“Anything that needs my attention, Anna?”
Anna shoots up from her desk with a consolatory look on her face. “Nothing important, Bex. There is someone waiting for you in your office.”
“Did I miss a meeting?” I groan. The last thing I need is another meeting. Especially one that I might have forgotten about in the chaos of everything going on.
“No. This one was a last-minute addition to your day. I know you said nothing unexpected, but he’s a hard man to say no to.”
Of course whoever is behind my office door is hard to say no to.
“Thanks. Hold my calls.”
“Already done.” She drops back down to her desk and goes back to clacking away on her keyboard. Shouldering open the door, the person sitting at my desk is the last person in the world I expected to see.
“Dad. What are you doing here?” Shock doesn’t even begin to describe what I’m feeling when I see him. “Aren’t you supposed to be in Spain?”
“I think you needed me more than Spain did.” He stands, striding around my desk to pull me in for a bear hug. “It’ll still be there in a few weeks.”
I sigh, wrapping one arm around him. I can’t remember the last time he’s come to my rescue. It’s not that I needed it—I’m thirty-six after all. But it’s nice to have a familiar face when I’m in the thick of things here.
“I know you heard the news.”
“I did.”
Dad walks over to the couch and takes a seat, kicking his feet up on the table. For being gone for a few months, he looks good—skin maybe a little too tan, salt-and-pepper hair, and a bit of a belly now. I’m sure he’s been eating and drinking his way through Europe. But his eyes tell me that he’s happy. Even if he had to make a detour from his trip, the look on his face tells me he’s happy he’s here.
“And? No opinions on it?”
“Why do you need my opinion, Bex? You’re an adult and can do what you want.”
I drop down into the chair across from him, dejection sitting heavy in my gaze. This is why he flew all this way? Not exactly a comforting conversation. “But…your statement to the press. You had no comment.”
Dad laughs and pats the couch next to him, beckoning me to him. I don’t move from my spot. “I had no comment for them. It’s a personal matter. Why do they need to get involved?”
I roll my eyes at him. “It’s not just a personal matter. It involves the team. And you. It’s about as personal as it gets.”
“How does it involve me, Bex?” He eyes me.
“Because you own the damn team!” I shout, exploding up from my seat and pacing in front of him. “Everyone is saying I’ve tarnished your legacy and I’m a disgrace to the game and are calling for my head on a platter. Do you know what that’s like? Because it fucking sucks, Dad. And you have no comment? Really?”
Dad pins me with a stare that would have a lesser person cowering in front of him. Having been on this end of my fair share of these, I’m not scared. I’m not that same teenager sneaking out that he caught breaking curfew.
“That stare won’t work on me.”
“Fine.” Dad laughs. “I should’ve known better. But why on earth would you think that you’re a disgrace to me?”
“They said disgrace to the game,” I mutter, picking at an invisible thread on my blouse. “Not you.”
“Bex. You have done no such thing to my legacy.”
“I haven’t?” I look up at him. “Then why are you here?”
It’s been two weeks since the news broke. Two long weeks of enduring nothing but snide comments and tasteless rumors the press have made up. I thought if we could weather the news cycle, all of this would blow over.
But it hasn’t. It’s like the longer I stay quiet and don’t release a statement, the worse it’s gotten.
No commentwill only get you so far.
And the fact that it’s affecting Nick and getting him suspended? I don’t want that to happen again. It can’t happen again because now it’s affecting the team.
