Page 11 of Her Player

The thought boiled my blood.

“I won’t ask again,” I hissed.

That’s when Coach cleared his throat. “Miss Caldwell, she’s always been more than that.”

I just shook my head and tucked my daughter’s face back against my chest. And when her head fell to my chest, it took everything I had not to lash out at the pathetic excuse for a man sitting in front of me. This was exactly what I was afraid of. I knew all too well how happiness could be ripped away at a second’s notice. And feeling my daughter’s body heave against mine with her crying stirred an anger within me I hadn’t felt since…

…Well, since I got that dreaded phone call from the police, that’s what.

“Mom, please,” Brynn whispered.

Her whispered voice ripped me out of my trance. Coach paced my office, his phone gripped white-knuckled in one hand, the screen still lit up with that goddamn headline every time it caught the light. I stroked my fingers through my daughter’s wild, curly hair. Such a stark opposite to mine. She inherited her father’s hair, that much was for certain.

I loved running my hands through her hair.

It reminded me of better times.

“Miss Caldwell, you have to under⁠—”

I interrupted Coach. I didn’t want to hear his voice unless it was productive. “What’s the plan?”

Coach blinked at me. “The plan?”

I pinned him with a look. “Don’t you dare play dumb now, after you’ve dragged my daughter into⁠—”

Brynn sighed as she lifted her head again. “Mom, this isn’t his⁠—”

“You’re crying in my arms. I blame him,” I said plainly.

My daughter pulled away from my grasp and gazed up at me with those beautiful brown eyes she had also inherited from her father.

My God, I missed that man.

“Mom, he didn’t⁠—”

“Walk me through exactly what happened before you ended up in my office,” I said curtly.

I watched my daughter gravitate back to that man’s side, and I had to resist the urge to pull her back to me like she was a fucking six-year-old.

“Now,” I demanded.

Coach drew in a deep breath. “I was on the ice. Bry came down from the stands with her phone in her hand and the article already pulled up. I didn’t even know something had happened until I saw her face.”

I looked over at my daughter, waiting for her input. My eyes dropped to the way she slipped her hand into Coach’s, and I ground my teeth together just to keep myself rooted.

I wanted to strangle the fucking man for making my daughter vulnerable to his bullshit lifestyle.

“And then you…?” I asked.

“Came right here,” Coach said.

I nodded as I looked over at my daughter. “Did you guys ever talk about a contingency plan for when this happened?”

And when the two of them slowly looked at one another, I was plotting Coach’s death.

“You mean to tell me neither of you saw this scenario coming from a mile away?” I asked as I tilted my head.

Coach apparently didn’t like that. “You want to go ahead and spit out what you’re accusing me of?”