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A few minutes later, my family left and promised to see me in the evening. My mom and Ceci wanted to go shopping while they were in town, and we made plans to meet up once I was done working. There were still a few fans around; all the players were still on the field getting their stuff together if they weren’t busy. I had just grabbed my water bottle to take a swig when Harlow came over and gave me a grave look. Two looks like that in one day were way too much.
“What’s going on?” I asked her, stuffing the bottle under my armpit.
Her lower jaw moved a little. “I didn’t say anything because I know you would want to do the honors.”
I blinked. “Of doing what?”
Harlow planted her hands behind her back, the faintest trait of irritation crossing the plains in her cheeks. This was a facial feature of hers I was familiar with. She was trying to rein in that explosive temper. “Mr. Casillas didn’t say anything to you?”
I blinked, suspicious. “No. About what?”
Har cleared her throat, another giveaway that something had made her angry—which wasn’t saying much. She wasn’t known for her patience. “I think he went up to you-know-who and asked him for an autograph.” She cleared her throat once more. “I’m not sure, Sally. All I know is that your dad walked away and it looked like he’d gotten nut-punched.”
Patience, Sal.
I took a deep breath. “You think…” I was speaking about a word a minute so that I wouldn’t burst a capillary in my eye from how strained I felt on the inside. “He was mean to my dad?”My dad?
“I think that he was,” she responded nearly as slowly. “I’ve never seen your dad look like that. Especially not after he had Valentine’s Day in his eyes right before, and then didn’t afterward.”
P-a-t-i-e-n-c-e. Be calm. Count to ten.
I opened and closed my mouth to try and release the tension in my jaw, and nothing happened. The next thing I knew, my arms were shaking as I remembered the look on my dad’s face.
Fuck it.
I tried. I could live with the fact that I really did try to not get so pissed. I put in the effort. Then again, there were very few times that I’d ever gotten so mad so fast. I was usually calm, and if I wasn’t, I understood there was a time and a place to be angry.
Most of the time.
I took a step forward. “I can’t—“
Like a good friend, Harlow understood that there was no talking me off of the ledge I’d set myself on. She herself was protective and knew that you didn’t ever hurt a person’s loved ones, so she let me go. Later on, if I ever really thought about it, I’d remember that she’d said she was going to let me do the honors despite the fact she’d had the urge to stand up for my daddy’s pride, too.
“Just don’t hit him in front of everyone!” Harlow ordered me as I marched toward… well, I didn’t know where exactly. I only knew my destination and that was wherever the hell that German bitch was.
In the time it took me to find and speed-walk toward him, I calmed down enough to tell myself that I couldn’t punch him. I also couldn’t and shouldn’t call himFühreror anything else that could potentially get me in trouble. Fortunately for me, I thought well on my feet.
My goal: ripping him a new asshole without getting in trouble.
I took my mental Big Girl Socks off and threw them on the floor. Fuck this motherfucker. If I would have had earrings on, I’d be taking those off and handing them to Harlow, too.
My shaking arms and pounding heart egged me on.
I found him.
He was just there, minding his own business looking over some notes in a binder. Tall and solemn and completely oblivious to the fact that he’d hurt the most important man in my life’s feelings.
I didn’t think or bother to look around me to check and see who the potential audience was going to be because I didn’t give a single shit.
Don’t talk outright crap to him.
Don’t call him a curse word or Führer.
In that moment, I didn’t give a crap who this man was or who he had been. He was just some asshole with an attitude problem that had done the unthinkable. It was one thing to be an ass to me or my teammates. But he’d hurt mypapi’sfeelings, and that shit just didn’t fly.
“Hey,” I snapped the minute I was close enough.
He didn’t look up.
