Page 15 of Hockey Nanny

Henry pushed the door open another inch, red-rimmed eyes wandering over all of us before dropping them to his shoes. Hesniffed quietly and nodded, and took Carissa’s hand when she offered it.

“Wait here,” Carissa mouthed to me as she slipped through the door.

I shuffled up to listen through the opening, while Boone plopped down on his ass in the hallway, arms still folded tightly to his chest. Gage hovered a little ways off, shoulders bunched up by his ears. He was pretending he wasn’t listening, but was clearly hanging onto every word.

Looking through the sliver of an opening, I saw Carissa sit down next to Henry, who was curled up on the bathroom mat, clutching his favorite helicopter to his chest. She didn’t say anything at first, just sat beside him while he hiccuped and sniffed, and the last of his tears dried up.

Eventually, when Henry had relaxed a little, she curled a gentle arm around his shoulders. “You want to talk about what happened, champ?”

Henry stared at the floor, tousled hair sitting mussed up like a bird’s nest. “Are they going to send me back?”

The sheer volume of sadness and despair in that question hit me like a truck, and it took every ounce of self-control not to burst in there and insist that was not about to happen. Instead, I kept quiet and let Carissa work her magic.

“Back to the orphanage? Of course not,” she said gently. “What makes you think they’re going to send you back?”

Henry rubbed a fist under his nose, scrunching his eyes shut as he pulled his knees up. “Because I’m not big and grown up.”

Carissa looked up at the ceiling, turning that information over in her head. “Is that why you wanted to watch the scary movie? To show Dawson you’re big and grown up?”

Henry nodded briefly before another bout of tears trickled down his cheeks, and he buried his face in the crook of his elbow. “But now they think I’m a baby and they’re going to send me away.”

Carissa sighed deeply before patting Henry on the head. “They’re not going to send you away, kiddo.”

Henry lifted his head slightly to peek at her with one watery eye. “How do you know?”

“Look,” Carissa leaned down to catch his eye. “Dawson didn’t say no to the movie because he thinks you’re a baby, or because he wants to send you back. He said no because he cares about you.”

Henry made a mumbled noise of dubiety and pulled his knees up to his chin.

“It’s true.” Carissa cast her eyes around the room, smiling when she spotted me looking through the crack in the door. “The guys are just looking out for you. They all like having you around, and I know Dawson already thinks you’re the coolest.”

The brief eye contact sent my heart skittering in my chest, and I had to remind myself that I was meant to be avoiding Carissa’s seemingly effortless charms. Never mind that she was currently defending my honor. Putting my own personal hangups aside, I dropped my gaze to Henry instead.

“I… I like my helicopter,” he said, almost as an afterthought, clutching it tight to his chest.

“That’s a good helicopter,” Carissa said. “Strong, reliable, doesn’t argue back. I approve.”

I caught myself smiling. I wasn’t doing anything, but I could still feel the tension in the hallway ebb just a little. She had him. She hadhim, not me, not Boone, not Gage pretending he wasn’t standing there.

Carissa’s voice shifted again, lighter this time. “Wanna tell me how fast it can go without crashing into walls? I’m gonna guess… supersonic.”

Henry hesitated, then, muffled by the bathroom door, “Super… super fast. Watch out for the chairs.”

“Noted,” Carissa replied, deadpan. “I’ll wear a helmet next time.”

I leaned back against the wall, chest finally unclenching a bit. Boone had started muttering something about rules for helicopter flights, but Carissa didn’t even blink at him. She let the kid talk, let him breathe, let him know it was okay to be scared and still be okay.

Henry’s voice softened, the panic melting into something more manageable. “Dawson… you don’t… you don’t want to send me back?”

I exhaled without realizing it. Carissa answered before I could even open my mouth.

“Of course not,” she said gently. “You’re staying here. That’s it. That’s the plan.”

There was a pause. Then a tiny sniffle, a little laugh, a small voice almost hidden by the door frame. “I… I thought maybe… maybe you wouldn’t want me.”

“You’re more than okay, Henry,” Carissa said, warm and patient. “Even when you lock yourself in bathrooms, you’re okay. And your helicopter agrees. Right?”

A faint squeak of the toy made the hallway feel lighter. Boone relaxed, just slightly, as if the walls themselves exhaled.