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“How was school, kid?” I ask.

“Fine,” she says. She doesn’t offer anything more on the subject, and I glance back at her. She’s staring out the window.

“What’s wrong?”

“Can you call me something else besides kid?” she asks.

My brows dip. “Like what?” I don’t ask why she wants me to call her something else, but I get that maybe kid feels a little impersonal.

“I don’t know.” Her voice is soft as she looks out the window.

“Okay, dinocorn, you got it.” I glance in the rearview mirror at her to see if that garnered any sort of reaction, but she just makes a face at me.

“Uh, no. Try again.”

“Sweetheart?”

She wrinkles her nose.

“Kitty cat? Pumpkin pie? Harpsichord?”

She almost laughs a little at that last one, but I can tell I haven’t hit the right one yet.

“Ladybug?”

She tilts her head a little as she considers it. “Okay.”

“Okay, ladybug. You got it. But I’m not ruling out Harpsichord.”

She giggles.

“Do you want to talk about your day yet?”

“I was a little sad, but Ms. Hartley made me feel better,” she says.

“Oh she did, did she?” I ask, and I try to keep the annoyance out of my tone, but I’m pretty sure I fail. Miserably.

“She’s so nice. And she’s pretty.”

I force that pretty face out my head. Maybe she showed up while I was whacking it, but she’s not going to show up while I’m behind the wheel.

“How did she make you feel better?”

“We sang songs.”

“You sang songs?” I ask, irritated that Ms. Hartley found a way to get through to my daughter when I feel like I’m struggling every day to make her smile…but at the same time, I’m grateful she was able to make Harper feel better.

It’s such a contradiction, but that seems par for the course where Ms. Hartley is concerned.

My phone starts to ring, and I see that it’s Josh calling. Against my better judgment, I pick up.

“I’m in the car with Harper. What’s up?” I answer.

“That’s so much more professional than your usual greeting,” he teases.

I laugh. “What do you want?”

“I heard we hired our new OC.”

“Oh? And?”

“And I heard a rumor it was going to be Luke Dalton, but ultimately Coach Thompson brought in a buddy from Oklahoma, the wide receivers coach,” he says.

“Mike Sharp?” I ask.

“Yeah. You know him?”

“Shit,” I mutter.

“What?”

“Yeah, I’ve heard of him,” I say. “He’s known for his incredibly complex plays, and I bet he’s already got a draft of a playbook for us.”

“Good. It’ll give us lots of time to get familiar with it before camp.”

Josh is a smart guy. He remembers every play and what to do the second it’s called, where sometimes it takes a beat for me to come up with the play from my memory after it’s called. It’s a skill that has hindered me my entire career, but my skill and speed make up for it on the field. But I also think it’s why I haven’t been a starter since I came here to Vegas.

This year, though, everything changes. I want to be on that field, and I will fight for my place there.

“Yeah,” I mutter, but I don’t necessarily agree with him. I learn plays by practicing them, not by reading them on a tablet.

Still, I’m going to have to force myself to learn. There’s no other way I’ll reach my goal of starting every game this season if I don’t know what the plays are.

I’m willing to put in the work…but I’ve never had to put in the work while I’m also trying to raise a kid.

“You up for golf tomorrow morning?” he asks. “I have a tee time at eight-thirty and we’re looking for a fourth. It’s hard getting guys up out of bed that early in the offseason, man.”

I glance in my rearview mirror. “Can’t. I got plans with my kid.”

She makes a face at me in the mirror. We don’t have plans, but I don’t have anything for her to do. It’s not like I can just leave her at home while I go golfing.

“I invited Evan to come along, and Trudy said she’d love to have Harper over to play with Bella,” Josh says. “I’ve also got Luke confirmed.”

I glance in the mirror again, and she looks both hopeful and excited as she nods.

“I’ll have to talk to Bella’s mom to make sure, but as long as everyone’s good with it, you can count me in,” I say.

As it turns out, everyone is good with it, and I drop Harper off at eight the next morning and pick up Evan to head toward the golf course.

Golfing has always been a relaxing way to spend a Saturday morning, but I’m not one of those guys who spent years bonding with my father on the course. Instead, I’ve bonded with my teammates.

But speaking of my father, he called me yesterday to check in.

Just to say hi.

Just to see how things are going with Harper.

I’m not sure he’s ever called just to say hi and check in. He gave me a few days to get used to my new reality with my new kid, but then he checked in on me.

I told him we were doing the best we could. It was short and sweet, and I told him Harper was adjusting well but I didn’t mention the reading issues since she was sitting right next to me.

And now I’m thinking maybe I should have mentioned it, but I can always call him later or tomorrow or next month and see if he knew anything about it. I can’t exactly do it now that I’m pulling into the golf course with Evan in my front seat.

I like that Josh included me in this foursome even though I’m not sure I really fit. It’s a great group of guys—two of the best wide receivers to ever play the game plus a new defensive end from Detroit who we’re getting to know as we help him adapt to his new team and town.

The more I think about it, maybe I do fit now. I didn’t a few weeks ago, but I have a kid now. Luke and Josh both have young kids, and Evan has a girl the same age as my daughter.

I went from making women come on my lap at a sex club late into the night to joining a foursome of dads on a Saturday morning at the golf course in the matter of a couple weeks.

Jesus. Next I’ll be wearing Hawaiian shirts and forcing stupid jokes on everybody.

“I heard Sharp will have the new playbook uploaded to tablets on Tuesday morning,” Josh says as we’re sharing a cart that he’s driving toward the third tee.

I blow out a breath. “Have you met this guy?” I ask.

He shakes his head. “Luke has. He sat in the coach’s meeting last night.”

“What did he say?”

We pull up to the tee and there’s another group teeing off, so we’ll have a short wait.

Josh shrugs. “Ask him.”

I hop out of the cart and walk over to the one Luke is driving with Evan.

“Nolan said you met the new OC,” I say.

Luke nods. “Coach invited me to the meeting last night.”

“How’d it go?”

He shrugs. “He seems like a good dude. He showed us some of the different plays he’s planning to add.” He shakes his head a little and lets out a low whistle. “There’s some complex shit in there, man. I’m glad I don’t have to learn them all like the good old days.”

That was my fear.

He lets out a little laugh. “But I’ll probably memorize them all anyway out of habit. Plus he wants me to take on a bigger role with the wide receivers this year, so I’ll be around. I’ll be sort of a wide receiver’s coach’s assistant, if you will.”

It makes me feel a little better hearing him say that, and I have a feeling I’m going to be leaning on him more than Coach Jeff, the actual wide receiver’s coach. I like the guy, and he’s a good coach, but he’s never really understood me or my difficulties when it comes to memorizing plays. He’s been hard on me, and rightfully so. I’m not complaining since it’s my job to know the plays, but he’s also never taken the time to get to know me on a deeper level. I’m just another player that he can swap out in case of emergency.

But I refuse to let that be my role this year, and I have a good feeling that working closely with Luke Dalton might open the sorts of doors I’ve been waiting for my entire career.