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Today was the last day of my volunteer service. The timing couldn’t have been better. I had the guardianship hearing tomorrow, and with playoffs underway, I didn’t have time to be here.
Truth was, I’d come to enjoy these little fuckers. I looked forward to coaching. To teaching. To helping them work on their game. I’d miss it.
Maybe we could work something out when the season was over. I needed that Super Bowl ring before I could get back to these kids.
I didn’t realize how often I was looking for her until she appeared in my line of vision. It was like seeing the sun appear from behind a blanket of clouds after a storm. That ray broke through, and even if it only lasted for a minute, it brought light and sometimes a rainbow.
“Hey baby,” I greeted Julie as she crossed the field in a pair of knee-high boots.
“Hey. I thought I’d take Hunter home early and get him ready for tomorrow.”
He was in the QB
position on the blue team. I didn’t want to pull him from the team. He was having a great day.
“Look at him out there.” I pointed to him and Julie followed the direction of my finger.
She shook her head. “You have no idea what a different child he is now.”
“That’s football.”
She leaned into me. “Can’t you take some of the credit? I get the sports thing. Men can only communicate through sports—whatever that archaic thing is, but you reached him. It doesn’t matter how. It only matters that you did.”
“That kid has been hurt.” I saw it every time I looked at him.
“That’s his past,” she whispered. “This is going to be his future.”
“I sure as hell hope so.”
I hadn’t told her about the pit in my stomach every time I thought about the hearing. The last time I stood in front of a judge, it had been to defend myself for getting in a bar brawl. I still reeked of beer and my knuckles had been cut and bloody.
Tomorrow was about as far from that as possible.
Tomorrow, everything was going to change.
I didn’t know what the fuck I expected. A big courtroom with a row of juror seats and a crowd of people in the galley. But family court wasn’t anything like that.
We were ushered into a room. Julie was on one side of me. Savannah sat outside the door with Hunter. My attorney told us the judge would want to speak to the kid separately.
I also realized as I walked into the room I wasn’t only facing a judge, I was facing the man who raised the woman I had claimed as my own. Fuck.
She squeezed my arm. “It’s going to be fine. My father is fair.”
I nodded, puffing out my chest.
The bailiff announced for us to rise and Judge Bristow walked into the small room.
He smiled at Julie and we sat at one end of the table.
“All right, so what do we have here today?” He pulled a pair of glasses from his pocket and brought them to the tip of his nose.
My attorney had advised me not to utter a word until he gave me the signal.
“Your honor. We would like the court to award temporary guardianship of Hunter Evans to Kane Hawkins while he applies for full custody.”
“I see.” He read the file in front of him. “Mr. Hawkins, is that your intent?”
I cleared my throat. “Yes, sir, that is correct.”
