He took out his phone, as smug as only a complete jerk like him could be. “Jasper. I hate to tell you this, but I’m having a problem with one of your employees. I think you need to set her straight. Yeah, her name is Shelby… Yeah, that’s the one.” His face turned red. “What? Fuck me? Are you kidding? Do you know who I am?” He paused and then brought his phone down to look at the screen, jaw open in shock. “He hung up on me.”

Thank you, Jasper Dawson, for being the best former stepdad in the world.

David glared at her. “You no-good squeaky bitch, you’re going to pay.”

She didn’t think. She didn’t strategize. She just reacted, grabbing the water bottle and spraying one of hockey’s most revered players in the face—repeatedly—while photographers documented the entire exchange, their flashes going off in quick succession. Like he was a bad cat. The fact that he sort of hissed at her as he stomped off kind of helped with that mental picture.

And to think that Ian had grown up with that man and that people actually tried to compare him to that awful jerk. She sucked in a sharp breath as realization struck. The place was surrounded by press, and someone was going to tell him if he didn’t see it on the news himself. He’d hate that. There was nothing he hated more than being in the middle of a media feeding frenzy and she sure had just started one.

She had to go find Ian.

…

Ian was helping to show a player how he taped up his stick when he realized that at least half the kids and most of the parents were looking out the windows toward the park.

He looked down at Jorge, a ten-year-old version of himself—a little slower than the other players and slap shot not as hard, but with that same big-hearted love of the game. “What’s going on?”

“David Petrov is here,” the kid said. “Everyone’s going to see him.”

Ian looked out the front window, which gave him the perfect viewpoint to see his dad laying on the charm thick. Shelby was smiling. The two guys with his dad had the kind of cameras and microphones that only reporters have. He fiddled with the window and got it open in time to hear her offer up him and Alex as dinner dates for his dad.

His gut dropped. There wasn’t any point in listening to more.

He’d spent the entire night trying to work out why she’d kick him to the curb without explanation, but the pieces had fallen together nicely. He’d become a dead end in her quest.