“I told you to sit down,” he barked again.
“No,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest and squaring off to him. “Oh, and as for the door slamming, I learned from the best.”
“Alright then, big man, what the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
“About?”
“The shit that is all over the news?”
“I’ve got my lawyers on it, as well as the team’s lawyers.”
“Is it true? Did you knock her up?” he questioned, crossing his arms in front of his chest as well.
“No.”
My father sort of chuckled at my answer and shook his head.
“What?”
“Have your lawyers gotten back to you with the answers about the paternity test that they were talking about on the news?”
“No. Not yet.”
“You are absolutely certain you didn’t knock her up?”
I rolled my eyes and met my father’s eyes. He’d been this way when we’d broken up. Giving me shit about ending a relationship that he was certain was the best thing in my life.
“Yes.”
“Then what the fuck were you thinking during the game?”
“What?”
“The fight, Dylan. What the fuck were you thinking, throwing the game by getting into a fight?”
“First, I didn’t throw the game. In fact, I didn’t throw the game at all. We fucking lost.”
“Because your mind was elsewhere. I can always tell when your mind is elsewhere because you play like shit.”
“Give it a rest, Dad. I don’t need to hear this right now.”
“It’s true.”
“Yeah, sure, and I’ve already heard it from the coach. You think I need to hear it from you, too?”
“Damn right you do. Fuck, Dylan, I sunk thousands of dollars into you, fucking thousands. I didn’t do it so you could fuck up your career.”
“How did I fuck up my career?”
“You don’t get it, do you? Until we have a fucking answer from this test, people are going to consider it to be true, and so am I.”
“Believe what you want. You always have, but know this, I haven’t been with Carlie since last year. I’ve had restraining orders on her. I’ve sent her cease and desist notices after she dragged me through the mud after our breakup that she caused. She cost me thousands of dollars. Why do you think I’d ever get involved with that again?”
“Because I know how men are. I am one. We do stupid things, which brings me to the next matter I want to discuss with you.”
I turned away from my father for a moment. I didn’t want to hear any more. He never believed a word I said. I didn’t know why I’d thought this time would be any different.
“Did you hear me?”
