Page 8

CHAPTER 8

ZANDER

I wait outside the arena until someone with a key card happens to walk by. Thankfully, he recognizes me from the latest Sports Digest and lets me in with a smile. I explain that I’m just wanting a quick chat with one of the coaching staff.

“Thinking of switching to hockey, huh?” He laughs at me.

I smile. “Not a chance. Just needing some info.”

“Okay.” He nods. “Who can I get for ya?”

“Uh… I’m looking for Coach Fisher.”

“Russell, sure. I’ll tell him you’re here.”

“Thank you.”

I wait in the foyer in agitated silence, shoving my fists into my hoodie pockets and wishing the guy would hurry the hell up. Sweat is starting to prickle the back of my neck.

Checking my watch, I calculate how fast I’ll have to run to make it to practice on time and wince, knowing already that I’m going to be a few minutes late for the game review video. Hopefully Coach won’t notice me slipping into the back.

Of course he’ll fucking notice. He notices everything!

Scraping a hand through my hair, I start to pace and am two seconds away from bailing when I hear my name.

“Zander Donohue.” The voice behind me is sharp and snappy.

I spin and see this guy walking toward me. He’s got a sharp, pointy nose to match his voice, his eyes dark and narrowed, his angular face looking all kinds of pissed off.

“Okay,” I murmur under my breath before sticking out my hand. “Coach Fisher?”

He doesn’t reciprocate the gesture. Instead, he crosses his arms and keeps glaring at me. “What’s a football player doing at the hockey arena?”

“I need to speak with you.”

“Obviously.”

I frown at his frosty demeanor, but if anything, it’s making me more determined to ask my questions. Squaring my shoulders, I force myself to sound more confident than I feel. “Do you know Sienna Erling?”

His eyes flash before he clenches his jaw and looks away from me. “Why do you want to know?”

“I need to speak with her.”

There goes that jaw clenching again. He stares at the wall adjacent to me, like he’s calculating something, then swears under his breath and mutters, “I knew something was off.”

“What?”

He ignores my confusion and fires a death glare straight at me. “Why? Why do you need to speak with her? ”

Sighing in frustration, I try to check my tone and stay calm. “We dated for a year in high school. I’d like to see her again. She’ll remember me.”

“Oh yeah, she remembers you.” His eyes glitter, his voice taut and scathing.

I flinch and steel myself. This guy obviously hates me. What the fuck has Sienna said about me? She’s the one who took off without a word. She’s the one who ghosted me… had a kid without even telling me.

Shit, is that little girl mine?

I have to know.

“Yeah, we all know you, Mr. Donohue. Football star. Got your face on the cover of Sports Digest .” He scoffs. “Should have fucking looked into the football program before I took a job here.”

“What?” I frown.

“You’re the guy who broke her heart, took off for a new life. Any excuse to get away from your clingy girlfriend, right?”

My heart stops beating for a second, and the air in my lungs feels like toxic ash. Sienna must have been fucking dark on me to say this shit to her family friend. Unless he’s more… and that’s why he knows the whole fucking story. Well, her version of it anyway.

Sucking in a ragged breath, I force out my next question. “Is Zoey mine?”

The man pales for a second, shaking his head.

I frown. That doesn’t feel right.

Stepping a foot closer, I study his face carefully as I say, “But the timing… She’s about two, isn’t she? And she looks just like my sister at that age. ”

His nostrils flare and I sense his desperate need to cover the truth, so I keep pushing.

“She’s mine. I can feel it in my fucking bones, so just tell me!”

“Watch your mouth,” he snaps. “You’re a student here, and you don’t talk to faculty that way.”

I huff, my fingers balling into an even tighter fist in my pocket. It takes everything in me to keep my tone soft and respectful. “Please. Please, tell me the truth.”

The assistant coach stares me down like I’m a bug he needs to exterminate before finally sniffing and giving me a stiff nod. “All right, fine. She might have your DNA, but that’s it. She’s not yours.”

A powerful sensation floods my veins. I don’t know what it is, but having my suspicions confirmed is making me lightheaded.

I have a daughter.

I’m a… dad!

“She shouldn’t have kept that from me.” I say it more to myself, but he hears me anyway.

And then he fucking scoffs.

My eyes snap to his face, and I can’t help glaring at him.

He glares right back, like he’s almost enjoying this somehow. Like my tortured expression—that’s gotta be what he’s seeing right now, because it’s what I’m fucking feeling—is bringing him some sense of satisfaction.

“She was going to tell you, but…”

“But what?”

His jacket rustles as he shrugs and shakes his head. “You don’t even deserve her. You don’t deserve to be in either of their lives. I’m not telling you shit. ”

What the fuck? Who is this asshole?

My dread at the idea that he and Sienna might be a couple is sinking in deep, and I’m struggling to reckon with it.

She can’t be dating this douchebag.

The idea of his hands on her makes me want to throw up. The idea of him?—

“You want to do the best for your kid?” he hisses at me.

My shoulders tense.

“Stay the fuck away from her.” He points at me, then turns on his heel and starts striding back toward what I assume are the offices.

I’m so thrown by his venom that it takes me a second to find my voice, but I manage to yell after him just before he disappears from view. “She’s my daughter! I have a right to meet her!”

The man jerks to a stop and quickly spins. I can only see the side of his face as he yells back at me. “You forfeited that right when you threw away the best thing you ever had!”

And then he’s gone.

And I’m left reeling.

A daughter.

I have a daughter.

And an ex-girlfriend who wouldn’t even tell me about her.

Why?

Why did she change her mind?

Why the fuck didn’t she tell me!

I would have been there for her. I would have dropped everything .

My parents would have been so pissed, but I don’t give a shit.

Why did she think I couldn’t handle it?

Sure, I love football, but I would have put her before that.

Except you didn’t. You left her for football.

Fuck!

Bile surges in my belly, threatening to rocket right up my throat. Stumbling out of the arena, I start walking for the football stadium, wondering how the fuck I’m going to concentrate this afternoon.

I have a daughter.

Shit!

Sienna had to deal with all that on her own. Although she would have had her parents for support. They would have stepped up for sure. I mean, they pulled her out of school and hit the road her senior year, right? She probably begged them to take her away so she didn’t have to walk the halls of high school with a growing belly.

They would have supported her through the pregnancy and Zoey’s first couple years.

Shit, shit, shit!

It should have been me. I should have been there.

Wait, are they in Nolan with Sienna?

The thought trips me up, my steps faltering as I come to a stop on the sidewalk and glance around as if they’re about to pop out from behind the bushes.

They probably want to kill me.

If they hate me as much as Russell Fisher does, then it won’t matter how nice they were to me when I was dating their daughter. If they spot me, they’ll probably be out for my blood .

My parents are going to fucking lose it when they find out. I did exactly what they didn’t want me to do. Or I would have… had I known my girl was pregnant.

But she’s not your girl.

You chose to break up with her.

But then I went back for her!

My brain is in chaos as I shuffle to the stadium and end up being so late that I totally miss the game review. Everyone’s already in the locker room, getting taped up for practice.

“Where the hell have you been?” Grady asks as soon as I stop beside him.

Yanking off my hoodie, I shake my head, still struggling to talk.

“Dude.” He lightly slaps my arm with the back of his hand, looking really worried. “I covered for you with Coach, having no idea why. He was kinda pissed, so you better gimme something.”

Pulling off my shirt, I dump it in my locker and give him a pained frown.

And then it all just tumbles out.

“I saw my ex-girlfriend at the park on Sunday, and she had a little girl with her. Her daughter.” I wince, my throat burning as I choke out the rest. “ My daughter.”

Grady’s eyes pop wide, his lips parting as he blinks and obviously can’t think of anything to say.

“I’ve just had it confirmed by a guy who knows them, but he won’t tell me where they are. He says I don’t deserve to know why she didn’t tell me and that I should leave them the fuck alone, but…” A ragged breath pops out of me, and I give my friend a pained frown.

“Fuck that.” Grady’s eyebrows dip together. “That’s your kid. You don’t just give up on something that important. I don’t give a shit who this douche nugget is that you spoke to. You track that girl down, and you meet your kid.”

“Agreed.” Wily grips my shoulder.

I spin, not even realizing he was listening in.

He’s obviously pretty shook by the news, and I give him a tortured frown.

Squeezing my shoulder again, he responds with a glum smile. “We’re here for you, dude. Whatever you need.”

“Thanks,” I rasp.

“We’ll help you find her,” Grady assures me before pulling on his protective gear and giving me a stern look. “But right now, you get your head in the game. Can’t have our best quarterback getting injured at the start of the season. We need you, man.”

“Yeah.” I nod, forcing myself to take a breath and focus.

Football first.

Then my kid.

Holy fuck, I have a kid.

An adorable blue-eyed daughter who I am desperate to meet properly.

I’ve got to find out the truth. What did I do that made Sienna hate me so much?

Dread simmers thick and malignant in my stomach, and my hands start to shake as I wrestle on my protective pads.