AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Oh my goodness,” she says softly, coming in to hug me. “I am so, so happy to see you.”
“It’s great to see you.” The nerves that I had in my body before somewhat fade away. I thought it would be awkward to see everyone, and everyone would somehow make me feel like a poor widow. The crowd claps, and the lights turn on and off.
“Who wants to go down to the glass and maybe get some pucks?” Justin asks the girls, who both jump up. Every single time he’s been at the game, which is pretty often in the past couple of years since he retired from coaching, he’s almost always taken the girls down to the glass for me.
“Me! Me!” they both say at the same time, clapping their hands.
“I want to, I want to!” Luna shrieks out, making Justin smile at her.
“Is it okay if I take them?” he asks, and they are already sliding their hands in his.
“I want Christopher to give me a puck,” Rain states as her eyes light up.
“Well, I think we can arrange that,” he says, walking out of the room with the girls. My eyes wait until the door closes behind them before I turn back around to talk to Caroline.
“I’m sorry, I’ve been rude.” She laughs. “Koda,” she says my name, “this is Christopher’s friend, Keely.” She points at the girl, and I try to hide the shock on my face.
“Oh, hi,” I say, holding out a hand to shake hers. “Nice to meet you, Keely.” My throat feels like it’s going to close in. The back of my head burns as if I just poured boiling water on it.
“Thank you.” She smiles at me. “So is your husband on the team?” she asks, and I swear I think Caroline is going to faint when she asks me that.
“He was,” I say. “He passed away this summer.” I wait to see if her eyes light up when I say it. But all she does is put her hand to her mouth.
“I’m so, so sorry.” Her voice is low, and I feel so bad for her.
“That’s okay.” I put my hand on her arm. “You didn’t know. It’s okay.” Wow, I didn’t think this would happen. It’s the first time that I’m okay with discussing my husband being dead. I mean, it’s not like I go walking around in the supermarket and say, “Excuse me, my husband died.”
The kids come barreling back in after that, both of them holding two black pucks in their hands. “Look what Christopher gave me,” Luna crows.
“Justin said to make him sign it.” Rain looks up at Justin, who has his hand on her shoulder.
I don’t say anything else because the door opens, and I see more of Justin’s family enter the room. Everyone is very nice to me, and not one person looks at me with the sadness or pity that people usually have in their eyes. That is the worst. Justin comes over after a couple of minutes and hands me a glass of white wine. “Caroline said to go sit down and enjoy the game.”
I look over and see she is sitting down with the girl while they tell her stories, but then the roar of the crowd is almost deafening. “Guess they are taking the ice.” I turn and look at the girls, who run to the front of the chairs looking over the glass. I make my way through the crowd of people to sit down on the chair right behind them. Caroline joins me a couple of minutes later and then Keely sits next to her.
The minute his number is announced, you can feel the thunder of the crowd under your feet. Keely stands up and holds up her phone, taking a video of him. The smile fills her face as a video plays on the Jumbotron. I watch his face fill the screen and then hear the kids cheer with their hands over their head as they call his name, “Uncle Chrissy!” Luna looks over at me and points at the screen, like I can’t see his blue eyes that look like they are staring right at me and not at the twenty-four thousand people standing for him.
The spotlight goes to the door of the bench, and then he’s there, walking like he’s on a runway, before he slides onto the ice. He looks left and right with his hand in the air, saying hi to everyone. I clap my hands along with everyone else, and then I stand, looking over at Keely, who has hearts in her eyes. My stomach burns a touch, and I put my hand to it as the game starts. I cannot be jealous of this woman, my head screams.
For the whole game, the kids are either playing in the kids’ suite right next door or watching the game. I look over and see Justin holding Luna sometimes before she squirms away. By the end of the third period, I’m getting up to leave when Rain comes over. “Can we wait to say hi to Christopher?”
“Honey, it’s late,” I say softly. “Plus, we don’t know if he’ll come right out.”
“But—” she says, and I hold up a hand.
“We can stay for twenty minutes.” I show her my watch. “When it says ten fifty-eight, we have to leave.”
“Okay.” She nods at me while Luna crawls into my lap and sits here, exhaustion written all over her face. My foot goes up and down as I wait nervously, and when it turns to ten fifty-eight, I look over at Rain, who is fighting sleep.
“Baby,” I call softly, “we can call him tomorrow and see if he’s busy.”
“Okay,” she mumbles, getting up, but at this point, Luna is dead asleep on me. I turn her around and hold her under her bum.
“We’re going to head out,” I tell Justin, who stands with his brother Matthew.
“Let me help you to the car,” he offers, and I shake my head.
“No, we’re good. The kids wanted to see Christopher, but their glass carriage is quickly turning into a pumpkin.”
