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"Well, I am just dandy," I answered.
Wolfie laughed. "No, she's talking about me."
"See? The kid gets it," she said.
I rolled my eyes, even though she couldn't see me. Somehow, I knew that she knew exactly what I was doing. "Hey, the Wolf-Man here and I are going to do some hockey lessons Friday night, and we want to know if you would like to come with?"
I could hear her pause, and evidently, so did Wolfie because he chimed in, "Please, Aunt Rea, it'll be more fun if you were there, too."
I heard her laugh. "Well, how can I resist that? Just let me know where I need to be."
"Will do," I said and looked at Wolfie, "Hey, do me a favor. Go brush your teeth and put on your jammies. I'm going to talk to Aunt Rea right here for a minute."
Wolfie ran towards the hallway. I took Reagan off the speakerphone, "Hey, sorry for the sneak attack, but he had his heart set."
"It's okay, but Adam, you know what happened earlier…"
"I know, I know, it can't happen again," I said in a sing-song voice. "You know you're starting to sound like a broken record, Reagan."
"Adam," she said in a warning voice.
"I'm just saying, at some point, you got to quit denying that there's something here."
"The only thing I'm worried about right now is pulling this off for Wolfie, so I will come to your hockey lesson because he asked me to. Plus, it would probably look good if we did family stuff together if we're going to convince people we’re engaged," she pointed out.
"I don't think I'm going have a problem convincing people we are a couple, you just have to get on board," I told her.
"I already said I would do it."
"You know what I mean, Reagan," I said, in a softer voice. "But obviously, something's holding you back."
There was a long silence, and I thought for a moment that she'd hung up on me, but then, her voice came over the line, quiet but sure. "Adam…did you know that I've had five stepfathers?"
"No, damn. Your mom was busy," I said, trying to make a joke of it because I could sense that she was uncomfortable.
"That she was—she broke my father's heart, and then, she proceeded to break even more, all in the name of trying to make herself feel better. And I get that I didn't have anything to do with that, and neither did my dad, but it didn't mean that it didn't affect us. It never failed. She would meet some guy, and with stars in her eyes claim that they were the great love of her life, but it didn't take long before she got bored and went on to the next thing."
It felt like somebody kicked me in the stomach. Reagan had never shared this kind of stuff with me before, but the pain in her voice made me want to reach through the phone and hold her.
"Reagan, do you really think you're the kind of woman who could keep tanking relationships like that?" I asked her, because as long as I'd known her, I knew her to be sure and steady with those that she cared about. Even with Brian, even though the relationship hadn't worked, they were still friendly with one another.
There was a shaky sigh. "I'm not worried about leaving people, Adam. I worry about being like my dad, being the one who's blindsided. I don’t want to get left just because somebody decided they were bored."
There was another punch to the gut. "Reagan," I drew out, "anybody that would leave you is a fucking idiot—you know that right?"
She laughed humorlessly, "Yeah, but I've heard it before. And it sucked, but I don't know if I could handle it if I heard it from you. So, that's me laying my heart bare, and now, I'm going to close it back up, thank you very much. At least now you understand why I am so insistent on these boundaries."
"Reagan," I started, but Wolfie's voice rang out behind me.
"Uncle Adam? I'm ready to be tucked in," he called from his bedroom.
"You better go to him," Reagan said. "I've said my peace."
I opened my mouth to answer, but the line went dead.
***
Friday couldn't come fast enough. I couldn't wait to show Wolfie the ropes with hockey, and I couldn't wait to see Reagan.
