“Yeah. A lady friend. A girlfriend. A wifey.” He winks at her. “Or just a fuck buddy.”
I palm both of Max’s ears to cover them.
“Gross.” Miller grimaces.
“Oh, come on, Miller. Look at the man. You think your dad looks likethatand doesn’t have fuck buddies?Please.”
“Rhodes.” I shake my head at him. “Shut up.”
He smiles to himself before taking another forkful of pasta. “Sure thing, Coach.”
“I’m happy, and I’m too busy to worry about anything other than work and you four.” I uncover Max’s ears. “Five,” I correct.
“Just saying,” Miller mutters under her breath. “Maybe it’s your turn.”
Until Miller met Kai, she had never mentioned the idea of me dating before, but now she won’t let it go. Like she’s so happy, she wants the same for me.
And I get it, I do, but I’ve already had my turn.
Sure, it’s been twenty years since I was with Miller’s mom, and I only had her for a year before we lost her, but I’ve experienced it. And then I was suddenly a twenty-five-year-old dad to a kindergartener who just lost her mom and wasn’t biologically mine, and I was too busy to worry about anything else.
Now, I’m in my mid-forties and focused on my career. Happily, if I do say so myself, and too busy living at the field to meet someone.
With the stretched silence, Miller lets it go. “How was the meeting?” she asks us instead.
“Good,” Kai exhales. “It sounds like there’s going to be quite a few changes this year, but Reese was well-spoken. She’s smart.”
“Dad, it went okay?” Miller’s tone is full of apprehensiveness.
“It was fine.”
I don’t mention the little conversation Reese had at me—yes,atand definitely notwith—in her office afterward to inform me she was cutting a video coach position. I couldn’t tell you if that’s a good business move or not, and I don’t necessarily care. All I know is the salary she wants me to cut belongs to a soon-to-be father who needs it.
A smile blooms on Kennedy’s mouth. “It was really amazing to listen to Reese’s vision for the team. I’m excited she’s taking over as owner.”
And even when the conversation shifts to subjects outside of work, the only thought that goes through my mind for the rest of dinner is...that makes one of us.
2
Reese
“Reese, are you with us?”
Hearing my name pulls my eyes up to find five too-intimidating stares mirrored back at me.
I have no idea what I missed from this meeting, focused instead on the printout sitting on the conference table in front of me. The column of red numbers has been stealing all my attention.
I clear my throat, finding Phil, one of the five members of the advisory board my grandfather had assembled when he was in charge. “I’m sorry,” I say, holding up the red-riddled papers. “We need to go back to this. These are our yearly projections?”
“Correct.”
“Most of the departments are operating in the red.”
Phil laces his hands together, resting them on the table, a wholly unimpressed look on his face. As if he’s about to have to repeat himself for the hundredth time to a child who can’t seem to grasp a basic concept.
Except, I fully understand what’s going on here. I simply don’t understand how this has been going on for as long as it has been. Or why my grandfather’s so-called “advisors” are so nonchalant about the club bleeding money.
And by the club bleeding money, what I actually mean is me.I’mbleeding money.
