“I saw. I watched the third period on my laptop.”
I lean against the counter. “We're playing like shit. The whole team is off. Cole can't figure out what's wrong, and Mercer is running out of patience.”
She nods, but she's not looking at me. She's looking at her wine glass, turning it slowly on the counter.
“Jasmine.”
“Yeah.”
“What's going on?”
She picks up the glass, takes a sip, and sets it back down. “Your mother hasn't called you in weeks.”
“I know.”
“Your father barely speaks to you.”
“I know that too.”
“And the team has lost three straight since the dinner.”
“Those things aren't connected.”
She looks at me. “You haven't slept properly in two weeks, Logan. You told me yourself. You're grinding through games on adrenaline and stubbornness, and your back is getting worse because you're too tense to recover properly.”
“That's the season. That's hockey.”
“It's not just hockey. It's your parents. It's the fallout from what you said at that table.” She wraps both hands aroundher wine glass. “You stood up for me, and it cost you your relationship with your parents.”
“My relationship with them was built on obedience. That's not a relationship. That's a leash.”
“Maybe. But it's the only one you have. And she's not talking to you because of me.”
“She's not talking to me because she can't accept that I'm an adult who makes my own choices.”
Jasmine is quiet for a long time. The kitchen is still except for the hum of the refrigerator. Her laptop screen goes dark.
“I can't be the reason your family falls apart, Logan.”
The words land in my chest. “You're not.”
“I am. You had a relationship with your parents — imperfect, complicated, but it was there. Sunday dinners. And now it's gone because you chose me.”
“I'd choose you again.”
“I know you would. That's what scares me.” She folds her arms across her chest. “I grew up without a father. I know what a broken family looks like. I lived it. And I swore I would never be the person who breaks someone else's.”
“You didn't break anything. My parents broke it ten years ago when they told me to leave you.”
“And now it's breaking again, and I'm at the center of it again. Different decade, same result.”
“Jasmine, this is not the same.”
“You've lost three games in a row. You're exhausted, and you're hurting, and you're pretending you're fine.” Her voice cracks on the last word. “I love you, Logan. I love you more than I've loved anything in my life. But I can't sit here and watch you lose everything because of me.”
“You are not everything I'm losing. You're everything I'm gaining.”
“That's a beautiful thing to say, and I want to believe it. But right now, at this moment, you're standing in my kitchen with three losses on your back and a family that won't speak to you, and I'm the common denominator.”
