Page 80 of Playoff

Great.

Even my girl wants no part of this.

And I know it’s going to go bad.

“Dad.” I try to grab his arm, but he’s heading toward another journalist who’s been recording the whole thing with a look of amusement on his face.

This is going to be all over social media tomorrow and I’ll be a laughingstock. At the very least, my father will be banned from coming to games, which is both a problem and a relief. He’ll be pissed and could potentially guilt my mother into not coming either, which pisses me off.

Everything about this pisses me off.

Mother. Fucker.

Out of nowhere, Coach Vanek appears, and he sweeps in like an avenging angel or some shit.

“Mr. Rourke, so good to see you. Come on, let’s go have a chat.” Coach steers him back toward one of the offices he uses when we’re here.

“But—” Dad tries to protest, but I know he’s a little in awe of Coach.

“We haven’t had a chance to get to know each other.” Coach is really masterful at deflection, and I realize now that this was Rowan’s doing. She’s watching from a few feet away, and I give her a grateful look.

“Thank you,” I mouth.

She smiles and then slips away.

“You should marry her,” Phoebe whispers to me.

Hell, I should have married her a decade ago.

But hindsight is twenty-twenty.

TWENTY-FIVE

Rowan

I’m soangry on Blake’s behalf.

His dad is such a douche.

Thank goodness Coach Vanek is a people person, and after many years of dealing with spoiled, arrogant, and sometimes difficult athletes, he managed to get Mr. Rourke out of there without much fanfare.

Unfortunately, the damage is done.

Except it’s turning into a blessing in disguise.

While the press is absolutely vilifying Mr. Rourke, they’re giving accolades to Blake for his self-control, the way he tried to protect his mother, and his professionalism in the middle of an embarrassing and slightly out-of-control situation with an inebriated family member. All of it was caught on camera, so there’s no way to sugarcoat Mr. Rourke’s behavior but Blake’s was exemplary, according to the masses.

People are far less focused on the negativity as they are to Blake’s response to the whole thing, and it’s turning out to be a good thing because of all the positive press he’s getting. Hedoesn’t see it that way, but he’s with his family tonight dealing with the fallout, and I’m on my way to pick up my dad from the airport. He made a last-minute decision to fly in for the next couple of home games, and while I’m happy to see him, the timing kind of sucks because this means no sleepovers with Blake this week.

“Hi, honey.” He gets in my SUV and leans over to kiss my cheek.

“Hey, Pop.” I grin as I pull into traffic. “How was the flight?”

“Nice and smooth.” He leans back in the seat. “How are you doing? The team is killing it!”

“Yeah, it’s been really exciting.”

“How’s your boss? He doing okay?” He knows everything that happened with the accident and Gene’s heart attack.

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