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“Holt!”

I tug my shades down to peer into Mabel’s eyes. “How about I take you to the park for the first half of the game. Then for the second half, we come back here and watch Owen kick ass.” I hear Faye mutter something about my language, but lift a finger when Mabel opens her mouth to negotiate. I just know she’s going to try to negotiate, so I shut it down with an added, “We won’t moan and groan about watching Owen kick ass, either.”

Faye groans to the sky about men.

I had to add that last ‘ass’ in there. I just couldn’t help myself.

Mabel snaps her mouth shut and considers. Her eyes turn longing as she gazes at the park over my shoulder.

I know I’ve got her, but I give her a beat before asking, “Do we have a deal?”

Her green eyes kickstart my heart when they drift away from the park to slam into mine. There’s a touch of discomfort in the thundering of my pulse, because Tate should be here negotiating with her. Not me.

Still, that discomfort eases when she gifts me a blinding smile full of little girl spunk. “Deal!”

“Pleasure doing business with you.” I release her to the wild of the grass, and she sets off full tilt toward the park.

Because I can’t help myself again, I give Faye a two-finger salute.

She narrows her eyes at me.

I turn and follow my niece to the park.

She’s already made herself a friend by the time I arrive, and both girls shriek on the highest peak of the playground as they imagine a dragon far below. The imagination of kids is great.

“Candace has got a hell of a hairy eyeball,” Doug says by way of hello.

I dip my chin. “That so?”

“Mmmhmm.” Doug bobs his head as he rocks on his heels, fingertips dipped into the pockets of his cargo pants. “I tell you this because the hairy eyeball is inherited, you see.”

I chuckle. “You mean to tell me Faye’s giving it to me now, don’t you?”

His chest puffs on a breath. “Smart man.”

My chuckle turns into a laugh. “Well, what I don’t see can’t hurt me.”

“Words to live by,” Doug agrees. Then he tells me, “Mabel’s got the same eye. Just wait until she’s sitting in the back seat, and you tell her you’re not stopping for ice cream.” Doug whistles. “Little girl can damn near light a man on fire just by glaring at him through the rearview mirror.”

“She’s a girl who knows what she wants.”

“That she is. So?” Doug looks out over the playground where Mabel escapes the claws of an imaginary dragon by way of the twisty tube slide in the nick of time. “Think you’ll get the chance to have Mabel glaring at you in your rearview mirror, Holt?”

I take a beat. I’m pretty sure he’s asking me more than I think he’s asking me. “I figure I will.”

Doug side-eyes me. “That mean you’re hanging around long-term?”

It’s my turn to pull in breath. “I expect to play for another four years. But I’ll be here every summer and every chance I get off the ice.”

Doug sniffs. His lips thin. “She doesn’t look it, but she’s fragile.”

She’s strong. The strongest woman I know. “I disagree. I don’t know a stronger woman.”

“I suppose there’s truth to that, considering all the pain she’s survived.” He winces as any father would when discussing the pain his daughter has suffered. His proud shoulders curve in just a little. “Does she know you intend to keep coming back here?”

“She’ll figure it out.”

I can feel his eyes on me again, so I give him mine. “It won’t be easy, you know?”