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“It’s working,” I admit. “The therapy. But probably not in the way you would have hoped.”
He turns his head toward me. “What do you mean?”
“Lila makes me think about things that make me angry.”
“Lila? She lets you call her by her first name?”
“It’s complicated, Dad.”
“You like her.”
I nod.
“That’s why you’ll talk to her.”
I nod again.
“Why couldn’t you just talk to me, then?”
“Because you are part of the problem.”
His head drops, his eyes fixed on the carpet. “I’m sorry, Duke. We’ve gone over this plenty of times.”
“You left us,” I say, my voice trembling. “You left Mom when she needed you.”
“I will regret the decisions I made until the day I die.” He reaches for my hand, but I pull away. “I’ve tried to make it up to you. I don’t know what else I can do to make things right.”
“I’m trying to forgive you,” I admit. “I want to forgive you.”
They say men forget and never forgive, and women forgive and never forget. I think that’s true. Because I’ve done my best to ignore my father’s mistakes. Maybe, one day, I will eventually forgive him.
He covers his face with his hands and groans. “Your mother was the love of my life.”
“I know.”
“I couldn’t handle seeing her like that,” he chokes out. “I just… I’m sorry. I shutdown. I walked away. I know that makes me a terrible husband and father. If it hadn’t been for you and Austin, I don’t even want to think about how Kat and the twins would have turned out. I put the burden on both of you. That wasn’t fair to either of you when you were only in high school. All of you were my responsibility.”
I slide my arm across the back of his neck, knowing we both need this hug.
He pats me on the back. “You gave up so much for me. I couldn’t let them take away your team. I shouldn’t have intervened, but I felt like I had no choice.”
“I’m not mad, Dad. In this case, I’m happy you got involved.”
“You think Dr. Devine is helping you?”
“Yeah,” I say with a smile. “I think so.”
“Then, please apologize to Dean. It would mean a lot to your sister. You can hate me all you want, but don’t take this out on Kat.”
“I’ll make more of an effort,” I promise.
“So, I’ll see you this weekend to help Kat move.”
“I wouldn’t miss it,” I say. “I still can’t believe Kat is having a baby with Dean. All of you were so sure he was just her friend.”
Dad cups my shoulder. “Kat has always been more comfortable around men. I wasn’t that surprised Dean is the father.”
My sister is a real tomboy. She loves playing hockey and never had a problem getting her hands dirty. I did my best to do girly things with her. I even learned how to do a French braid so Kat could wear her hair like the other girls at school. As much as she tries to fit in with women, she’d much rather be one of the guys.
“Is there something going on with Lila?”
“She kissed me,” I confess. “But I think she regrets it.”
“She’s your doctor,” he points out.
“Yeah, which is kind of the problem. She has a little girl named Max. You would love her. She reminds me so much of Kat when she was her age.”
He cups his hand over mine. “Be careful.”
We hug one last time before he leaves, and it feels like a weight has been lifted off my chest. But I have another problem. What am I going to do about Lila?
Chapter Fourteen
DELILAH
Max skates down the ice with a hockey stick in hand. She’s all smiles, her blonde hair shoved underneath a pink helmet that has her name on the back in white writing. I stand with my palm pressed against the glass, holding my breath.
The thought of Max playing ice hockey at her age scares the life from me. It’s a dangerous sport. Just look at what Duke did to Dean Crawford if you need a reminder. And I get sick thinking about someone doing the same thing to my baby girl.
Duke skates backward in front of Max, gripping his stick. They slowly approach the net behind him. Max slides the puck from right to left. Duke moves his stick, speaking something to her I can’t hear from this distance. They’ve been on the ice for over an hour now. A few times, Duke let Max score on him. It was so damn cute watching her throw it in Duke’s face. He just shrugged like it was nothing.
I bet he let his little sister win, too. Duke’s that kind of guy. He doesn’t need to win to prove a point. There are so many sides to him that people don’t know. And they’re missing out on it. Because once you get to know Duke, you don’t want to let him go. I worry about what will happen when our sessions are over. Will he go back to being the captain of the Washington Capitals and forget about us? Or will we have a chance at something more?
