She gives me a small smile before looking back at her father. “Haven’t you seen changes in me this year?”
“I have,” Coach admits.
“I’m working so damn hard on being a better version of me, and Daylen is a big part of that. You can’t imagine how many times I’ve questioned my ability to be a good mother since I found out about the baby. I didn’t have one. I’m fucking terrified.” She taps her finger on my chest a few times. “This guy, this guy right here, he gives me validation every minute of every day. He sees the good in me on the days I can’t find it in myself. He tells me what a great mother he thinks I’ll be when I can’t see it in myself. There is no one,no one, I would want to do this with other than him. I think he’s going to be the most amazing father because he’s such a natural caregiver. No one has ever taken better care of me. No one loves harder than him. Our child and I are so damn lucky to have him.”
I get choked up with emotion at her words, but she’s not done.
Her glassy eyes drift to mine before they meet her father’s again. “For the first time in my life, someone quiets the chaos always churning through my brain. I’m not saying this to hurt you, Dad, but I’ve always felt so damn alone. I’ve never hadanyone to lean on. I’ve always had to take care of myself because no one else was there to do it for me. Daylen is the man who says to meI know you can do it by yourself, but you don’t have to anymore. He makes my doctor’s appointments, he makes sure I’m eating well, he cooks for me, he supports me, he makes me feel seen, and,” she looks at me, “he makes me feel like I matter. Daylen Humblecut is the biggest green flag to ever exist, and I was a fool to ever think otherwise.”
I’m feeling about a million feet tall right now, knowing how she feels. She’s never outwardly expressed any of this to me before. She’s more of ashow by actions not wordskind of woman.
I gently swipe the errant tear on her cheek with my thumb as we stare at each other. I love her so much.
I want to drop to my knee and ask her to marry me all over again, but I still want my solo conversation with Coach. Instead, I take her hand, kiss it, and say, “I was planning to wear white jeans and sandals with socks today. Is that okay?”
She giggles through her tears, and it’s music to my ears.
I turn to Coach. “In summary, I’m kind of awesome.”
He rolls his eyes and mumbles, “I should have killed you out front.”
And then it occurs to me that Kennedy arrived here only a few minutes after me. I look at her. “What made you come here this morning?”
“I startled awake when you closed the door,” she answers. “When I rolled over to check my phone, I had a million missed voicemails and texts from Fallon that Dad knew and was fit to be tied. She was afraid he’d confront you.” She looks at Coach. “You should call her. She’s worried sick about you.”
He scowls. “Fallon and I aren’t seeing each other anymore.”
“What?” Kennedy screeches. “Why?”
He stands abruptly with the chair falling over and him stumbling a bit. “I don’t owe you an explanation of my love life, Kennedy. Considering you got married and pregnantwithout so much as a mention of it all to me, I don’t need to shareanythingwith you.” He runs his fingers through his hair in frustration and barks out, “I need to get out of here. I can’t handle this.”
She stands and yells, “You’re not sober. You can’t drive. It was irresponsible of you to drive here.”
“Don’t tell me what to do like I’m a child,” he screams back.
“You’re acting like a fucking child, so Iwilltell you what to do. I’ll lie down in front of your car before letting you drive right now. You’re not going anywhere. When you sober up, you can go and apologize for whatever you did to Fallon. Don’t fuck things up with her. She’s the best thing to ever happen to you.”
They’re in a stare-down. It’s stubborn versus stubborn. I’ve never once got into an antagonistic screaming match like this with my father. I’m at a bit of a loss, but I know I don’t want Kennedy getting upset. It’s not good for her or the baby.
I stand and rub her back. “Calm down. It’s not good for you or the baby. I’ll drive him home in his car and Uber back.” I point toward the kitchen table. “Can you take care of this?”
She nods. “Sure. I’ll follow behind in my car and bring you home.”
I shake my head. “No, I want you to relax. Take a bath when you’re done. I bought a big box of some of the salts you like. They’re in the linen closet.”
She nods as she begins to clear the table before pausing briefly. “When you sober up, Dad, you’ll realize that while all this may have started in a fucked-up way, and we’ve done things in a crazy order, it’s a blessing. I consider Daylen and this entire situation to be the best thing that has ever happened to me.”
Unable to stop myself anymore, I grab her face and give her a hard kiss on the lips. “Thank you. You and our baby are thebest things to happen to me too. Now I can tell everyone,” I say excitedly.
She gives me a small smile. “I still want to get through the madness of the next few weeks, and then we can tell everyone. I promise. We have so many team interviews. I don’t want them to be about me and my pregnancy. They should be about the team and our achievement.”
A pang of disappointment hits me because I’m sick of the secrecy and want to be there to celebrate with her this week, but it’s been an emotional morning for her. I don’t want to make things harder.
Coach and I begin the short drive to his house in silence before I finally speak. “I’m sorry you found out from Fallon and not us. It’s not how I wanted this to go down. I wanted to have a real conversation with you, man to man. I owed you that.”
He shakes his head as he aimlessly stares out of the passenger window. “That’s not how I found out. I went to her apartment last night to leave her a congratulatory gift, and I saw you two together in her hallway.”
My eyes widen knowing what we did in that hallway, but he says nothing further, and neither do I.
