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Riley raised her eyebrows at the suggestion but nodded. “I’ll speak to the manager and coaches and see what they say, but I agree. We have a platform to do something here, so let’s look at organizing it.”
Flashing her his signature smile, Dad sat back and focused on Kip. “While Rajesh works his magic legally,” he indicated at the handsome lawyer—who, if I was on the receiving end of his skills would scare the shit out of me—whose lips twitched at the faith in his abilities, “and Riley works on the charity game and turning this farce on its head, I think the three of us should spend some time together,” he suggested, looking at Kip and Hayden through narrowed eyes, his tone suggesting something else.
“I think that’s a great idea,” Kip agreed, the arm he’d kept around my waist tightening slightly.
Watching them in confusion, I tried to decipher what Dad was talking about.
“Let’s go for a drink,” Hayden said standing up. “Happy hour at The Kraken’s in two hours,” he told them both, referring to a bar near Alki Beach that he was a regular at, seeing as how it was run by a former member of the Sounders. Both Dad and Kip knew this and pulled faces at being at a bar run by a soccer player, but still agreed to go.
“We’ll get going and start working on what we’ve discussed,” Rajesh told us as he picked his notes up, giving Riley a look that made her blush. Well, then! “Let’s agree to meet at my office tomorrow morning. Is eleven o’clock okay?”
Once it was agreed on, they both left and Kip gave me a squeeze, this time to get my attention.
“Why don’t you have a word with your dad, and I’ll go speak to your brother about what’s going on?”
Knowing he was right and that I needed some time with Dad, I smiled gratefully at him.
As soon as the door closed behind them, Dad jumped right in.
“I know you’re wondering why I’m suddenly here, but…”
“I know,” I sighed, holding my hand up to stop him and sagging into the armchair I was sitting in. It was time, and the amount of care he’d shown today had been a kick up the ass for me. “Dad, I need to tell you something that’s been weighing on me for years. After the split, the kids at school teased me about you and said things that made me feel like I couldn’t be around you. Whenever photos were leaked of you spending time with us, they’d get even worse.”
“Shit,” he growled, tiredly rubbing his face with his hands. “I had no idea.”
“Yeah,” I sighed sadly. “After I went to college, people wanted to be my friend because I was Jason Wilkes’s daughter, not because of me. I figured if I separated us, it would stop, but then I met Cam and he said all the right stuff and made me feel special. I thought he liked me for me, but he only wanted the link to you, and then afterwards to Hayden to get into the Sounders. I guess I’ve been scared to trust anyone.”
“You can trust that man who hasn’t left your side all day,” he pointed out, and I nodded in agreement. He was definitely right there. Moving so he was in a chair closer to mine, Dad angled his body so he was facing me. “Ashley, the minute you were born and I held you, you became the most precious thing in my life, equal with your brother. I remember looking at you and feeling like someone had punched me in the heart. I still feel it when I look at you, and not seeing you as much hurts badly.”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, feeling those damn tears again. I never cried, but today had just been too much for me.
Leaning over, he caught my hand up in his big one and rubbed across my fingers with his thumb. “I know I messed up when you were little. Me and your mom got married because she got pregnant with Hayden. Did you know that?” When I shook my head, he continued, “It’s true. I wanted badly to have what my parents had, so I took the news as a gift and proposed.
“Some people fall in love with time, and in a way, I did love Rachel—how could I not when she gave me both of you.” The tears in his eyes shocked me, but not as much as what he said next. “Then she wanted me to change. I wasn’t bringing in enough money, she wanted a bigger house, the team didn’t get into the Super Bowl and she said she was ‘humiliated’ by it. It all just spiraled.
“When you were eight, I came back from an away game and she’d packed all my stuff and told me to leave, so I did. We were going through the beginnings of the divorce when she caught onto the story of Bill and Kerry,” he said sadly, referring to the player I remember clearly cheating on his wife and the whole case becoming public knowledge because he kept bragging about how many women he’d slept with.
