Page 86 of Rush

I walk up the stairs, heading to my dad’s office. Ares isn’t here today. None of the players are. After a game, they don’t come into train for a few days.

So, at least it’s giving me a chance to talk to my dad before I see Ares.

I knock on my dad’s door and push it open, popping my head around. He’s at his desk, eyes on his computer screen.

“Hey, you got a minute?” I ask him.

His eyes come to me. “Of course.”

I walk in, letting the door close behind me, and take the seat across from him.

“What’s up?” he asks, pushing his keyboard aside and folding his hands on his desk.

“I’m seeing Ares. I like him. We’re dating,” I ineloquently blurt out.

Aside from a twitch in the corner of his eye, my dad doesn’t react. There’s nothing—no annoyance or anger. Just an eye twitch.

“I didn’t lie,” I continue in the silence. “When you asked me a few weeks ago if I was seeing him…well, I did lie. I said Ares and I weren’t friends, and we were, so yeah, I lied about that, but you didn’t like me riding with him, so I didn’t want to tell you that he was my friend because…well, yeah. Anyway, now, he’s more. I like him. A lot. He’s good to me.” Not that I deserve it. “He wanted to tell you straightaway, about him and me, but I wouldn’t let him because I was worried about how you’d react, that you’d be pissed and maybe…talk him out of being with me.”

I see the first sign of reaction on his face since I started talking. His brows pull together in what looks like consternation.

“That’s what you thought? That I’d talk him out of being with you?”

I swallow down my dry throat. “Yes.”

“Jesus…” He scrubs his hands over his face. “Ari, I know it probably doesn’t seem like it…I know my past actions have given you reason not to believe this, but nothing or no one is more important than you. You’re my daughter. You have and always will come first.

“And my concerns about you and Ares came solely out of my concern for you, not that you might tarnish his reputation. My worry was that you weren’t in the right place to be starting a relationship with anyone. You’re just getting your life back together, and Ares, he’s in the public eye, which means you’ll be in the public eye if you’re together, especially with you being my daughter. It’s newsworthy, and I didn’t want you to have to deal with the added pressure.”

“Oh.” I bite the corner of my lip, chewing on it, feeling a bit stupid.

Okay, stupider than I already am.

“I’m…sorry, Ari.”

“What?” I nearly fall off my chair in shock.

My dad does not apologize. Ever.

He sighs out a breath. “I’m sorry that I made you feel that way, that you couldn’t talk to me, and that you thought that Ares’s reputation was more important to me than you.”

I fasten my hands together in my lap in front of me, staring down at them. “Well…it’s not like you’ve ever given me any reason to think different,” I say quietly.

“I know.”

That brings my head up. Have I slipped into an alternate world? One where my dad apologizes and talks to me?

“I’m just…I’m not good at this.” He moves a finger between us. “Give me eleven two-hundred-pound-plus players on a football field, and I can handle them with my eyes closed. But my daughter…I don’t know where to start. How to talk to you. And I just…I want you to know that I am sorry.”

Two apologies. Definitely twilight zone business here.

And it’s not an apology for everything he’s done wrong. But it’s a start.

I nod, acknowledging his remorse, my own words stuck in my throat, which is clogged with emotion.

“Okay…” He exhales, sitting back in his chair. “Even though I do have my concerns for you with the press, out of all my players, Ares is the one guy I would trust with you. He’s a good kid. So…I’ll notify the PR team and have them ready to handle it when the press gets wind of your relationship.”

If I have a relationship left.