Page 13 of Single Dad Dilemma
“I know.”
There was a telling pause, and I stared up at the ceiling, waiting for what was undoubtedly coming next. “Your quarterback stepping in between two guys taking swings didn’t help my nerves. Especially when he shoved that lineman twice his size.”
I closed my eyes. “Mine either.”
“Still think it’s unfair they gave him a flag for that.” She sighed. “You didn’t look too happy with him on the sidelines.”
Only my mother would’ve been able to see through that. Archer, hot off the fight and the flag—both of which triggered his impulse-control problem—came jogging off the field with his fist raised like he’d scored a fucking touchdown instead of costing us fifteen yards.
He’d met my gaze unflinchingly, only dropping his when my jaw clenched ominously and one of the veteran players pulled him aside. I was not the coach who’d get in his face, yelling and screaming. Public berating wasn’t my style, but most guys who’d played under me for a long time knew that my silence was sometimes far, far worse.
“I need him to be a calming presence in moments like that,” I said. “Not make things worse. The second he interjected himself, the entire offensive line got involved.”
“Your brother was always the one stepping in the middle of the fights,” Mom said lightly. “You always stayed back and pulled your teammates away.”
Another difference between us.
“It was messy at the end of the game, but they’re a young team.” I rubbed the back of my neck. “Still learning how to keep composure in big moments.”
“And afterward?”
I snorted. “I’m assuming you saw my postgame press conference?”
“Maggie is a natural with the media,” she answered diplomatically. “My personal favorite was when she started choosing which journalists asked questions and then answering them for you.”
“Yeah, everyone loved that. But she wasn’t supposed to be up there with me, and she knew it the moment she marched up to my chair.”
“She still punishing you?”
“With every inch of her being,” I answered wearily.
Mom hummed. “She must have loved that neighbor.”
My jaw tightened instinctively. An unwilling image of Lily’s face played like a movie in the back of my head—flashing, angry, dark eyes and full lips on an irritating loop that I couldn’t rip from my subconscious. “That makes one of us.”
“Oh, come on, how bad can she be?”
“She slammed the door in my face when I tried to apologize. She was letting them ride mattresses down the stairs. Who knows what else they did. She’s a menace,” I said hotly.
“Dearest son, one of the great loves of my life, I have seen you try to apologize,” Mom said with a smile clear in her voice. “You are good at a lot of things, honey. That’s not one of them.”
I stood from the couch and walked over to the sliding glass door that overlooked the backyard. Without permission from my brain, my eyes flicked over to the house to the right. Lights blazed from just about every window, just like they had the other night. An unfamiliar sensation churned through my stomach, and I turned away. Because we had an early game today, we were home just before dusk. Now the sky had darkened, and the neighbors’ twinkling Christmas lights flickered through the trees.
We didn’t even have a tree up at our house yet.
Too busy. Always too busy. Working my ass off at a job I loved, to make sure my children had everything they wanted in life—but stretched so fucking thin I could hardly take the time to enjoy it.
The sound of footsteps descending the stairs pulled me back to the present. “Mom, I’m gonna go talk to the kids. Text me if you book flights.”
“Love you, Barrett.”
My eyes closed. “Love you too,” I said gruffly.
The kids whispered urgently to each other, and when I turned around, Maggie was connecting her school laptop to the TV screen in the family room.
“Hey,” I said gently, not wanting to run them off now that she was finally willing to talk to me again. “What have you two been doing up there?”
Bryce cleared his throat, shuffling some note cards in his hand. My eyebrow rose at the way he’d slicked his hair back like mine. “Working on something,” he said. His skinny chest puffed out. “We have a presentation for you.”
