Rushing the Goal (Assassins #8)(31)

“No, I know,” she said, letting out a long breath. “I just hate that she gets upset. She’s always mad.”

“I doubt that.”

“Well, not at me, but at everything else. It just sucks. My dad is mean to her, and I tell him to be nice, but he just ignores me. He told her he wanted her to pull me from hockey, but Mom said no. So he screamed at her until she hung up— Oh, crap, he’s here.”

Benji looked in the direction Angie had turned. Sure enough, a man was standing there, looking out at the ice. He was average height, lanky, and maybe it was because Benji thought he was a bag of dicks, but he wasn’t very good-looking. Lucy picked this dude to make a kid with? Praise God that Angie was a mini Lucy.

“I gotta go,” Angie grumbled as she grabbed her water. “Have a good road trip. Sucks you’re leaving.”

“Yeah. Come on, I’ll go with you. I need to talk to your mom anyway,” he said as she started to skate away. “Adler, Angie’s gotta go. I’ll be back.”

“Yeah, see you later, Hart. Have a good weekend.”

She waved at Shea and then the rest of the team. “Bye, you too.”

Benji opened the door for her, and she walked out. When he looked up, he saw Lucy walking toward them, her eyes full of annoyance. But still, she was so pretty.

Her long, brown hair was down, straight along her shoulders, but with a little curl at the end. She had it pinned to the side, out of her eyes, which were done up to enhance the color. The red dress she wore was tight across her breasts but flared out at her hips, her legs clad in dark tights and boots to her knees. She was wearing some kind of blanket looking thing that he had noticed was popular in fashion now, but that wasn’t what had him gawking at her.

No, it was the red of her lips.

So shiny and so plump.

Lord Almighty.

But she wasn’t looking at him, her gaze only on Angie. “Baby, your dad is here.”

“I know,” Angie grumbled, handing her mom her water and stick.

“Hey, Angie,” the guy said, coming to them as Benji shut the door behind him. The guy looked up at Benji and his brows came together before dragging his gaze back to Angie. “Ready?”

“I gotta get my equipment off. Give me a minute,” Angie said before walking over to where her bag was. Benji watched her for a moment, and when she looked up, he smiled.

“You good, Angie?”

She nodded, a little smile on her lips. “Yeah, thanks, Benji.”

“Anytime,” he said, watching as Lucy came over to help her. Sitting down, she helped her undress and Benji knew he should have gone back on the ice, but he wanted to make sure they were okay.

Plus, he didn’t trust this guy at all.

“I need you to hurry up, honey. We gotta meet Heidi and Nina. We’re already late,” he called over to them, and Lucy looked up, irritation flying off her.

“We are,” Lucy bit out, untying Angie’s skates and sliding them off her feet.

“Well, if I didn’t have to drive over here and you would have met me, we wouldn’t have this problem,” he snapped back at her and she looked up, glaring.

Whoo-wee, that girl was scary.

“And I told you that she has hockey Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and games starting next week on Saturday. This is important to her.”

“No, it’s important to your family. She doesn’t want this,” he said, his voice rising. “You care more about making them happy than about what Angie wants.”

“Excuse me?” Lucy roared, standing up. Her eyes cut to Benji’s and she paused, her hands clenching at her sides.

“Mommy, don’t fight,” Angie said, slamming things into her bag before sliding her feet into her shoes. She then looked up to her father. “I do want to play, Dad. I love it. Mommy doesn’t even have time to bring me, but she does. Stop being mean.”

The guy glanced down at Angie, and Benji didn’t like the way he looked at her. Like she was a nuisance and not the best damn thing in his pathetic life. “Whatever, we’ll talk about this later. Let’s go. Heidi’s waiting.”

Turning to Lucy, Angie wrapped her arms around her waist and hugged her tightly. Lucy’s arms basically wrapped around the girl twice as she kissed her hard on the top of her head. It was almost too much to see. It was obvious Lucy didn’t want to let her go, and when Benji looked away, his gaze met Rick’s.

“Did you need something?”

Benji’s eyes narrowed. “Not from you. Just want to make sure Angie was good, and I had to talk to her mom about the game next weekend.”

Rick glared and then rolled his eyes before looking to Angie. “Let’s go, Angie. You’ll see her Sunday.”

“I love you, Mommy,” Benji heard Angie say, and honestly, he wasn’t sure how Lucy did this. He would lose his f*cking mind. Hell, he was and Angie wasn’t even his.

“I love you too, baby. Have fun, okay? And I’ll see you tomorrow at the recital. I can’t wait,” she said happily as she pulled back, cupping Angie’s face. She was trying. She was trying so hard to be positive, it was killing her.

“What? You’re coming?” Rick asked, and Lucy didn’t even look at him.

“Of course, we wouldn’t miss it for the world,” she said and Angie grinned.