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CHAPTER EIGHT

ASHLEY

I was so caught up in my thoughts—the humiliation and devastation at what Cam had told thousands of readers about our supposed sex life—that I didn’t realize we’d pulled up in front of Hayden’s house until I opened the door to get out.

Walking around the front of his vehicle, Kip met me at the front. “I’m sorry I?—”

“It’s okay,” I cut him off, trying to hide how much it hurt that he was bringing me here instead of to his house. “I get it, you’ve got your reputation to think of.”

“No,” he replied slowly, stopping me when I went to move around him. “That’s not why we’re here. Your brother asked me to bring you here first, and then we’re going to speak to someone about how to sue the shit out of them all,” he informed me, and held his arm out for me to take. “If you will, ma’am.”

Slowly taking his arm, I walked next to him, doing my best not to put my full weight on the just healed part of my foot while I thought over what he’d said.

Hayden was meant to be away with his team—why was he here?

I was so caught up in my thoughts and watching the ground so that I didn’t stand on a rock and hurt my foot, that I didn’t see who was waiting for me at the entrance to my brother’s house. It wasn’t until Kip squeezed my hand that I looked up.

“Hey, ladybug.”

Blinking, I took in my dad. I hadn’t seen him a lot recently because he was always busy doing things and living the life of a retired famous footballer.

“Dad?”

I’d only just finished saying his name when I was caught up in two strong familiar arms and pressed into his chest. Tears I’d managed to stop came back as it all hit me at once. The betrayal and hurt, and the feelings of being completely lost.

But I wasn’t lost. My brother had given me a place to live and had gotten me through the first shit with Cam, then Kip had caught me when I fell—literally—and had looked after me when I’d hurt myself, he’d protected me when there was no security, he’d been my anchor today when I’d seen the article online… I wasn’t lost at all.

And when my dad growled, “We’ll make them wish they’d never even said hello to the reporter,” I felt like my feet were firmly on the ground.

But my brother adding, “It’s already started,” as he wrapped his arms around us both healed something I hadn’t ever acknowledged.

I’d been trying so hard to be strong, to live my life and be independent. I’d been angry and hurt by my dad not being there like other dads, but right now, when he knew I’d be feeling vulnerable and violated, he was here to protect me, and so was Hayden.

And it was all thanks to the man standing behind me with a small smile on his face.

My footballer, Kip.

“So, you’ve been making these for a leukemia patient at Seattle Children’s Hospital?” Rajesh, the Seahawks’ lawyer, asked as he looked at the box with the bands I’d made for Liberty in them. “And you’re going to sell them to raise awareness and money for people affected by it?”

The PR rep, Riley, leaned over and picked one up, examining it closely. “I don’t know how you did it, but these are a work of art. The beads attract attention, but the ribbon packs a punch.”

Dad had been sitting quietly while we talked over the plan of action against the magazine, Cam and Missy, but when he’d heard about the bands, he’d flown into action on his phone, tapping wildly on the screen with a small smile on his face.

Leaning forward, he said, “Putting the bullshit with those assholes aside, I think we need to do something special with those bands. I’ve contacted the guys from my team, and they’ve agreed to come out of retirement to play a charity game against the Seahawks to raise money for Liberty and the charities. What do you say?”

Riley raised her eyebrows at the suggestion but nodded. “I’ll speak to the manager and coaches and see what they say, but I agree. We have a platform to do something here, so let’s look at organizing it.”

Flashing her his signature smile, Dad sat back and focused on Kip. “While Rajesh works his magic legally,” he indicated at the handsome lawyer—who, if I was on the receiving end of his skills would scare the shit out of me—whose lips twitched at the faith in his abilities, “and Riley works on the charity game and turning this farce on its head, I think the three of us should spend some time together,” he suggested, looking at Kip and Hayden through narrowed eyes, his tone suggesting something else.

“I think that’s a great idea,” Kip agreed, the arm he’d kept around my waist tightening slightly.

Watching them in confusion, I tried to decipher what Dad was talking about.

“Let’s go for a drink,” Hayden said standing up. “Happy hour at The Kraken’s in two hours,” he told them both, referring to a bar near Alki Beach that he was a regular at, seeing as how it was run by a former member of the Sounders. Both Dad and Kip knew this and pulled faces at being at a bar run by a soccer player, but still agreed to go.

“We’ll get going and start working on what we’ve discussed,” Rajesh told us as he picked his notes up, giving Riley a look that made her blush. Well, then! “Let’s agree to meet at my office tomorrow morning. Is eleven o’clock okay?”

Once it was agreed on, they both left and Kip gave me a squeeze, this time to get my attention.

“Why don’t you have a word with your dad, and I’ll go speak to your brother about what’s going on?”

Knowing he was right and that I needed some time with Dad, I smiled gratefully at him.

As soon as the door closed behind them, Dad jumped right in.

“I know you’re wondering why I’m suddenly here, but…”

“I know,” I sighed, holding my hand up to stop him and sagging into the armchair I was sitting in. It was time, and the amount of care he’d shown today had been a kick up the ass for me. “Dad, I need to tell you something that’s been weighing on me for years. After the split, the kids at school teased me about you and said things that made me feel like I couldn’t be around you. Whenever photos were leaked of you spending time with us, they’d get even worse.”

“Shit,” he growled, tiredly rubbing his face with his hands. “I had no idea.”

“Yeah,” I sighed sadly. “After I went to college, people wanted to be my friend because I was Jason Wilkes’s daughter, not because of me. I figured if I separated us, it would stop, but then I met Cam and he said all the right stuff and made me feel special. I thought he liked me for me, but he only wanted the link to you, and then afterwards to Hayden to get into the Sounders. I guess I’ve been scared to trust anyone.”

“You can trust that man who hasn’t left your side all day,” he pointed out, and I nodded in agreement. He was definitely right there. Moving so he was in a chair closer to mine, Dad angled his body so he was facing me. “Ashley, the minute you were born and I held you, you became the most precious thing in my life, equal with your brother. I remember looking at you and feeling like someone had punched me in the heart. I still feel it when I look at you, and not seeing you as much hurts badly.”

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, feeling those damn tears again. I never cried, but today had just been too much for me.

Leaning over, he caught my hand up in his big one and rubbed across my fingers with his thumb. “I know I messed up when you were little. Me and your mom got married because she got pregnant with Hayden. Did you know that?” When I shook my head, he continued, “It’s true. I wanted badly to have what my parents had, so I took the news as a gift and proposed.

“Some people fall in love with time, and in a way, I did love Rachel—how could I not when she gave me both of you.” The tears in his eyes shocked me, but not as much as what he said next. “Then she wanted me to change. I wasn’t bringing in enough money, she wanted a bigger house, the team didn’t get into the Super Bowl and she said she was ‘humiliated’ by it. It all just spiraled.

“When you were eight, I came back from an away game and she’d packed all my stuff and told me to leave, so I did. We were going through the beginnings of the divorce when she caught onto the story of Bill and Kerry,” he said sadly, referring to the player I remember clearly cheating on his wife and the whole case becoming public knowledge because he kept bragging about how many women he’d slept with.

“After that, she accused me of cheating and went through press photos of games and events, circling ones where there were women next to me. It became a scandal after Bill’s divorce circus, and although I had ammunition to fight back with—stuff that was true—I didn’t want to do that to both of you, so I cut a deal and the divorce went through.”

“Holy shit,” I gasped. “She sold her story, though.”

Clearing his throat, he picked at the arm of the chair he was sitting on with the hand that wasn’t holding mine. Not once had he dropped it, almost like he couldn’t.

“Yeah. She intended for it to be a lot bigger than it ended up being, but my lawyers stopped it. We didn’t want both of you growing up under that cloud.”

I remember a time shortly after the divorce when she’d come home screaming and raging about him, but Hayden had built us a fort in his room, so I’d gone there to watch The Goonies and had only seen a small part of her meltdown.

So much had happened recently, there’d been so many life changes and things happening that I needed time to get my head around this information.

I hadn’t ever hated Dad, I just hadn’t understood the situation because I was so young. Over the years, I hadn’t tried to understand it either, I’d just put it to the back of my mind and created a judgement because of it.

I had a rough grasp of psychology, and knew that a child’s mind processed information in a different way to an adult’s, and not dealing with big things that happen to us as children, can have a big impact on adults and their way of thinking—which was exactly what I’d done.

That teamed with the taunting and bullying at school had made me look at a drama as the truth, without even thinking about the possibility that it wasn’t what it seemed.

Something that people would be doing right now about the story that Missy and Cam had sold about Kip and me.

Maybe in a way, my parent’s problems had clouded my judgement as an adult, and I’d looked for the wrong things in life until Kip. Well, I hadn’t actually gone looking for him, I’d just landed on him and then been unable to shake him, but still.

Looking closely at me, Dad asked, “What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking,” I mused, “that I probably should have spoken to you way before now. I made a judgement as a kid and then locked it all away. I’m also thinking that it’s ironic that I’m in a similar predicament right now and that people—adults—will be doing the same thing about me. It’s kind of karma-ish and ironic, isn’t it?”

Dad’s expression turned from intrigued to pissed in a blink. “They’ll find out the truth, ladybug. I’m going to make sure of it.”

Waving my hand dismissively, I continued, “I know that. You, Hayden and Kip have this.” My tone was confident because I had no doubts about it. “It’s just ironic, really. I’m also thinking that I owe you a huge apology. I shouldn’t have believed rumors and should have opened up to you about it all, especially once I became an adult and could have reassessed it with a more mature mind. I’ve hurt both of us. I’m so sorry, Dad.”

When I looked at him, he looked close to tears. “No apology needed. You were a kid, just so long as you know that every minute we’ve ever spent together meant everything to me, and you and your brother are my world, and you’ll never be too old for me to fight your fights.”

I smiled thinking back to the fun we’d had with him as kids, and we’d had a lot. In fact, come to think of it, he was always there, taking us on vacations, bringing us to games, doing fun things with us.

Taking in a shuddering breath, I squeezed his hand. “I’ve spent a long time trying to prove how strong I am, but I can’t say I’m not relieved to have you guys fighting this battle for me.”

This time when he grinned, it was slightly evil which made me laugh. “Oh, we’ll fight it alright.”

Life is almost like a football game. There are players, a ball, an objective and you have to get to the right place to win it. I’d been running and running, trying to get closer to the goal, but now I had a team around me who were going to work with me to get us there.

And we would… even if one of them played soccer.