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“It’s definitely a great climate,” I tell her. “I do love living there, though I miss my parents a lot.”
“Your mom was saying your dad hasn’t been too well?”
“Yeah, he’s been on and off.” I nod. “They’re going to the doctor early next week to run some tests just to be on the safe side. He had a few chest pains not long ago. I’m sure he’s overworking himself, though, and that doesn’t help.”
“You can run yourself into the ground if you’re not careful.” She sighs thoughtfully.
I still can’t shake the fact that she seems sad, and there’s something she wants to say, and maybe it has nothing to do with the whole Taylor and me thing.
“I keep saying the same to Taylor, even in the off season, they’re still training. There isn’t a lot of downtime.”
“He’s done well for himself,” I say, as I watch her move around the kitchen, busying herself with making tea and cutting up some of the banana bread I brought. “And they are favored to win the Stanley Cup this year.”
“I’m very proud of him,” she tells me. “I really hope they can make it to the finals.”
“Well, judging by the game the other night, they just have to play like that and they will.”
She smiles. “You always had a good eye for the game.”
I don’t tell her how enjoyable it was watching Taylor the other night, but I smile at the thought of it anyway.
“I take it you still have your tea the same?” she asks.
“Yes, thank you.” Some things never change.
She brings the cups over once the kettle’s boiled and we eat a slice of banana bread while I admire her freshly painted house.
“Wait until you see the extension.” She smiles when she sees me looking around the space.
“Wow, you’ve been busy.”
“The contractors have.”
We both laugh lightly.
It’s easier banter than I would have thought. I almost feel the ice around my heart in my feelings toward her start to dissolve somewhat.
I have always tried to see things objectively, even if it really did hurt my feelings at the time. It crushed me.
“There’s something else I wanted to talk to you about,” she says after a while, sipping her tea, still standing across from me on the other side of the island.
Taylor’s mom is a lot like him with really intense blue eyes. She’s tall with a slim figure and long dark hair she wears bluntly cut and tied back away from her face.
My heart thrums a little. “You do?”
“It’s something that’s been plaguing me for a while, Emmerson. Years, actually.”
I sip my tea tentatively. I know exactly where this is heading, though I’ve no idea what she’s going to say about that time… and I’m literally trapped in her kitchen with no escape.
“What’s that?” I ask her.
“You and Taylor.”
I listen on.
“Emmerson, I made a lot of mistakes back then.” She looks at me over the countertop. “And I want you to know how sorry I am for what I did to you that day.”
I swallow hard, my throat suddenly feeling like sandpaper. I look down at my cup.
