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She inhaled a sharp breath and smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “Taming guys like your father, like Uncle Cam, it isn’t easy, and it definitely wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. I don’t want that for you, sweetheart. You deserve someone who can give you their all.”
I frowned. I didn’t want to tame Kaiden, I just wanted to know him. To feel his lips on mine again.
“What’s going on in here?” Dad appeared in the back door.
“Nothing, the girls were just about to help me bring everything out.” Mom motioned to the stacks of plates and bowls.
Ashleigh grabbed a load and made her way outside, Mom hot on her heels.
“Everything okay, Lil?” he asked as I loaded a tray with condiments from the refrigerator.
“Sure, Dad.”
“If there’s something wrong—”
Spinning around, I pinned him with a hard look. “Did you choose Jenson for the starting lineup for the game against Marshall because he’s the best?”
His brows furrowed. “Where is this coming from? You know I always make decisions—” He stopped himself, running a hand over his jaw. “This is about Kaiden, isn’t it?”
“Maybe.” I shrugged.
He let out a strained breath. “Kaiden Thatcher is good, great even, but he’s new to the team, to the way I do things. Jenson is—”
“The son of the booster fund’s biggest donor?”
“Now hang on a minute, Lily, that isn’t fair.”
“But it’s fair to cast judgment on Kaiden because his father is an ass?”
“Lily! What has gotten into you, sweetheart? Are the two of you… actually, no, don’t answer that.”
“Don’t worry, Dad,” I gritted out, “Kaiden knows what’s at stake. He wants football.”Not me.“But he needs you to give him a fair shot.”
Silence hung between us as Dad studied me. “Sometimes I forget that you’re a young woman. Capable and with her own mind.”
“I’m almost eighteen, Dad,” I scoffed.
“I know. But you’ll always be my little girl, and I’ll always want to protect you.”
Emotion welled inside me. He meant well; he always did. But Mom and Dad seemed to forget sometimes that I needed to fall down occasionally. Because if you never fall down you couldn’t learn how to pick yourself back up.
“Listen, Lil, do I need to be worried about this thing with Kaiden?”
“There is no thing with Kaiden, Dad.” The lie soured on my tongue. Because whether Kaiden admitted it or not, there was something between us.
Something I wasn’t sure I could just forget about.
“Good, sweetheart.” He came around and kissed my head. “Because you can do so much better. When you’re older, muchmucholder.”
“I’m almost eighteen,” I called after him, his shoulders shaking with quiet laughter.
But I wasn’t laughing.
The excitement I’d felt earlier at the arcade had dissipated, replaced with the familiar ball of dread.
The doorbell rang, startling me. “I’ll get it,” I yelled to no one in particular, moving down the hall.
“Miley, oh my God.” I smiled at my cousin’s girlfriend. “But what are you—”
