Page 22 of Forbidden Dunk

“No, Shawn, I don’t. I know it might seem odd, but I’m not Daddy’s Princess. I love my dad; he was a great father, and I want to be as good a parent as he is. However, there are lines that I won’t cross. I can’t say my dad didn’t give me breathing room, because he did. But when it came to dating, it’s been the same speech. Stay away from the guys on my team.

“Do you know, he was the boys’ basketball coach when I was in high school. You can imagine how much smaller the dating pool became for a school that specializes in the basketball program. Not to mention, my dad helped with the coaching staff for football.

“So, yeah, my dating life sucked in high school.”

“I’m sorry,” I told her, wrapping my arm around her shoulder. And I was. I couldn’t imagine having someone like that around all the time. I could see why she pushed to jump into college and then the WNBA. And why she was so against having to come back home.

“What did your mom say about the baby? I really wish I could have been there to tell her with you.”

“No, Shorty, it’s a good thing you weren’t. I love my mom, but she blew a fuse on me. I got called quite a few names, and then she wanted to try and say you were some gold-digger, just trying to trap me. I actually had to yell at her to get her to listen.

“After two shots and a martini, she was good to talk to me again. The tune changed from being mad at you to being mad at me because I hadn’t brought you by to meet her. So, we’re having dinner with her this weekend.”

I grinned as Marketa laughed at that. These two ladies were going to get along so well. In certain aspects, Marketa reminded me of my mom, not that I was dumb enough to tell her that. But I could appreciate those a little bit more. And if I was ever stupid and walked away, I know that Marketa would have an amazing strength to take care of our baby.

We walked out of the building, my arm around her, and I walked her to her car, sharing a kiss with her before waving her off. I made her promise that she would text me as soon as she got home.

Thirty minutes later, I walked into my house, sat my keys on the table and grabbed a water. I didn’t want to jump online to see the comments about the game, but I needed to get a feel for the team right now.

It was bad enough my phone was blowing up from the guys asking what the fuck was going on, but I wasn’t about to get into everything with them. Especially not over text.

I powered up my laptop and started browsing some of the sports sites, glad to see the talk wasn’t all bad. More so about Coach. Which kind of bugged me.

He wasn’t a bad man, just a few issues, and I didn’t want to see his name drug through the mud because he couldn’t pull his head out of his ass.

I did a quick scan of the article before scrolling down, frowning at the picture at the bottom of the site.

It was one of Marketa and I as we were leaving tonight.

“Fuck.”

I rubbed the spot on my neck where they talked about love bites that were on display and questioning who this lady was that I was with. They also mentioned that this was the second time I had been seen with her and followed it up with a picture of us at the restaurant. At least the baby picture wasn’t photographed, that would be even worse.

Then it questioned if I was officially off the market and that only time would tell.

I know Coach Jones checked these sites too and I could only pray that he would be too damn pissed to go anywhere near them for the moment. Or at all.

Because learning about your daughter’s boyfriend from a website and not from her would be an even uglier picture than the one we were painting.

Chapter 14

Marketa

Six days later, after keeping my dad away from all sites, thanks to Shawn’s warning, and trying to appease my dad, I told him we needed to go shopping.

My food cravings were becoming more intense, and I wasn’t sure how much longer I could hold off on not telling my dad I was pregnant. But once I did, I knew that would only open the flood gates even more for his anger and I wasn’t wanting that yet.

“Let’s go,” he told me, holding the door open for me.

“I got a list, and we need to stick to it.”

“God, when you say it like that, you remind me of your mom.”

I stuck my tongue out at him in response, making him laugh.

Fifteen minutes later, we walked into the store, and I frowned. I could have sworn I saw Shawn in the produce section.

“I’m going to go check out something, Dad, go ahead and get the bread.” He nodded and I left him, walking into the coldarea and grinned as I saw my man. I walked up behind him, pressing my body against his back as I reached around to grab a cucumber.

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