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The elevator doors slid open onto the executive floor. Dean tucked his phone into his pocket and headed toward McKenna’s office, already deciding he’d let her choose between sandwiches at the café or fast-food burgers. His girl loved a Big Mac.

He was only a few steps from her open doorway when laughter drifted into the hallway. He slowed automatically.

“I’m serious,” McKenna said between giggles. “You should have seen Tank’s face when I started crying. He was absolutely horrified.”

He frowned. What the hell had Tank done to make McKenna cry? Dean immediately began plotting retribution during practice. A few thousand suicide sprints came to mind.

“Oh, honey, that man is an absolute keeper.”

Dean stopped cold at the familiar voice.

Ellie?

What was she doing in Baltimore?

He leaned slightly toward the door before he could stop himself. While he and Ellie had established a friendly relationship over the years, he still hesitated to announce his presence, not wanting to interrupt their visit. He knew how close McKenna was with her mom and how much she missed her.

“I still can’t believe you drove all this way just to see the ring. I could have sent you a picture, you know?” McKenna said.

“I absolutely drove all this way! My only daughter gets engaged and you expect me to wait for pictures?”

Engaged?

Dean stared at the carpet outside McKenna’s office, certain he’d heard Ellie wrong.

Tank had proposed?

Dean’s first instinct was to walk in and demand to know why no one had told him. His second was to turn around and leave before they realized he was standing there. Instead, he remained frozen in the hallway, too stunned to do either.

“I still can’t believe he drove all the way to Ohio to get your blessing.” McKenna’s voice was softer now.

“He didn’t have to,” Ellie insisted. “But damn if my opinion of him didn’t go up a thousand percent when he showed up on my doorstep. And I already liked the man.”

“He likes you too, Mom. Very much.”

“Never seen Tank so nervous. I swore he looked like he was about to play game seven of the Stanley Cup finals.”

McKenna burst into laughter. “He admitted he was terrified when he got there.”

“Not going to lie. For a second there, I thought he was coming to tell me he’d gotten you pregnant.”

“Oh my God, Mom. You think I’d seriously send Tank to tell you something like that instead of coming myself?”

“No, I don’t,” Ellie said, “but I was pretty shocked to find him standing there without you. Couldn’t figure out what the hell had happened.”

Dean closed his eyes. Tank had driven all the way to Ohio to get Ellie’s blessing.

A knot settled heavily in his chest. Not because that was wrong. Tank had done exactly what he should have. Ellie had raised McKenna…alone. She’d been there through every scraped knee, every school program, every teenage heartbreak. She had earned that conversation.

Dean might be McKenna’s father, but he’d never truly been her dad. Not the way Ellie had been her mom.

Even now, with them finally living in the same city and slowly building what they’d never had, their relationship felt less like father and daughter and more like two adults who genuinely enjoyed each other’s company.

They’d become friends.

“What did Dean say?” Ellie asked.

There was a brief pause. “We haven’t told him yet.”