“Coach,” I greet him.

“I suspected there was one thing between you and my daughter whenever you blew into my workplace as we speak and seemed such as you have been able to tear me aside for upsetting her. Then once I noticed you two speaking on the sphere and later working off claiming a household emergency, I knew my hunch was proper. What I didn’t know once I adopted you house is that you simply’re the daddy of my grandson.” His gaze pointedly drops to the 2 packing containers in my fingers, and he clearly overheard me on the telephone with Callan. I known as Mason my son not even a minute in the past.

“Since we’re displaying our fingers, it is best to know that I learn about you too. Every part.”

He squints at me, questioning what I’m getting at, suggesting that there’s extra past him merely being Wynter’s father, which he simply admitted to when he referred to Mason as his grandson. I used to be posturing, driving alone hunch after my dialog with Gary that day by the pool.

However his expression tells me I’m useless on with that.

“What precisely is it that you simply assume you realize about me?”

All I supply him in return is a smirk.

“Inform me how you bought to be the daddy as a result of so far as I do know, Wynter by no means stepped foot in Boston earlier than she moved up right here.”

“Truthfully Joe, it’s none of your enterprise, neither is my relationship with Wynter. You haven’t earned any particulars from her, so that you certain as hell haven’t earned any from me.”

“She’s residing with you?”

I shrug and watch as his nostrils flare and his jaw tics. It’s his inform. I’ll at all times lose at poker to Aurelia, however I’ve performed soccer lengthy sufficient to know the right way to learn an opponent.

“She’s too good for you,” he barks.

I snicker as a result of that’s in regards to the least insulting factor this man might say to me. “I do know.”

“She’s with you due to the child. Not as a result of she cares about you. Wynter hates soccer gamers.”

“The way in which I see it, Coach, she solely hates one.”

He takes a step ahead, making an attempt to get into my private area. He’s an enormous man. Tall and broad and, at one time, a hell of a quarterback. Solely I’ve acquired two inches and about thirty kilos of muscle on him. I is perhaps fucking up my profession in all types of how, however he must know he doesn’t intimidate me.

“What occurs once I commerce you on the finish of the season?” he asks coolly. “Irrespective of the end result of the surgical procedure, I used to be eliminating you anyway. You’re value loads for a commerce and Leo can simply be the way forward for this group. Not you. What occurs then? You assume she’ll transfer with you?” He makes a tsking noise as he shakes his head. “Her profession is much extra essential to her than you’ll ever be. I do know your variety, Reyes. I used to be you. And whereas I may not have finished proper by my daughter prior to now, I gained’t enable her to make the identical errors her mom did.”

He simply confirmed what I had already suspected. I’ll by no means play for the Boston Rebels once more. The ache that comes with that discovery is nothing in need of a slice by means of the guts. My group, my city, my household. They’re all right here.

“By mistake you imply marrying a mendacity, dishonest, child-abandoning asshole?” I take a step this time, getting proper up in his face and utilizing my top and measurement to my benefit. “You assume you realize me? Why? As a result of I used to be a rock star for some time and now, I play skilled soccer? As a result of I fucked round a bit earlier than I met Wynter?” I glare down at him. “You’re a idiot. You realize nothing about me, and nothing about Wynter. You assume deliberately making an attempt to tear her household aside will allow you to win her favor? It gained’t. I do know precisely what you’re trying to do together with her and let me prevent the time. She’s not occupied with having something to do with you. Wynter, in contrast to you, is loyal. She is loving. She needs what’s greatest for our son. She is my fucking north star, and I’ll at all times discover my method house to her and our son. At all times.”

I shoulder previous him, ensuring I bump him as I’m going. At this level, it doesn’t matter. I’m gone from the group in his eyes, and he’s the coach with the facility to make it occur. I’m merely the ball participant. One with restricted choices if I wish to proceed to play.

“Good to know you’re so anxious about my son that you simply didn’t even ask if he’s okay or why I’m buying fever medication for him. Asshole.”

I stroll as much as the register, pay for the medication, after which stroll house to my household, fuming and burning with a rage so deep I’m constructive there isn’t any finish to it. I’m not an indignant man. It’s not who I’m. Till you fuck with me. Till you fuck with my folks.

Then I’m ruthless.

Joe Cardone may mistake my simple smiles and fast laughs for being silly. For being a pushover. For not being all that critical. However he’s acquired one other assume coming his method.

I pull up Lenox’s quantity the second the elevator doorways shut behind me as a result of there isn’t any method I’d dare textual content him this. He picks up on the second ring with a grunt.

“I would like intel on Cardone. Get me all the things you may.”

I can virtually hear him smiling when he says, “I used to be questioning whenever you’d ask. You certain you wish to go down this highway, and the way deep are we speaking?”

I begin to tempo across the small steel field because it climbs flooring. “As deep as you may go. He’s combating soiled, and I plan to combat even dirtier.”

“I’m on it.”

“Good. Thanks, man, I owe you.”

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