Only Her

“Your hooligan just punched my Amber in the nose.” Kay’s voice was shrill when she shouted at Skylar.

“Your Amber deserved it,” Ava smarted off.

Their coach stepped over as Tag was lifting Amber off the ground. “Amber plays dirty like that again Kay and she won’t be playing at all.”

“What?” Kay shouted at their coach.

“You heard me. She’ll be off the team. She dogged Ava the whole game. Ava, I hate to do this but you can’t just punch a person in the nose no matter what she does to you in a game. You’re suspended next weekend. You can practice with us this week but you can’t play.”

“What?” Ava shouted.

Luka had made his way out onto the field. Skylar had said nothing yet. He put his arm around Ava and started guiding her off the field. “Let’s go have our picnic,” he suggested to his daughter maintaining his cool. Skylar was fuming inside. She turned on her heel with Ramona and Luna right behind her, she walked after Luka and Ava.

“Who uses a child to get back at someone?” She grumbled.

“Honey, let it go,” Luna advised. “We’ll go have a nice picnic in the park and forget all about this.”

When they arrived at Brett’s truck, Luka had taken off Ava’s cleats and was rolling down her socks. He removed the shin guards and Skylar growled. Her daughter’s legs were already starting to bruise where Amber had kicked her throughout the game.

Ava leaned forward and showed them her back. It too had a bruise forming where Amber had elbowed her repeatedly. Luka scooped her up into his arms and held her close to him. “I’m sorry baby girl. You all right?”

He glanced at Skylar who had tears in her eyes. “This is my fault.”

“No it isn’t Momma,” Ava replied. “It’s Amber’s fault.”

Luka wrapped Skylar in his embrace too. He kissed the top of her head. Everyone was waiting on them to get in their car. Luna, Ramona, his brothers. He didn’t care. His girls needed comforting.

The girls’ coach stopped as he walked by the truck on the way to his car and saw Ava’s legs. ?

??Ava,” he said. They turned towards him. “I’ll suspend Amber too.”

“Her back is bruised too,” Luka said.

“I don’t need to ask who you are,” her coach said. “Ava looks just like you.”

“Luka Shaw, Ava’s father.” He extended his hand to Ava’s coach. He released Skylar long enough to shake the coach’s hand.

“Marty Smith, coach of the team. My daughter Bianca plays goalie.”

“Nice to meet you,” Luka replied.

“I don’t mean to be rude but are you MMA champion, Luka Shaw?” He asked.

“It’s him,” Ava replied before Luka could.

“Well now I know where Ava gets her right hook,” Marty told him.

“Nope, that was Momma.”

Skylar started blushing. “Actually it was Uncle Brett who showed me how to throw a right hook,” Skylar replied.

Luka’s eyebrow shot up over his big, blue-green eyes. He pulled her in a little closer. “Your knees are dangerous enough. I didn’t want you throwing punches at me too,” he whispered.

“Well this is really chummy considering you and I just broke up Skylar.” Tag had stopped at the back of Brett’s truck on the way to his car.

Luka put Ava in the back seat of the truck and shut the door. “When a man fights his battles by having little girls fight dirty against their own teammates in a game of children’s soccer, do you really have to ask yourself why Sky stopped seeing you Tag?”

Skylar watched Ramona slide into the center of the truck’s front seat. Brett climbed in after her. The coach appeared uncomfortable as well. Skylar didn’t know why that would be.