Page 74 of Play the Game

He pounds his gloved hand on my chest again but clenches his jaw to act unfazed by the changes we’re already seeing in the team.

Between the two of us, we’re going to build this team up to the top, and we’ll no longer be the laughingstock in the pros.

I tear my helmet off and grin. Rhodes grumbles under his breath and heads for the locker room after the ice has cleared. I stop at the last second when I see that he’s staring into the stands.

Scottie is smiling brightly with her rosy cheeks and bright-blue eyes. Behind her is Rhodes’s daughter, perched behind her in a piggy-back ride. The bow she was wearing is now in Ellie’s hair, and she looks happy.

Like she can feel me staring, Scottie’s eyes are drawn to mine. She gives me a strange look and then turns back and smiles at Ellie.

Rhodes curses under his breath after saluting to Ellie, who does the same to him. “I swear to God, that nanny better be in the box with my daughter.”

I’m almost positive she isn’t, because I think I just had a silent conversation with my wife…which means we’re more like husband and wife than I thought.

Thirty-Three

SCOTTIE

“Let’s go get your daddy,”I say to Ellie, fixing the bow in her hair. Her eyes lit up the second she saw all the wives wearing one. Nola even had one, although the bow was bigger than her face, and her ponytail had maybe three strands of hair in it.

After Ellie’s nanny went to the bathroom and never came back, I sat her down in between my legs and braided her hair before clipping the bow onto the end.

I say goodbye to the wives, who are all looking at Ellie with a touch of empathy in their eyes. She’s quiet while we walk to the lower level of the arena, passing all the rowdy fans who are walking in the other direction to get back to their cars. Little girls her age aren’t supposed to feel the weight of abandonment like she’s feeling at the moment.

I’m not sure what happened to her mother, and I know Rhodes is doing the best he can, but there’s a sorrow that I recognize in Ellie. She carries it well from what I have witnessed, but it’s a sadness that I know all too well.

It’s one of those sorrows that are invisible to the naked eye, but if you’ve been through it, you can see it right away.

“Daddy has to talk to the reporters today,” Ellie says quietly, dragging me toward the locker rooms. I’m thankful she knows the way, because I sure don’t.

“Oh?”

She nods, pulling me to keep up with her. “I always like to watch him because he gets nervous.”

I laugh under my breath. I think she’s gettingnervousmixed up with agitated.

My phone vibrates in my back pocket while I allow a five-year-old to lead me down a dark hallway. The security guard took one look at Ellie and let us through, which is nice to know they’re not letting random women back here.

Random women?I brush off the flare of jealousy, because it’s totally uncalled for.

Rhodes is worried. Ellie with you?

Yes, we’re on our way to you…I think? I’m letting Ellie lead the way, and although she’s a determined little thing, I have no idea where we are.

Rhodes says she knows the way.

I send him a thumbs-up emoji, and before I know it, Ellie and I are standing behind a cluster of reporters with microphones, headsets, and cameras. I pull her back a little so she isn’t in the limelight, but when she spots her dad, she desperately reaches up on her tiptoes to see better.

My heart warms.

God, she’s just like me.

Rhodes is her whole world, like my dad was mine.

I pray she doesn’t lose him.

Losing one parent was hard enough, and even if my mother is still physically alive, she hasn’t been my mom for a very long time. Losing two parents was just plain cruel.

Swinging Ellie onto my back again, her tiny hands rest on my shoulders, and we watch Rhodes answer questions about the game without an ounce of emotion on his face.

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