Lucy: Are you meeting me at the rink to get Angie? She’ll be done by six thirty.
To her surprise, he actually answered.
Rick: That’s fine.
That’s fine?
Nothing was ever fine with Rick.
As uneasiness filled her stomach, she considered texting him back. But what would that do? Nothing. It would be a waste of time, or worse, it would turn into a fight. Instead, she put her phone to the side, grabbed her scissors out of the wrong drawer, though it did make her smile, and got to work.
But the uneasiness never went away.
Especially when he got to the rink twenty minutes before he was supposed to. Her day was going so well; she had gotten a lot of work done, and Benji had hung with Angie before practice while she finished up. She hadn’t even worried. She knew Angie was good, and watching Benji say good-bye, promising he would see her before he left on Monday, did things to Lucy’s heart. It was a good day with the promise of a great night with his game and then having a late dinner with Jayden and Baylor.
She was excited, but one glance at Rick’s face and she knew he was about to ruin her day.
He came toward her, and she held her breath as she tucked her hands into her pockets, her breath quickening as she tried to act unaffected. When he sat down, he leaned on his legs, looking out at the ice. Exhaling a breath while he shook his head, he didn’t look at her as he said, “This really is a dumb sport. She’s a girl—she needs to do girl shit.”
Biting her top lip, she clenched her fists as she watched Angie shoot, making the goal. Shea tapped her on the head and she beamed before going to the back of the line. “She loves it. Whatever makes her happy, makes me happy.”
“Whatever,” he said, leaning back, his eyes still on the ice. “My lawyer contacted your dad.”
“I know.”
“Your dad, ever so nicely, told him to fuck off.”
Nerves ate her alive as she nodded. “I know.”
His neck started to get red but she didn’t care. She wasn’t going to just agree to something she knew would jeopardize Angie. “I feel we should do the smart thing and settle things out of court,” he said.
“There is nothing to settle. Things are good the way they are.”
He finally looked at her, his brown eyes blazing as he glared. “I want more time with my daughter. Maybe then you won’t subject her to these men who do nothing but put thoughts in her head.”
She looked away, her face scrunching up. “You have two weekends a month to spend time with her. And who are these men?”
“Any man you bring around her. She’s starting to get mouthy, telling me to leave her alone, ignoring me and shit. That’s not right. I want more time with her so she knows who to respect. Why won’t you just give her to me?”
“Because I don’t believe you really want her. To make sure she knows who to respect? Rick, she is the most respectful, sweetest kid I know. Yeah, she’s wacky, but she’s very respectful.”
“She’s insane. Always bouncing around and being so damn loud.”
“Because she has ADHD. She can’t help it!”
He rolled his eyes. “There you go. With your shield of made-up diagnosis…ses,” he bit back and she glared.
“I’m not making up the diagnosis,” she corrected. “It’s the fucking truth. Maybe if you spent time with her, you’d realize what kind of kid she is. She tells me all she does is play with Nina when she’s at your house. That you don’t even really talk to her or deal with her, so I don’t believe you. And if she disrespects you, it’s because you don’t have the time for her that is needed to establish boundaries.”
“What?” he shouted. “You’re gonna believe a seven-year-old over an adult?”
Lucy shot him a guarded look. “Believe my child who doesn’t lie to me, who is a beautiful, God-loving child, over the man who cheated, lied, and smacked me around? Yeah, I think so.”
He glared. “You are pathetic, you know that? You’re just trying to keep her from me because you know she loves me more.”
Lucy couldn’t help it, she laughed, shaking her head. This dude was delusional. Looking at him, she held his heated gaze and her eyes pleaded. “Do you know how much I wish that were true? How I wished she loved going to your house? Spending time with you? How much I wish she didn’t come home a different person because all you do is yell at her when she’s there? I want you to have a relationship with her. I’ve wanted that, no matter what, because I know what it did for me as a child to have my parents both love me. But you care about Heidi and Nina more than you do Angie.”
Her fairy-tale family ended when her dad cheated on her mom, but for a long time, Lucy loved the idea of love. Knew that she had two people behind her. Yeah, she was stubborn and did what she wanted. But she knew if she needed them, they were there. Both of them. All Angie had was Lucy…
And… Crap, was she really thinking this?
Benji.
Benji had been there more for Angie in the last three weeks than Rick had been in the last seven years.