Page 132 of Caught from Behind

What’s my dad’s excuse?

Except, the kernel in my belly, the hope that’s begun to bloom because he’s here, because he’s put in effort to seek me out…

Maybe this will be that defining moment too?

Maybe he can change like Todd has.

“You treated Anne abhorrently,” he says, not acknowledging my questions and cruelly quashing that ember of hope beneath his boot. “Both of you.”

“Nova has nothing to do with this?—”

“You and Knox,” he says, slamming his palm on the top of my station, rattling the contents of the drawers, nearly sending my curling iron to the floor.

“Knox wasn’t there,” I say, thinking about the interrupted lunch, my spiraling, and all that had changed afterward.

“Not then!” he shouts. “Before.”

I stumble back a step, backing into the corner of Kit’s desk and wincing.

“I think you need to leave.”

Gasping, I whirl and see that Todd’s standing just inside the door, arms crossed, fury deepening the lines of his expression.

“This isn’t your business,” my dad says, taking a step toward Todd but stopping, likely because Todd is about twenty pounds heavier and six inches taller.

“It’s my business if you’re harassing her,” Todd snaps.

“It sure as?—”

“This is my dad,” I interrupt quietly.

That has Todd’s mouth dropping open, but only for a second because then he’s clamping his teeth together, face hardening. But he doesn’t engage further, just looks at me. “Let’s go, Ella girl.”

“Her name is Daniela.”

I close my eyes for a moment, exhale quietly. “Why are you here, Dad?”

“Anne and I have a house here.”

I brace, ready for that blow to tear through me, but…

Somehow it doesn’t.

In fact, I’m not sure that I feel any of this.

I’m just numb…

All the way to my very core.

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

Riggs

My phone rings right as I’m about to leave the locker room and join Knox on the ice.

We’re going to fine-tune some skills—tipping specific shots in front of the net, feeding passes through traffic, practicing some dekes we’ve been working on.

Just…getting those ten thousand hours in.

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