Sucking in a breath, she let it out slowly, still holding her mom. “I wish Benji was here.”
She didn’t miss the little happy giggle her mother did before she wrapped her up tighter in her arms. “You should marry him.”
“Calm down, woman,” she said, breaking out of her arms and shaking her head. Pinning River with a look, she said, “Ask the woman to marry you, and now she’s marrying all of us off.”
River scoffed. “Don’t act like she hasn’t been trying to marry you off the whole time I’ve known you.”
“Touché,” she said as she saw her father walking through the doors with his child bride on his arm, Ellen. “Shit, he’s here,” she muttered as he came toward them. Her father was a handsome man; there was no denying that. He was tall, with dark hair and green eyes. His face was weathered from the stress of his job, but he was still a good-looking man. When he met Lucy’s gaze, his eyes shone with love. Still. It was insane, and it made her heart hurt. She had loved that man with everything inside of her. He had been her rock through the divorce from Rick, and he’d loved her so much. She was his little girl. But he’d betrayed all of them and she couldn’t let it go.
Coming to a stop before them, he smiled, his whole face lighting up with the movement. “Hey, everyone.”
“Hey, Dad,” Lucy said, tucking her hands into her coat pockets as her mother was stone-faced.
“Mark.”
“Autumn, you look great, a lot slimmer. Are you not feeding her, River?”
He meant it as a joke, but River didn’t even crack a smile. “She eats just fine.”
“Oh, good, that’s good,” he said, looking to Lucy. “You remember Ellen, my wife?”
Ellen, with her big, blue eyes and even bigger breasts that were on display in the middle of a freezing cold rink—not that it was any of Lucy’s business—grinned over at her. Lucy tried to smile, she did, but it didn’t work. “Hey.”
“Hey! I’m so excited to see your daughter play. Mark talks fondly of her.”
Lucy nodded, taking in a breath. “Yeah, she’s amazing. Oh, they’re hitting the ice. Let’s go sit down,” she said, turning without letting anyone object. Her mother walked beside her with River on the other side as they climbed the bleachers. When they got to their normal spot, the one Benji hated, she sat down and turned her phone on to call him.
Before she could, though, her father cleared his throat. “Laney, before I forget, next week when you go to drop Angie off, make sure you call me, keep me on in your pocket so I can hear everything that goes down. If Angie doesn’t want to go, don’t make her—make him make her. You just stand there. I know it will be hard, but you don’t stop him.”
Lucy’s heart dropped, but before she could say anything, River asked, “How can she do that? That will be heartbreaking. Not to mention, unfair to Angie.”
Her father nodded, his face stricken. “I know, but it’s in the parenting plan. Lucy doesn’t have to force her to go, but she does have to drive her there and Angie has to be the one to say no. What Rick does is on him, which is why I want to be on the phone.”
Autumn took in a quick breath, tears in her eyes as Lucy’s own started to flood. When River’s hand came onto Lucy’s, she looked at him. “No worries, we’ll go with you. We’ll be with you. Don’t you worry.”
“I can’t stop him?”
Her father shook his head. “No, honey, no one can. It’s on him.”
“Even if he’s hurting her?”
“That’s why I’ll be on the phone.”
“She’ll hate me.”
“No, just talk to her,” he stressed as a tear rolled down her cheek and her heart ached.
“I can’t do it,” she whispered, and before her mom or dad could say anything more, she got up, heading down the bleachers as more tears threaten to fall. Her heart was pounding. It wasn’t even exchange day, but she was about to have a panic attack. She couldn’t watch Rick force her child to leave. She knew he would do it just to hurt her. And she couldn’t do anything about it? No. She couldn’t fucking do that.
Reaching the fresh air, she lifted her phone up and dialed Benji’s number.
When his face came over the phone, he was smiling, but then his grin disappeared as he stared back at her. “What’s wrong? Are you okay? Angie?”
“No,” she cried, shaking her head just as her mother put her arm around her.
“Lucy, baby, what’s wrong?”
How she was able to tell him what her father said through her tears would always be a mystery, but she did, her heart breaking in her chest as what she had to do tortured her. How was she supposed to tell this to Angie? Wouldn’t that be betraying her daughter? “How am I supposed to do this, Benji? How? Tell me how?”
Shaking his head, he ran his hand down his face as he sucked in a deep breath. “Fuck, baby, I don’t know,” he pulled in a deep breath as she cried, leaning into her mother. “I can’t come in early—we have a game Friday night and Saturday afternoon, or I would be there,” he said and she nodded.
“I know.”