Page 54 of Inside the Penalty Box

My father sort of chuckled at my answer and shook his head.

“What?”

“Have your lawyers gotten back to you with the answers about the paternity test that they were talking about on the news?”

“No. Not yet.”

“You are absolutely certain you didn’t knock her up?”

I rolled my eyes and met my father’s eyes. He’d been this way when we’d broken up. Giving me shit about ending a relationship that he was certain was the best thing in my life.

“Yes.”

“Then what the fuck were you thinking during the game?”

“What?”

“The fight, Dylan. What the fuck were you thinking, throwing the game by getting into a fight?”

“First, I didn’t throw the game. In fact, I didn’t throw the game at all. We fucking lost.”

“Because your mind was elsewhere. I can always tell when your mind is elsewhere because you play like shit.”

“Give it a rest, Dad. I don’t need to hear this right now.”

“It’s true.”

“Yeah, sure, and I’ve already heard it from the coach. You think I need to hear it from you, too?”

“Damn right you do. Fuck, Dylan, I sunk thousands of dollars into you, fucking thousands. I didn’t do it so you could fuck up your career.”

“How did I fuck up my career?”

“You don’t get it, do you? Until we have a fucking answer from this test, people are going to consider it to be true, and so am I.”

“Believe what you want. You always have, but know this, I haven’t been with Carlie since last year. I’ve had restraining orders on her. I’ve sent her cease and desist notices after she dragged me through the mud after our breakup that she caused. She cost me thousands of dollars. Why do you think I’d ever get involved with that again?”

“Because I know how men are. I am one. We do stupid things, which brings me to the next matter I want to discuss with you.”

I turned away from my father for a moment. I didn’t want to hear any more. He never believed a word I said. I didn’t know why I’d thought this time would be any different.

“Did you hear me?”

I closed my eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath. He was pushing my buttons, every single one of them, and I wasn’t sure how much more I could take. It was like the other night on the ice with Novak. He pushed me until I blew, and my father was going to do the same.

“Sit down,” he barked.

“I’m fine. I’ll stand.”

My father walked over to the window and looked out onto the backyard. He was silent for a moment, then he pulled out a cigar from his humidor, cut the end, and lit it. He stood there puffing away on it, then cleared his throat.

“Penelope told me something disturbing the other day.”

I straightened up to my full six-foot height and crossed my arms, towering over my father by a few inches. “Okay.”

“She said you and Aurora have been fooling around together.”

“We aren’t…I mean…we are, but it’s not what you think.”

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