Page 51 of Sweet Thing

Finally, he released my hand. It felt clammy but then that was likely me, because clammy was my brand.

“Nice to meet you, Adeline.”

Lars

I knew that cry.

Weird that it took barely a week for me to develop the ability to recognize my daughter’s voice. I looked up into the stands and there they were:my girls.

I couldn’t help that thought nor the way it snaked inside my brain. Neither of them was mine, not really. Mabel had my genetic material, that was all. As for Adeline? I needed to nix those dangerous thoughts.

It sure was nice to see her here all the same, even if we were in this weird spot.

I skated over to the wall. “Is everything okay?”

“Of course. I’m having lunch with Hatch. Thought I’d show Mabel what Daddy does for a living.”

That made me warm.Daddy.“I would hold her but?—”

“On the ice, no. Dad dropped me once. I haven’t recovered.”

“What?” Theo, with that innate instinct for knowing when he was the hot topic, skated over. “Are you still holding that against me? For the fiftieth time, O’Malley bumped me and?—”

“Not how it happened.” O’Malley launched into a spirited defense of this decades-old incident. “You were skating backwards while carrying your kid, showing off as usual, and you crashed into me. I saved Adeline’s life! Hey, Addy, you’re looking well.”

He kissed her cheek, and while I knew it meant nothing, I still wanted to punch his throat.

“Hi, Dex. You played great the other night. Your PPG is already stellar this season. And your Corsi score is looking good, too. Close to 58%!”

“I don’t pay much attention to the stats, but if you say so.”

“Addy loves her stats.” Hatch leaned on the wall. “Hey, sis.”

“Hey, Dino Boy.”

O’Malley’s face lit up. “Dino Boy! Remind me again?”

Unfortunately, I knew this origin story. “Something about the dinosaur-themed underwear Kershaw wore the night he conceived the kid.”

“Shit, really?” O’Malley clearly wished he’d never asked.

Hatch shook his head. “Notmy preferred nickname.”

Theo chortled. “As we say in the biz, you don’t get to choose, H-man!” He leaned over the wall and chucked Mabel under the chin. “Now, how’s my goddaughter? Mabel, May-belle, Belle of the Ball, Jelly Belly? We’ll work on it. Baby’s gotta have a nickname.”

“Oh, that’d make a good photo for the socials.” Adeline snapped a few with her phone while Theo mugged it up.

He peered up at her. “Did you take those photos on NyQuil’s Insta?”

I answered for her. “Yep. She really knows her stuff.”

“That she does. Glad to see you coming up with some counterprogramming to the narrative.”

I was pissed that I had to, but Adeline’s taking charge of the situation was a blessing.

“We should probably mix it with hockey stuff, too,” Adeline said. “Just a few clips. Keep it light.”

“You can take complete control of it.” I didn’t care about that kind of thing, but I’d already had a call from Natalie congratulating me on mysocial reachandinnovative strategizing. Owning my shit had apparently worked.

---