Page 135 of Over Time Advantage

I’ve been sitting in my car outside his house, drifting in and out of sleep, taking large gulps of whiskey every time I wake. I have no idea how long it’s been, but the sun is just starting to rise on the horizon, so I guess it’s been a few hours.

At some point, I hear a car approaching. Looking in my rearview mirror, I realize it’s Daylen’s Jeep. The soon-to-be-dead motherfucker is very obviously singing as he passes me. Singing. He ruined my daughter’s life, and all he can do is sing.

I exit my car and stay low as I run across his lawn like a ninja while he enters his driveway. He has the goofiest smile on his face as he steps out of his car. All I can think of is what he and Kennedy have likely been up to for the past few hours to give him that fucking smile. I can’t stop seeing her with her legs wrapped around him and his hands moving uninhibited over her body. That scene will forever be burned into my brain.

He practically skips up his front steps. If he weren’t in La-la Land, he’d see me, but he doesn’t notice me. As he stands at his door, I charge at him and throw the bottle straight at his head. It just misses him but hits the door with a loud crash, causing the bottle to shatter. He grunts in pain as he grabs for his neck. A piece of glass must have gotten him. Good.

He turns around in time for my fist to meet his stupid, goofy face. The wimp crumbles to the ground like a ton of bricks.

I stand over him in a fighting stance with my fists drawn. We’re not done yet. I want him to bleed on the outside the same way I am on the inside.

“Get the fuck up, Humblecut,” I scream into the quiet morning. “I’m going to beat you senseless.”

He holds up his hand in surrender before attempting to stand. I pull my fist back and punch him as hard as I can in the stomach, causing him to fall back down on his ass.

I got him good on that one. He’s struggling to breathe.

“Stop, Coach. Please,” he wheezes as I see blood beginning to leak from the spot near his eye where I hit him.

With my fists still drawn for battle, I croak out, “I loved you like a son. How could you do this to me?”

“What? What did I do?” he asks as if he doesn’t know the answer. Deceitful bastard. At least have the integrity to own it.

“Kennedy. How dare you touch my daughter!” I yell. “Have you no honor? And she’s...pregnant?”

The reality of the situation hits me, and I deflate while tears begin to spill from my eyes. He’s ruined her life. All her hopes and dreams are about to vanish because of him.

“Why?” I ask. “Why would you treat her like one of your whores?” I hit my chest with my fist. “My daughter. Why? Tell me. I need to know.”

Did he do this to get back at me for something? Is my daughter’s life ruined because of me?

He almost—almost—looks sincere when saying, “You’ve got it wrong, Coach. It’s not like that at all. I lov⁠⁠—”

His sentence is interrupted by the sounds of a car peeling into his driveway, fishtailing like a stuntman is driving it. It’s Kennedy’s car. My baby girl. My pregnant baby girl.

Bringing the car to an abrupt stop and leaving her car door open, she sprints to us and stands between Daylen and me before yelling at me, “What did you do to him?”

With a shaking hand and broken heart, I point at the motherfucker. “He t…touched you. My daughter.”

“So what?” she screams at me. “That makes it okay to hit him? I’m an adult who can make her own decisions. Your solution is to attack him? Are you crazy?”

My eyes move down to her stomach as I croak out, “You’re pregnant with his child?”

She slowly nods while reaching for him in such a comfortable, familiar way. I can’t take my eyes off them. She pulls his arm around her before placing his hand protectively over her stomach, and calmly states, “I am, and I love him.”

I suck in a breath and stumble back at her use of the L word when it comes to Daylen. “Love him?” I ask with incredulity. “This guy? The guy who has no respect for women? How could you be so stupid?”

Daylen grits his teeth at me. “Don’t you dare call my wife stupid.”

All the air leaves my lungs while I nearly collapse. “Wife?” I choke out. Oh my god. They’re married.

Kennedy nods. “Yes, Dad. I’m his wife. We’re married. I love him, and he loves me. We’re having a baby, and I’m about five minutes away from moving in here with him.”

I look up at his giant house. Why the fuck does he have such a big house in the suburbs?

The two of them banter like an old couple about her moving in, but I can’t hear any of it as shock runs through me. My daughter got married without me. Fresh tears fill my eyes, and a wave of nausea fills my gut. I think I’m going to puke.

“Coach,” Daylen interrupts my spinning head. “I’ve been wanting to talk to you about this for a long while. Months.”