The party started to wind down. Trevor saw everyone out, surprised when Warrell came up to him.

“I actually had a good time. Thanks for inviting me.”

“Thanks for coming. I think our team did good.”

Warrell nodded. “We did. And I’m still planning to beat your ass on the field.”

“I’ll be looking forward to it.”

Warrell grinned. “See you on Monday at practice.”

After the caterers and bartenders cleaned up and left, Trevor locked the door and grabbed a bottle of water. Haven was busily putting away all of the scavenger hunt stuff.

“My cleaning staff is coming tomorrow. They can take care of that.”

She looked up at him. “So can I. This will only take a few minutes to put away.”

He walked over to her and took her hand. “You’ve done enough work tonight. Let’s go outside. You should put your feet up and relax. I feel like all you did was work during the party.”

She laughed. “It was hardly work. I mostly sat and had wine while the rest of you ran off and did the scavenger hunt thing. And I got to visit with Luisa Wilson.”

“Oh, Mowery’s wife?”

“Yes. She’s like eight months pregnant. She said her ankles were swollen and she wasn’t up to dashing around doing the scavenger hunt, so she stayed behind while her husband went off and did the hunt. She and I talked. She’s very nice.”

“Yeah, she is. Do you want more wine?”

“Sure.”

“What are you having?”

“I can get it.”

He gave her a look. “What are you having?”

“The sauvignon blanc.”

He went to the refrigerator, studied the bottles for a minute, then pulled one out. “This one?”

“Yes.”

He uncorked it and poured her a glass, then motioned for her to join him as he headed out the back door. She’d long ago kicked off her sandals, so she padded out to the deck barefoot.

He liked her feet, liked her painted pink toenails. And when she went and sat by the pool and slid her legs in the water, he kicked off his tennis shoes, pulled off his socks, and sat next to her, handing her the glass of wine.

She took a sip, then sighed. “Mmm. This is good.” She turned her head to look at him. “How did it go with Warrell?”

“Good. He loosened up some.”

“I’m glad.”

“Me, too. I think it might help him at practice and in game situations to realize we’re all not the enemy.”

“I hope so.”

“Thank you again for organizing all this tonight.”

“You’re welcome. It was fun for me.”

“It was work.”

“Work can sometimes be fun.”

He liked hearing her say that. It was the attitude he was trying to cultivate. Though tonight hadn’t been part of her job. “Did you get to talk to any of the players—actual work-type stuff?”

“No. I didn’t want to break up what was a relaxing, fun night with reporter questions. I’ll leave that for another time, when I’m working in my official capacity.”

He shifted so he could look directly at her. “No one would have minded, you know.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. But you can lose trust if you start pummeling people with questions while they’re trying to kick back and have a good time. This just wasn’t the right venue for me to go after people with questions about you or the team.”