Page 63 of Her Player

“—news, everyone! The President is headed t⁠—”

Coach muted the television and turned back to me, handing me the remote control. I just tossed it back on top of my desk. It was a television I hardly turned on anyway. In fact, I hadn’t turned it on at all in months before this shit kicked up with Colton and my daughter.

“It’s not anywhere right now,” I said, breaking the tense silence.

Coach eyed me. “Doesn’t mean there won’t be.”

I shrugged softly. “Then keep the press conference appointment, and if something changes, then you know what to do. But as of right now? It’s not anywhere.”

The sigh of relief that puffed out his cheeks told me all I needed to know. He turned to face me, determination swirling around in his eyes. I knew a man on a mission when I saw one. I knew he had something rattling around in that head of his that he had more than rehearsed.

However, the second he drew in a breath through his nose, I held my hand up again.

“Jesus, what?” Coach grumbled.

Rhett chuckled. “You get used to it.”

The two of us shot him a look and he simply held his hands up in mock surrender. That didn’t stop him from tossing a playful wink in my direction, however. I did my best to ignore it. Though the blush that crept down my neck wasn’t trying to be as coy as me.

“Anyway,” I said as I slipped my hand back down to my side, “whatever speech you currently have rehearsed, I don’t need to hear it.”

He crooked an eyebrow and looked over at Rhett.

“I don’t know how she does it, either,” he said with a simple shrug.

Coach shook his head as he looked back at me. “You don’t?”

I shook my head. “No, you don’t. I know that you’ve been taking care of my daughter. I know that you’ve got this situation under control. I know that you never meant to put her in this position, and I know you probably never will again.”

“Never,” Coach said gruffly.

I nodded. “That’s why you don’t need to give me the speech I’m sure you’ve probably rehearsed a million times in your head.”

Coach snickered. “And how the hell would you know something like that?”

I smiled softly. “Because you remind me a lot of Ryan.”

He fell silent. If he knew that name then that meant Brynn talked with him about her father, and that made me so fucking happy. It was one of the many areas where I had failed my daughter. I did my best to talk about her father while growing up. After all, she was only in middle school when he was gunned down. But sometimes talking about Ryan was simply too much for me.

I was glad my daughter found someone she trusted enough to talk with.

“Thank you,” I said quietly, “for protecting my daughter.”

Coach’s eyes held mine. “No, thank you. I know this has been hard for you to come to terms with, how I feel about your daughter.”

I drew in a deep breath. “And, to answer your original question: yes. Rhett and I will be heading back with you guys. I think it’s smart for us to capitalize on the fact that the media circus outside is preoccupied with the other team.”

Coach thumbed over his shoulder. “Brynn insisted on taking the opportunity to pull your car up underneath the awning on the other side of Caldwell Arena. It’s why I came to find you.”

I smiled softly. “Tell her thank you. Rhett and I are coming.”

He slipped past me, heading for the exit of my office. “Just let me snatch my bag out of the locker. I’ve got laundry to do.”

“I’ll show you where the washer and dryer are when we get back,” I said.

As we all gathered our things and closed down Caldwell Arena for the evening, I waved at the new janitor we hired. He was more than dedicated to this place. A bit younger than I would have imagined for a janitor, but we all had our stories. He was happy to help, we were happy to hire him, and now we had two janitors splitting their time between this place instead of just one who had to do all of the work.

And as Rhett and I made our way out to my car parked on the shadowed side of Caldwell Arena, I couldn’t help but clock the severe lack of people with cameras and microphones.