I searched her gaze with confusion.
“Bridger is my sister’s baby boy. Her name was Bridget, and her husband named him Bridger to honor her.” She let out a long sigh.
“I had no idea,” I said.
“Yeah, it’s not really talked about. I mean, we adopted him when I was pregnant with Rafe. His father just couldn’t keep it together, and he really spiraled after Bridget’s passing. We triedto support him the best we could. He and Bridger never went back to their home after they left the hospital, and they came to live with Keaton and me. But unfortunately, Bridger’s father got caught up in drugs and alcohol and did not want to be saved. He asked us to adopt their son, which we did happily. Bridger already felt like ours in many ways, just as my kids would have felt to Bridget.”
“What happened to his biological father?” I asked. “Did he ever come out of it?”
“I wish I could say there was a happy ending to his story, but there isn’t. The grief just took him down, and he abused his body terribly. His liver failed, and his body shut down, but he just kept drinking. He passed when Bridger was in middle school.”
“I’m so sorry. That’s horrible. Did Bridger know him?”
“Not really. His father moved out when Bridger was too young to remember him, and they met two times after that, but he doesn’t remember him at all. Bridger has a lot of resentment about it, but I do think that’s the reason he’s so fiercely protective of his family. It’s his way of showing his loyalty, I think. But I am going to talk to him about the way he spoke to Emilia. That wasn’t okay, and I will be letting him know that again.”
I squeezed her hand. “You’re such an amazing mom.”
“It’s the greatest job in the world. I remember the day Bridger came home from the hospital. I was grieving so deeply, but that little boy healed me. I consider him my firstborn. Where his father, Duncan, shut down after he lost his wife, I found hope and love in that little bundle of joy. He saved my life in a way, because there were moments when I thought my heart had stopped beating after she passed, but then he’d scream at the top of his lungs for a bottle, and I’d remember that I was still here. That there was still a reason to keep moving forward.”
I nodded. “I can only imagine. You were dealing with this tremendous loss, but then there was life and joy in this little baby that came out of a horrible situation.”
“Exactly. So, one thing I’ve learned during this life that I’ve lived thus far,” she said, taking another bite of her cookie as she thought about her next words, “is that life is filled with ups and downs, love and loss, joy and sorrow. So you’ve got to treasure the time you have. Tell the people you love how you feel.”
I nodded. “That’s very true.”
“So, you and Clark seem to be getting along very well,” she said, as she waggled her brows.
My head tipped back in laughter. I wasn’t sure how much she knew, as Clark said he had avoided her questions about it, but he thought she probably knew because she had a great instinct when it came to her children. “We do get along well. I wasn’t super thrilled about coming to Rosewood River when my father said I would be moving here for three months, but it’s been full of surprises.”
Clark Chadwick had been the biggest surprise of all.
“I can imagine you weren’t thrilled, not knowing anyone at the time. But look at you now. You feel like a local,” she chuckled. “I know this is complicated, sweetheart, but I’ve learned that the best things in life are not without complications.”
I nodded. “I’ve worked really hard to get here, you know? I’m just starting out. I’m lucky that I was able to graduate from all my years of schooling debt-free, thanks to my father and a few scholarships. But I have no savings at this point in my life, so I not only want this job to work out, but I need it to.”
She squeezed my hand as if she understood. “And you shouldn’t have to give that up because of the way you feel about someone.”
“Unfortunately, the league won’t see it that way. I’m an employee, not a player. The rules are a bit different for me.”
“And you’re a woman in a male-dominated profession. That can’t be easy,” she said, her eyes filled with empathy.
“Yes. I feel like Randall is just waiting for me to mess up. Every time we speak on the phone, I just get this vibe that he wants me to fail. So I’m going to have a lot of eyes on me when we return to preseason training next week.”
“Trust your gut. If you feel that, there’s probably a reason.” She reached for another cookie and pushed the plate toward me, and I grabbed one more.
“It’s not something I can talk to my dad about because he’s the coach, and I don’t want to put him in an awkward position. So it’s going to be challenging because he’s always been my sounding board,” I said, as that sad truth settled in my chest like a heavy weight. I only had one parent. And now he was basically my superior on a professional level. So that father-daughter dynamic that we’d always had was going to be a little more complicated now that I worked for the team.
Her gaze softened. “I had a really hard time after I lost my sister because she’d always been my person when it came to talking things out. And yes, Keaton is a wonderful husband, but he’s also a man, and he likes to get to the point faster than I do.” She chuckled, and my head fell back in a fit of giggles before she continued. “So, if you need a good listener, I would be so happy to be there for you. You just let me know.”
I imagined this is what it would have been like if my mother were still here. I could talk to her about these things, and she’d just listen and help guide me.
My chest ached.
I longed for something my mother, and I had both been robbed of.
My father had always stepped up for me.
But I couldn’t imagine breaking the news to him that I’d fallen in love with his star player.
