Page 130 of Embrace

Kian

Is it creepyto show up at your coach’s house unannounced?

If it is, I’m about to find out because Scarlett is wrong. I didn’t get what I wanted.

But I know her. I knew the exact moment she’d made up her mind. When something threatens the people she loves, she holds on to it, taking the brunt of it to save the rest. She tried to do that with her reputation, taking all the judgment thrown her way, then with Victor so she wouldn’t hurt her parents, and now with me.

She thinks we wouldn’t have happened if I knew Kilner was her dad. But I would have found her, or at least my heart would have found hers. Someway, somehow. I know it.

And that’s exactly what I’m going to prove to her. Coach Shane Kilner—yeah, I found out that his first nameisn’tCoach—lives in West Hartford. It’s a nearby suburb with Tudor-style homes and tree-lined streets. It’s so clean, I wonder how Coach’s office is always a mess.

Scarlett grew up here.The thought makes me smile.

And that’s when a woman opens the door.

“Hi, ma’am. I’m—”

“Ishida.” There’s a soft smile on her face. “Sorry, I meanKian. You’re Kian, right?”

Coach has always been private about his family life. I know he has four children from his first marriage, all older than us, and he’s got pictures from their weddings in his office. Although, I’ve seen the woman in front of me in some of those pictures, and the kid in those frames is a small girl, maybe twelve. I realize now that it was Scarlett.

“Yes. I’m Kian, and you’re…Scarlett’s mom, right? You have the same eyes. Dark around the irises and then lighter the closer you get to the pupil.”

She suppresses a grin before nodding. “I’m Marielle.”

“Is Coach around?”

She gives me an enthusiastic smile that eases my nerves the tiniest bit. “Of course he is. Come in!”

The walls that lead down the hall to the living room are full of pictures. There’s at least a dozen of Scarlett. Missing tooth, pigtails, blond hair, black hair, and finally scarlet hair.

“That was her adoption day. Happiest girl in the world.” Her mom stares proudly at the frame, a misty look in her eyes as she smiles. “That’s from Christmas. No one celebrates like the Filipinos, and she loves to keep up that tradition.”

We approach the living room, where Coach Kilner’s on the couch, writing something in a notebook as the TV plays old game tapes from the last Frozen Four.

“Mahal, someone’s here to see you,” Marielle places a hand on his shoulder.

“Have those kids not run out of chocolate, I swear we bought three boxes,” he says. “I have some cash in my jacket, sweetheart. Get me the almond one.”

He thinks I’m a high school student selling chocolates. Great.

I round the couch. “It’s me, Coach. I’d like to talk to you.”

Kilner gives me a look I can’t decipher. Like he’s planning something, murder maybe. Their backyard is big enough to put me six feet under.

“About what? How you’ve been sneaking around my back with mydaughter?” He nearly raises his voice. “How I finally thought that you might have grown out of your childish bullshit, only to be lying to me all semester? Now, you want to be a man and talk to me?”

I gulp. “Yes.”

“You’ve got some nerve—”

“Shane. Give the kid a chance. He came all the way here,” Marielle says.

“My office,” he grumbles.

I follow him down the hall, pleading for Marielle to follow, but all she gives me is a sympathetic smile and a “You got this.”

Kilner shuts and locks the door behind us. He’s going to kill me.