“Him? At most, he could’ve been interested in me, twenty years ago.”
Jamie bursts out laughing again, teasing a small smile even from the coach.
“Besides, you were always the one hanging around Casey, even back when you were younger, O’Connor. I should’ve sliced your balls off then.”
“Me?”
“What do you want from her?”
“I don’t…I…”
“I will never let you lay a finger on my daughter. Are we understood?”
“Then why the hell did you let us in?” Ryan asks.
Coach Madigan slumps defeatedly onto an armchair, his gaze tired and worried; I know that the only thing that can worry the coach is his daughter.
“I don’t like that doctor.”
“Surgeon…” Ryan corrects him.
“Whatever. He’s not right for her.”
“And Nick would be better?” Jamie exclaims in shock.
“Whose fucking side are you on?” Ian shoots at him.
“It was just an observation.”
“Then don’tobserveanything.”
“Don’t flatter yourself, O’Connor. None of you in this room – not even you, champion – would ever be worthy of my daughter.”
“I agree,” I say suddenly. “No one would ever be enough for Casey.”
Coach Madigan looks at me for a few moments, then sighs; the weight of the years spreads across his face.
“That’s why I let you in,” he says, addressing everyone but fixing his gaze on me. “Because, as much as you’re a dickhead, you know that you’re not enough. And the fact that you can admit that makes me think that, maybe, in the end, you’re the lesser of all the evils.”
Wow. I definitely never expectedthatfrom the coach.
“And besides,” he continues, picking at the label on his beer bottle. “When you were around, she was…happy.”
I think he’d have hurt me less if he’d shot me square in the chest.
“And I just want her to go back to being happy.”
31
Casey
Luke pulls up at the side of the road, without going into the driveway. He switches off the engine and turns to me.
“Are you tired?”
“What do you mean?”
“You seem distant tonight.”
