Page 6 of Out of Bounds

“Gunnar, I have this handled. Shouldn’t you be on the field, you know, coaching? It is what we hired you for.”

“Like you have any idea why I was hired,” he scoffed, turning to head back outside.

“You spent thirteen years as a defensive midfielder, where you were known best for your long ball placement, especially during your time at Liverpool playing with Cullen Cruz. Y’all only won two Cups during your time there, but you competed for the top spot in five of your nine seasons with them. In your six seasons with Dundalk as the director of their academy you managed to take a U18 team with a losing record and make them champions within two years,” she rattled off, trying to make her point. She could feel her frustration rising in her. No one ever took her seriously. She might look like some dumb blonde, but she knew her shit, and she was going to make sure he knew that. “You also helped coach eleven players who went on to play in the Irish Premier League, two to play in the English Premier League, one in the Eredivisie, and another in Serie A. Not to mention all the contacts you still have in leagues all over the globe. Cruz might have been offered the job first, but your name was always on the short list.”

“How do you know all that?” he asked as she brushed past him, fire coursing through her veins. How dare he question her.

Stopping in her tracks, she turned to him, a scowl on her face. Right now she didn’t care how mean she looked or sounded.

"Every now and again I’m allowed to know something. Just remember that.”

Chapter Three

Tucked away behind a gated entry and an intricate wrought iron fence sat the Sutherland home. Not that this place had felt like a home to Felicity since the death of her mother almost seventeen years ago.

The eight thousand square foot low-country style home featured double front porches, seven bedrooms—including two master suites—and an open floorplan with plenty of room for entertaining. The large patio off the backside of the house also included a heated pool, hot tub, and a twelve hundred square foot pool house that had two bedrooms, a living room, and a fully functional kitchen.

Felicity sucked in a deep breath, reminding herself to remain calm as she walked through the front door of the massive house. The grand two-story foyer with a dual, curved staircase greeted her the same way it had every day growing up, yet now it was no longer comforting. Gone was the soft, subtle décor her mother had spent years fussing over, and in its place was nothing but the cold, harsh lines of the modern décor that her father’s wife was so fond of.

“Hey!” Zara Wellington, Dalton’s childhood best friend and now fiancée, called out, walking into the foyer from the library. The two had reconnected last year while Dalton was still in the Virgin Islands working at the Indigo Royal Resort before getting engaged last month. Stopping in front of Felicity, Zara put her hand to her chest, trying to catch her breath. “Lulu was just showing me some TikTok dance thing. When I agreed to do it, I didn’t realize we would have to do it three thousand times.”

“Better you than me,” Felicity said, thankful her fourteen-year-old half sister had sucked Zara into it and not her. “Where’s Tripp?”

“Last I knew he was in the office talking with Big D about something. That’s how I ended up TikToking. They wanted Lulu distracted,” Zara said, lowering her voice. “I guess the latest scans didn’t come back great.”

Felicity felt her heart drop. Her relationship with her dad was a complicated one, both personally and professionally since she worked for the family company. But the idea of losing him to the same thing that had stolen her mother made her want to throw up. He was a difficult man at the best of times, but that didn’t mean that she loved him any less.

“Medusa not home?”

“I heard that,” her stepmother said, suddenly appearing on one of the staircases.

“Good.”

“Zara, would you mind telling Lulu that it’s time for dinner?” BobbiJo Sutherland said. The woman was a few inches shorter than Felicity, blonde, and still very much looked fresh out of college, even in her early forties. Her beauty was only skin-deep however, and Felicity was still amazed at just how rotten the woman’s core was. “I’ll grab the guys and see everyone in the dining room.”

A few moments later they were all gathered around the long dining room table, sitting in awkward silence as the last of the prepared dishes was set out before them. With Lulu to her left, Dalton and Zara across from her, and her father and stepmother at either end of the table, they looked like one big happy family.

“So, how’d everything go with Talia this afternoon, Flick? Gunnar said you got her all sorted out with a bedroom set?” Dalton said, breaking the tense silence.

“I did. I didn’t hear from her after she left the training facility, but based on the notifications and emails I got, everything seemed to be on schedule.”

“It seems a little much to me that you upgraded his apartment and bought them furniture,” BobbiJo said from the other end of the table.

“I want them to know that they have our support,” Dalton told her. “We’re a family company, and our employees are family. That’s something we’ve always stood by.”

“That’s right, son,” Big D replied around a mouth full of pot roast.

“But do we want to seem like we’re condoning such behavior?”

“What such behavior?” Dalton asked.

“Right, because no one in this family has ever behaved poorly,” Felicity chided.

“Felicity!” Big D scolded.

“I’m sorry, I forgot,” she continued, throwing a pointed look at her father. “You’re the epitome of moral fiber.”

Big D swallowed hard, holding back a response. He knew she was right. BobbiJo had originally been hired by his late wife as a nanny of sorts, since Dalton and Felicity were only ten and thirteen when she was first diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. BobbiJo was twenty-two and fresh out of college, the youngest daughter of a family friend, and quickly became like the older sister she’d always wanted. Or so Felicity had thought.