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“I’m fine.” I nod. “Maddie helped me get the house into order and cleaned up after the movers left.”
Mom reaches over and squeezes Maddie’s hands across the table. “You’re such a sweetie,” she tells her.
Maddison beams. Her parents got divorced last year, and it’s really taken its toll on her relationship with them. This little getaway is going to be good for her too. I really hope she can stay the week. “There’s nothing I won’t do to help Em,” she tells them. “And thanks for having me stay with you for a few days.”
Dad waves that off. “We wouldn’t hear of you staying somewhere else when there are two perfectly good spare bedrooms in our house.”
“Thanks, Mr. D.”
Our bagels and coffee arrive as we make a meal of it and then hit the road again. It’s a strange thing every time I walk up to my old bedroom. It harbors so many great memories of growing up in this house.
When we first moved from Portland all those years ago, I didn’t know how I was going to survive in this new city. I was an awkward kind of teenager, much taller than anyone else in my year… and I had the gangly limbs, freckles, and reddish strawberry blonde hair to boot. I kind of grew into my body as the years went on, and thankfully I stopped growing at five ten. I hated it at the time, but it had its advantages; I was good at sports and the volleyball team loved me, and I could reach things high up when no one else could. Funnily enough, I wasn’t crazy about sports, and I wasn’t competitive at all. Ipreferred the debate team and sitting in the library during lunch period.
As we arrive home, I plonk my luggage down in the doorway of my room, I lean on the door frame as an unexpected thought pops into my mind…Taylor James.
He’s all I see sometimes when I’m here. We had countless study dates here in my bedroom… and I guess now that I think about it… that wasn’t all. We had a few make-out sessions too.
I think about Maddie’s words about going to see a game while we’re in town and facing my fears of seeing him again. I honestly don’t even know what I would do.
What would I even say to him?
It upsets me that it’s been so long, and we lost the friendship as well as our love.
It washes over me like a gray cloud… I don’t need to be thinking about him on top of everything else I’ve got going on this week.
One foot in front of the other… that’s what I keep telling myself.
CHAPTER2
Taylor
When I step onto the ice, the cold bites me in the face as I skate over to the rest of my team to start practice. Even in the training jersey, it feels good to be in the Seattle Hawks’ colors. Ever since I was transferred last year, I’ve had a non-stop buzz about being back on home soil playing for my team.
This will be my second season and I’m here to help the Hawks win the Stanley Cup. Last season we came so close but lost in the Conference Finals.
My best friend Ashton has just been traded back from Nashville to the Hawks. Ashton is one of the top defensemen in the NHL and I’m pumped we get to play on the same team again, instead of against each other like we did last season. That was never fun.
As soon as my blades hit the ice, I come alive. This is the game I’ve lived and breathed for since I was practically born. I’ve only loved it all the more over the years.
I smile over at Ashton, a buzz forming around my teammates as we all get ready for our warmup and work on passing drills.
Coach Carter is a good guy, a hard ass, but a good guy all the same.
“I want tight passes this time,” he hollers in his rough, gravelly voice as we all skate in a circle to surround him. “The practice game the other day was a complete shitshow! So we’ll start at the beginning, and practice it as many goddamned times as it takes for you all to get it!”
We all nod in unison and say “Yes, Coach” in tandem.
We need to get our game together for this weekend, the New York Kings will shit all over us if we don’t.
“You got that, James?” One of our teammates Jay Jefferson, our center man, hollers out just to piss me off. “Eyes on the puck.”
“You shitting me?” I jibe toward Jay. I know he’s messing with me from the look on his face; he knows I’m the star striker of this team. “I was the only one with my fucking eyes open last week, the rest of you might like to try it some time.”
I hear Ashton chuckle next to me.
I am the best in the league… that’s why the Hawks offered a sweet four year deal. He knows it as well as I do.
“Riiiight, I’ll remember that the next time you let one slip through the cracks,” he muses.
