She laughs. “That is so on-brand for you.”
We turn the corner of the sidewalk and reach the park. She points. “Look.”
It’s a heron, standing in the shallows on the far side of the pond. Long body, gray, one leg up. We walk up to the pond and watch it. The heron takes one slow step.
Lucy laughs softly. “Look at that thing. It’s so pretty.”
I look down at her. “Yeah.”
She tugs on my hand, and we keep walking.
“What are you reading?” I ask.
She thinks about it for a second too long. “I haven’t read for fun in two years.”
“So the only books you read are textbooks,” I joke.
She nods, smiling. “You know me.”
“What about TV?”
“I watch Love Island with Gianna.” She raises her eyebrows.
I roll my eyes. “She loves that stupid show.”
“She does,” she laughs. “I think it’s funny.”
“So much drama.”
“Yeah,” she says.
“What else do you like to do?” I ask.
She thinks for a moment. “This is fun.”
I look down at her lips. “Yeah.”
She pulls her bottom lip and nods.
“We could come here all the time if you’d like,” I offer. “I’m always down for a walk.”
“I would like that.”
“Okay. It’s a date.”
She laughs. “You’re persistent.”
“I know what I want.”
We keep walking, hand in hand. This is the most peace I’ve felt in weeks.
“What does Vancouver actually look like for you?” she asks out of nowhere. It feels like a few steps back from the simple conversations we’ve been having. I hope this doesn’t mean she’s thinking about the future.
I look at her, tightening my grip on her hand. “What do you mean?”
“Like what does the day-to-day of getting drafted look like. I don’t know how it works. I know you’re being drafted. I know it’s Vancouver and that it’s a big deal, but I don’t really know what it means.”
I release her hand, and then I tell her about the combine in May. I mention my agent — Sam Mendoza out of Toronto, who took me on at the end of last season. I explain how the actual draft works in late June, in a city that is not always the same city, with a crowd and a stage and a podium that I will, by the late afternoon of the first day, walk up to. I tell her my agent has a meeting with Vancouver’s Eastern scout the day after the home opener. And that, hopefully, by every reasonable projection at this stage, I am going first round to a Western Canadian team. And that Vancouver is the most likely team.
