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I followed Rory to a booth at the back of the room.
“Ward felt awful,” she said.
“It wasn’t his fault, not really.”
“Do you want to talk about it? I know things have been a little weird since your dad started coaching the team, and I’ve been waiting for you to open up to me…”
“I don’t know what to say.” I shrugged, avoiding her heavy gaze.
“Harper, come on, this is me. My mom sent me a care package in the form of diet pills and liposuction brochures, for God’s sake. I know a thing or two about shitty parents.”
“Sorry, of course, you do. I’m not trying to make it a competition.”
“Gosh, I don’t think that at all. I just want to be here for you the way you were there for me.”
“It’s just not an easy thing for me to talk about,” I admitted.
“Why didn’t he tell you about the job?”
“Because he treats me like a stranger.”
“I feel like I’m missing something,” she said with a sympathetic smile.
“Everyone thinks James Dixon is this local legend. The guy who made it to NHL stardom only to have his dream ripped away early. They don’t know the man behind the mask.”
No one did except for me and Mom and a few of our neighbors.
“Is he… abusive?” Her face paled, and I shook my head.
“Not in the traditional sense of the word, no.”
“But…”
“He wanted a son.” The words sliced unhealed wounds open. “And he got me instead.”
“I’m not sure I understand.”
“Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it?”
Tons of parents experienced some disappointment when they had their hearts set on a certain sex. But once they met their baby and held the little bundle of joy in their arms, those feelings usually dissipated.
“Mom thought she was having a boy,” I said. “For nine months, my father prepared to bring his son into the world, his legacy. And then I popped out and crushed his dreams.”
“Harper, I’m sure that’s not—”
“He had no interest in raising a girl, Rory.” I shrugged. “Still doesn’t. You saw how he was at the coffee shop. That wasn’t new or unusual. That has been my life for the last eighteen years.”
“I don’t know what to say. That’s… horrible.”
“I learned to skate for him, you know. I thought it would bring us closer. It didn’t. I have spent my entire life trying to be more like the child he wanted, but he’s never going to change. And now he’s here, and people are acting like it’s the second coming or something. So when Ward started… it hit a nerve.”
There was more to it, so much more. But I didn’t like talking about it.
I couldn’t.
“They don’t know, do they?”
“No one does, and I’d really prefer to keep it that way.”
