I stop her and wrap her in my arms. “Are you okay?” I pull her back. “Let me see your face.”
“Evan, why are they here? What’s going on?”
I look her in the eyes, placing my hands on either side of her head and holding her face in my palms. “Everything is going to be okay.”
“Obviously, it’s not. You don’t know who that was.”
I nod. “I do. He just told me he’s Nolan’s father.”
Her face goes pale as more tears fall down her cheeks. I wipe them away with my thumbs.
“He told you?” she cries out.
I pull her back into me, holding her while she sobs.
She steps back. “But I don’t get it. Why is he here?”
“They are silent owners of the team.”
She closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, then opens them and starts blurting out, “I swear to you, I didn’t know he owned the team. I hadn’t known who he was then either. I had no idea he was this wealthy business guy, and I didn’t know he was married.”
Everything she said—or rather, not said—about Nolan’s father makes more sense now.
I try to stop her from having a full-blown panic attack. “I know. It’s okay.”
“I’m not a gold digger, I promise. I didn’t want anything from him.”
“I know. You don’t have to prove yourself to me. I see you raising Nolan all on your own. It’s okay.”
“But it hasn’t been all on my own. They bought me that house. I didn’t pay a dime for it.”
“As they should have.” I try to calm her down, glad to hear he at least did something for her and didn’t leave her high and dry.
“But it makes me look even more like the gold digger she accused me of. I’m not, I promise. I just couldn’t turn down what they offered. I didn’t know how I would support and raise a child on my own.”
“Christy.” I bring her back into my chest and hold her tighter. “You do not need to explain yourself. The fact that they don’t help you now or that they’re not even a part of Nolan’s life is what they should be ashamed of. You’ve done nothing wrong here.”
“I promise I didn’t know he was married. I would never have started dating him if I had known half of what I know now.”
I kiss the top of her head. “I believe you. I do. You don’t have to keep saying, ‘you promise.’”
“Nolan!” she yells out as if she just remembered he’s still in there.
She races out of my hold, but I grab her.
“It’s okay. I have Zach with him.”
“But what if Eddie tries to talk to him? We need to get him out of here!”
“We will. Let’s walk back, and I’ll call Zach. Figure out what’s going on.”
She agrees, and I hold her hand in one of mine and my phone in the other while I have it on speaker for her to hear.
“What was that all about?” he asks as his greeting.
“Where’s Nolan?” I ask urgently.
“All good, bro. He’s still with me. He and my boys are hitting away without a care in the world.”
