Page 41 of Date With Skates

Me: I think it will.

Hockey Boy: Sucks we live so far apart.

Me: Yeah, it does.

Hockey Boy: Maybe you could see a game when I’m in Montreal

Me: I’d love that.

Hockey Boy: I’ll get you tickets.

Me: I have my own money, you know.

Hockey Boy: I know. But I also know you like to be spoiled. So I’ll buy you tickets.

I laugh out loud.

Me: Well, I can’t say no to that.

I think about what he said, about giving me his sweatshirt, and as much as I love his reasoning, I just feel like there’s more to it than that. Or maybe I just want him to tell me more.

Me: Why are you really giving it to me?

Hockey Boy: You’re smarter than you look.

Me: I’m choosing to take that as a compliment.

My phone rings. It’s Connor. So I answer it.

“Hi,” I say, laying down more to get comfortable now that I don’t have to be in an upright position to text.

“My contract is up this year, and I don’t want to stay on the Diamonds.”

I hear what he says, but I need a moment to process.

“What?”

“My contract—”

“No, I heard you,” I say. “I just… don’t understand. I thought you loved your team?”

“I do, but I’m ready for something different. Being where I’m at is just too hard.”

“Hard? How is it hard?”

He sighs. “I told you that I bounced around foster homes until I was ten?”

“Yeah…”

“That’s when I moved in with my now-adoptive parents. They adopted me when I was ten, and they moved with me to Denver when I got drafted to the Diamonds. My father died two years ago, and my mother, she… she’s in a residential care facility because she has Alzheimer's. It’s progressing quickly, getting worse each day. Every time I visit her, she gets angrier and angrier because she doesn’t know who I am. She tells me I’m not her son, and even though I know she can’t help it, it just… it hurts. And my home—”

“Hey,” I say gently. “You don’t have to tell me this if you don’t want to.”

“I do want to, Étienne.” I smile at the use of my name and how perfect it sounds. “As long as you’re okay hearing it.”

“Of course it’s okay. Tell me about your home. Your family.”

I settle in more, pulling the blankets higher.